“Extinguish the net,” Wyvern ordered.
“Fuck you.” Energy surged through the flames of her element.
An answering glow emanated from Ormond’s chest.
She couldn’t prevent a sob. “You let Erion die.” Lava-like heat churned in her center.
“Ghen.”
Her mind snapped to attention. She gazed wildly about, searching for the source of the barely audible word. “What the hell is Ghen?” she shouted.
In two beats of his wings, Wyvern rose to a foot below the burning canopy top. “How do you know of Ghen?”
She jerked her gaze to him. “What is it?”
“Where did you learn that word?” he demanded.
“You first,” she ordered.
His tail flicked in what she realized was annoyance, but he said, “Ghen is the void, the chaos. It’s where your kind go when they cease to exist.”
She faltered. “Hell?”
“Hell is a myth. Ghen is the place where form cannot exist. It is the chaos.”
Fiera remembered Airiana. The Air Element still lived despite not having a body. Why wasn’t she in this Ghen? “Where is this place?”
“Beyond Peridheigh.”
“Don’t fuck with me!” The thought of flames moving closer to the Drakaura resounded in her head, then the canopy of flames snapped to within inches of the dragon’s slow-flapping wings. Holy shit! “Try extinguishing this fire as easily as you did that tiny ball of flame in my garage,” she snarled.
“Wyvern,” Ormond growled, and a tremor rocked her insides at the realization that these creatures were equipped to do just that. They were hunting Aiden, a Fire Element accustomed to using his element. Unlike her, a neophyte.
“Peridheigh is the barrier separating the world of form from Ghen,” Wyvern said.
“That’s it?”
“The great wizard Siusaidh created the Ryalda—your progenitors—from the elements within Ghen,” he went on. “When your kind ceases to exist, your essence returns to Ghen, your ancestors’ place of origin.” His eyes darkened, and he added in a mutter, “The Ryalda should not have returned to the world of form after Ghen reclaimed them.”
“What do you mean?”
“The wind, fire, earth, and air that Siusaidh took from Ghen caused a rift. They belong to Ghen. Their life force is part of the void’s balance. Ghen leaked into the world of form, drawn by the essence that now connected it to this world. Ryalda hurled themselves into the void to prevent chaos from devouring all form. Centuries later, we learned some found a way back into this world. Only, these Ryalda were strangers, nothing like the great heroes of old who protected mankind. They are parasites that exist in this world only as Shadow.”
“Shadow?” She sneered. He spoke in circles. She needed to find Erion, not listen to stories of myths and legends. “A shadow is a reflection caused by light.”
“Not shadow as you know it. The Ryalda are trapped between worlds, never fully in one or the other. Their human selves—their form—cannot exist in Ghen, but their Element selves must remain in Ghen.” Wyvern gave her a penetrating look. “Your kind is the children of the Ryalda. You are Elements.”
“How can Elements exist in this world when the Ryalda can’t?”
“It is not that the Ryalda cannot exist here, but that Ghen cannot lose balance. You are Ryalda incarnate. Element and human perfectly combined, as Siusaidh intended. Your perfection comes in that your element draws its energy from within the world of form. Ghen is not threatened.”
“Erion is in this Ghen?” she demanded.
“He can be nowhere else.”
Kenna envisioned Erion stretched thin across a silent void, knowing, but not seeing, touching no one, alone for eternity. She choked back a sob. The heat within her jumped to a temperature beyond what she’d experienced in her few hours as fire.
Wyvern’s eyes widened. “Fiera!”
Ormond gave a piercing screech.
“You’ll kill us all,” Wyvern cried.
She stared down at them. “Then you can come for me in hell.”
Memory of Erion snapped into her mental vision—tall, dark, muscled—and her essence tightened like a hard spring. Pain stabbed through her as if an ice pick plunged into her heart. A sharp humming filled the air. She winced. The Drakaura whirled and dived toward the ground.
She felt herself falling. The temperature rose. Moisture beaded, then sizzled. Fire seared through her as she tumbled forward. The canopy of fire evaporated, and soft moonlight flitted across her vision an instant before a blinding flash gave way to nothingness.
Chapter Fourteen
An ache rippled through Erion with a steady pulse. He tensed against the exquisite agony.
“Erion.”
Kenna’s voice haunted him. The husky tone drove him mad. Despite the emptiness, the recollection had survived the eons that had passed since he pumped into her body with all the power of his element. The chasm that separated them had yet to erase that knowledge. He would someday forget. Until then, he would cling to the memory knowing, when they merged, he had known her love…and he would not be forgotten. They were mated.
Erion.
He gave in to the dream.
Warmth rippled across him in a soft wave. Dark blurred against dark. Heat burst through him. He startled. This dream, so real, was stronger than the memory he’d held fast to upon ripping through the barrier separating light from dark.
Color erupted in the blackness. He cried out in a noiseless voice against the harsh contrast. Another burst of heat. His heart wrenched. Despair washed over him, and he seized the memory, plunging headlong into it. This echo of her love would accompany him into the final nothingness.
“Erion!”
This was no seductive whisper. This was a sharp demand that sent him spiraling out of control.
In the blackness that surrounded him, there was no night or day, no up or down…nothingness. He felt wobbly, as if he might fall off the edge of some unknown precipice. Was he finally going insane? He concentrated on the dream, her voice.
“Erion, stop.”
The downward spiral stopped, and he was once again suspended between unknown spaces.
“Come with me,” she whispered.
Yes! They would go together into the final oblivion where he would cease to exist. Better to go now while some vestige of humanity remained rather than go mad. Erion cleared his mind of all but her. Another flash of color. This time he didn’t flinch. He would take this last bit of her with him. Kenna, the woman, and Fiera, his heart. Warmth enveloped him. He choked back a groan.
“Come home with me.”
“Yes.”
The warmth increased. Wind deafened him. Instinctively, he resisted, then forced himself to give in. He wanted to go with her. He was pulled as if being sucked through a tiny hole. Erion focused on the tenor of her voice. The rushing of air grew louder.
Pain slashed through him. Voices filled his head, drowning out Fiera’s voice. A scream rent the air—his scream. Pressure weighted on him. He fought the force. He hit something hard. Erion gasped, the breath knocked out of him.
Lights winked against a canopy of darkness far above him. A bright burning orb blinded him. Pain stabbed though his eyes. He jammed them shut, then snapped them open again. He could see. Lying on his back, he stared into the night sky at the moon, the familiar constellations of Scorpius, Lyra, and Aquila. He bolted upright. He held his human form, strong, muscled, and naked, as he had been so long ago when he’d left Fiera. How was this possible?
A dream. This must be a dream. The transition from the void to final death had catapulted his mind back to that happier time. His chest tightened with emotion. To be a man once more and touch the earth. He dug fingers into moist ground. So real. But why hadn’t he conjured Kenna?
Erion pushed to his feet, surprised to find his legs steady. He glanced around the small clearing. Trees surrounded him. There was something familiar…This was the forest outside his cabin. A rus
tling sounded behind him. He whirled and came face-to-face with two Drakaura. Erion tensed. He hadn’t seen any of the shape-shifters in years.
“How were you able to return?” the dragon nearest him demanded.
A faint warning bell rang in Erion’s head. “What are you doing here?”
“Where is the female Fire Element?”
Erion startled. Why was he dreaming this?
“How did you escape the void?” the dragon demanded again.
“What are you talking about? Are you—” Erion choked. “Are you saying this is real?” His head spun. He was home. That meant the voice he’d heard, Fiera, had been real—Understanding hit like a freight train. Fiera had entered Ghen for him. He centered his energy on the dragons. “You sent her there. I’ll fucking blow you to oblivion.”
“We didn’t send her there. She chose freely.”
“That’s what you say every time you sentence one of us to that hell.”
Erion concentrated on falling in on himself. Nothing happened. He closed his eyes and envisioned his wind. Still nothing.
He pinned the dragons with a glare. “What have you done? Why can’t I shift?”
The dragon who had spoken a moment ago said, “We did nothing. Perhaps your return from Ghen—”
“You’d like to see us all there,” Erion snarled. “Get the fuck out of here.”
He spun and headed toward the cabin on a dead run. Maybe Kenna had returned to where they’d battled Aiden.
A moment later, Erion paused in the open doorway of the empty room. Embers still smoldered in the fireplace. Smoke hung in the air. The cabin was just as it had been when he’d catapulted out of the world of form. An eternity had passed in the void, but mere moments had ticked by in this world. His gut twisted. Even if Kenna followed him directly out of Ghen, she could experience infinity as he had.
He rushed into the bedroom. Everything lay as he’d left it. He grabbed a pair of shorts from the clean laundry on his bed and pulled them on, then shrugged on a T-shirt while returning to the living room.
Two men in jeans and leather jackets stood outside the doorway. Erion sneered. Drakaura pretending to be human.
He strode through the door and halted in front of them. “Send me back to Ghen.”
“You are no threat now,” one replied as if injured. “It’s the Ryalda who should not be reentering this world.”
“It’s the Drakaura who banished them to that hell.”
“Like Fiera, they chose,” he insisted.
“So you’d have us believe. I won’t be as easily manipulated.” Erion shut his eyes and concentrated every atom in his body on his element, but still, he remained a man. He opened his eyes and glared. “What the hell happened to me?”
“You cannot save her,” the other said.
Erion clenched his hands into fists. “I’ll kill you.”
He lunged toward them. They retreated, growing outward as if melting into the air to take shape as dragons, their great wings spreading in readiness for flight. Erion threw a right punch in the closest dragon’s belly. The beast gave a cry, and the colorful feathers melted back into human flesh. Erion punched his jaw. The man’s head snapped back, and he stumbled several paces.
“You’re tough when facing an Element,” Erion hissed. “Too damned bad your code of ethics won’t allow you to kill humans.” He drew back for another punch. The man threw up his hands to ward off the next blow.
“Wyvern!”
Erion spun to face the dragon who had cried out. The creature lowered his wings and shifted back into human form.
Erion dragged in a breath. “Why did you let her come for me?”
“We couldn’t stop her,” Wyvern said. “We ordered her not to go.”
“Bullshit. Is this your newest strategy for getting Elements into Ghen?”
“She crossed the barrier before we could stop her,” he insisted.
“She didn’t know about Ghen.”
“She was chanting the word when she came out of the cabin.”
“Chanting? She—”Airiana. But why? “Why are you here?” Erion demanded.
“Aiden.”
“You’re too late.” Erion grabbed Wyvern by the throat.
“Wyvern!” the other man shouted.
“Keep the fuck back, or I’ll kill him.” Erion stepped up to within an inch of Wyvern’s face. “You were there when we merged, weren’t you? I can see the truth in your eyes.”
“We did not interfere,” Wyvern wheezed.
Erion released his neck and punched him in the belly. Wyvern doubled over and dragged in a breath.
“It was none of your fucking business.” Erion drew back and landed another punch.
Wyvern collapsed to his knees, gasping for air.
Erion squatted beside him. “How do I get her back?”
Wyvern looked up at him and rasped, “You don’t.”
“You sent her there, and you will tell me how to get her back.”
“We did not—”
“I won’t leave her in that hell.” Erion grabbed him again.
“They said Ghen wasn’t hell,” Kenna said.
Erion shot to his feet and swung to face her. She stood five feet from him, naked in the moonlight and even more beautiful than he remembered. He closed the distance between them but stopped short and stared.
“How were you able to return?” Wyvern demanded.
Erion whirled. “Interfere, and I’ll kill you.” He shot a glance at the other man. “Both of you.”
He faced Kenna. She stared up at him, and he was suddenly sure he was dreaming after all. She shivered.
“You’re cold.” He pulled off his shirt.
Kenna lifted her arms, and Erion slid the shirt over her head. She glanced down, fingering the edge of the garment where it hung to her thigh. Then she lifted her face to his. A corner of her mouth turned upward in a gentle smile.
“I couldn’t leave you there.” She touched his cheek.
He closed his eyes. Trembling fingers traced a line along his jaw. Then her hand was gone, and he opened his eyes to see her step past him toward the Drakaura.
“You said Ghen wasn’t hell.” The vehemence in her voice startled Erion.
“Hell is a mythical place of punishment, torment,” Wyvern replied. “Ghen is simply the void. It is what exists beyond—”
“The world of form,” she cut in. “You try living there, then tell me it isn’t hell.” She faced Erion. “Are you all right?”
He gave a shaky laugh. “Yes, though not unchanged.” At the stricken look on her face, he quickly added, “I’m fine, just a little shaken up. I thought I was dreaming.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “You put up a fight coming back.”
He started to reply that he hadn’t put up a fight at all, when she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You shouldn’t have done it.”
“Dragging Aiden into Ghen was the only way to ensure he could never hurt you again.”
Kenna shivered. “I’m not sure I would wish that place on anyone. Not even Aiden.”
“He would have enslaved you,” Erion replied.
She took a deep breath. “I know. But we can forget about him.”
Cool fingers trailed his flushed skin. Cool fingers. Her element hadn’t warmed to his touch as it had before. Acute pain pierced his chest. He was no longer Erion, the Element. He shrugged off her hand. She frowned, but he couldn’t answer the question in her eyes. Without his air, how could he protect her? Their bond remained with his element in oblivion.
She laid a tentative hand on his arm. “I can’t believe all that’s happened since you blew into my life.” A corner of her mouth lifted in a faltering smile.
Another wave of regret washed over him. He would never blow into her again. He smiled gently. “You have your whole life to figure out where you go from here.”
The smile vanished. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I—”
&nb
sp; “Erion.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He glanced down at where her hand lay on his arm.
Her gaze dropped to her hand, then lifted to his face again. “No. Nothing is obvious.”
“Nothing is exactly the problem. Kenna, there’s no answering fire in you when you touch me. Our elements are no longer merged.”
She glanced at her hand again, then looked back at him, frowning. “We can make love, merge again.”
He gave a mirthless laugh. “Do you sense any air in me?”
“I don’t know how to sense air.”
Erion grasped her hand and placed it over his heart. His pulse spiked. A slow stretch began to harden his shaft. He forced back the desire. He couldn’t let her know how he still reacted to her—nor could he let the Drakaura know.
“I’m a man, human, no longer Element.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Ghen.”
“Yes. My element, my air, remained in the void.”
Kenna launched herself into his arms and buried her face in his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
Erion gritted his teeth. Her nipples prodded him through the thin fabric of his shirt. He grabbed her shoulders, roughly pushing her back so that he looked down into her tear-stained face. “I don’t need your pity.”
She blinked, then stared a moment before yanking free. “Pity? Did you lose your mind in that place, too?”
“I have nothing to offer Fiera. I’ll go back to being Eric Gray, ordinary man.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s been a long time.”
Her eyes narrowed, and her cheeks flushed. He wasn’t sure if she was simply angry or if Fiera was about to emerge.
“You deserve someone who can share both halves of who you are,” he said in a hard voice. “You deserve better than me.”
“You think I fell in love with you because of your element? I didn’t know what you were or what I was to become. For all I knew—”
“What did you say?” he demanded.
“I’m saying you’re an idiot if you think I give a damn about your element.”
“You can’t love me, Kenna.”
She arched a brow. “Really? So as a man, you don’t think you could love me, the woman? Like Aiden, you were only interested in my element?”
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