elemental 05 - inferno by Larissa Ladd Read Free Book Online Page B

that she hadn’t really thought about the act of killing someone. It was an execution not a murder, but by the same token, Aira had never actually wanted to kill a person. Even if Alex deserved it—he was a danger to them all, he had made it clear that he had no qualms about killing her—she didn’t know if she had the psychological strength to go through with what she had to. She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it. She had to; there was no alternative. She had sentenced him to death, the elders had proclaimed that she would have to follow it through, and if she didn’t she would open herself up to the same penalty she had enacted on him, simply because she would not be in contention anymore. 
    Not for the first time, Aira wished her grandmother could somehow come back from the dead—just for an hour or two, just to tell her what to do. She had always been so irritated by her grandmother’s well-meaning but strongly worded advice, had always chafed at the way the older woman had emphasized her becoming more stable, more secure, less flighty and wild. She had never wanted to really be stable the way her grandmother had wanted her to; Aira had always wanted to have her own way, to live the life she chose. It was a solitary existence, but until she had come into danger, she had never really minded it.
    Aiden entered her room after knocking softly at the frame of her open door. Aira looked up from her hands, realizing she was picking at her cuticles in her contemplation. 
    “Come in,” she said. Aiden wore a tee shirt and loose pajama pants, and the poison still working in her system was not sufficient to suppress the rush of involuntary desire she felt. She remembered vividly and abruptly how he had looked naked, in the bed with her at her grandmother’s house. Aira took a deep breath to banish the sensation, swallowing against the dryness in her throat. 
    “This is awkward,” Aiden said, smiling slightly as he came into the room and closed the door behind him. Aira nodded. “I wanted to say… I probably shouldn’t have curled up next to you on the couch without you knowing. I was so tired, and at the time it seemed like the only way to both get some sleep and keep you protected… in case, you know, someone broke in, or something.” 
    Aira smiled slightly at the halting explanation.
    “It’s fine. I wasn’t even aware of it,” she said. “And it’s not like you took advantage of me or something. Wait, you didn’t, right?” 
    Aiden’s eyes widened. “No! No, I would never, ever take advantage of a helpless woman,” he said firmly. A faint smile curved his lips. “Besides, why should I take advantage of a breathing corpse when I could’ve gotten action from any one of a ton of other women?” 
    Aira rolled her eyes, throwing herself back amongst the pillows and shifting over on the bed to allow Aiden to climb in next to her.
    “You are not nearly as charming as you think you are,” she said tartly, watching as Aiden kicked off his slippers and pulled back the blankets on the bed. He hesitated a moment and then pulled his shirt up, over his head, casting it aside on the floor.
    “Sorry, I can’t sleep with my shirt on,” he explained, blushing slightly. He climbed into the bed and settled near her, not touching but close enough that Aira could feel the heat of his body. For a long, tense moment they lay like that, not looking at each other, not touching, waiting for some signal. “And hey, I am every bit as charming as I think I am. You’re just annoyingly immune to my charms.” The comment from Aiden made Aira chuckle, and she took a deep breath and turned to face him, reaching out and hesitantly moving closer to him under the blankets. 
    “You get on my nerves all the time,” Aira said sleepily, shaking her head. Aiden’s arm slipped underneath her and then wrapped around, pulling her close to him. Aira was surprised at how good it felt—tingling heat running along the