Page 70 of The Lost Elemental

The door slammed, reverberating around the room. I couldn’t take my eyes off the dark wood as memories tickled the back of my brain. The feel of Riven’s arms as he cradled me to his chest. “Just hold on. We’re almost there. Don’t you die on me. I’ve done too much to keep you alive.”

I blinked a few times, trying to clear my head. That couldn’t have been real. Some messed up hopeful imagining. I needed serious therapy that I still craved this man who wanted nothing to do with me.

“Aura,” Atlas said softly.

I turned in his direction.

His expression softened as his fingers tangled in my hair. “He cares about you.”

I made a humming sound in the back of my throat. It wasn’t agreement or disagreement, merely an acknowledgment that I’d heard him.

Phoenix swept his thumb back and forth across my thigh. “We need to get our stories straight before the headmaster hears she’s awake.”

“Stories straight?”

Kai sent a worried look to Phoenix and Atlas. “Drue’s trying to turn everyone against you.”

“She attacked me!”

Atlas adjusted himself against the pillows. “That’s not the picture she’s painting. And you did have a hell of a power burst. That’s backing up her story.”

“I didn’t mean to. I just—I was in so much pain and she wouldn’t stop. She kept hitting and kicking me. I couldn’t breathe and then some dam in me just broke.”

Smoky shadows swirled around Phoenix as his dark eyes flashed. “What. Did. She. Say?”

My fingers dug into the blanket wrapped around me. “That she wanted me to run and that I was a mutt that had to learn her place. That you were destined to be her bond and her first act as queen would be to kill me.”

Phoenix’s breaths grew ragged. “She has to pay.”

Atlas’s hand clamped down on Phoenix’s shoulder. “But we have to be smart about this. Drue is surrounded by people right now, you’d never get in undetected. And she wasn’t the only one involved. Someone with an air affinity was involved too.”

Sparks danced in Phoenix’s eyes as his breathing came in quick pants. “I’ll get to her. They won’t even see me.” Tiny flames lit along his shoulders. “I’ll get the truth out of her. I’ll find every last person who played a role in this, and I’ll peel the skin from their bones.”

Phoenix started to rise but I reached out, grabbing his arm. “Don’t go.”

The sparks in his eyes turned to flame.

“Please don’t leave me.”

38

The desperation in my tone must’ve cut through Phoenix’s rage because the tension radiating through him softened a fraction, and the flames turned back to sparks.

“Shit,” Kai muttered. “When has anyone been able to talk him off a ledge?”

“Since Aura,” Atlas said, pressing a kiss to my temple.

Emotions swirled in me as Phoenix lowered himself back to the bed. I might’ve gotten Phoenix to stay, but I hadn’t magically fixed our problems. I was some supercharged battery pack to these guys, and we had no idea why.

Not to mention the fact that Kai had bailed on me the second I’d suggested I didn’t want to be a notch on his bedpost. My gaze moved to him, searching.

He winced, as if sensing my thoughts. “I’m so sorry, Aura. I never should’ve taken off. I should’ve been there—”

“Why did you?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off.

“Truth.”