elemental 08 - elements of war by Larissa Ladd Read Free Book Online Page A

health food store, seeking some of the components she would need to track the elementals they sought, “I hadn’t really formed an opinion of Aira before the wedding; or even at the reception.” 
    “Makes you an ideal spy, I suppose,” Dylan said with a little smile. 
    “I’m still not sure I entirely understand her relationship with Aiden. I mean, I can see it works for them. Obviously they’re very happy together … but it all seems so …” 
    Dylan chuckled. “Fraught? There’s a lot of tension. I think—I think they both thrive on it. The constant challenge. The need to be better, to be more.”
    “Is she the only person who can keep Aiden in line?” The prospect seemed to amuse Leigh, and Dylan considered the question.
    “One of very few people. Mom … she’s a water elemental, like me. She could quell him, but not convince him to give up his will.”
    “And Aira?” Dylan shrugged.
    “Aira … She’s a match for anything he wants to throw at her. He can’t shout her down, he can’t intimidate her, he can’t coerce her. I think we both know she’s more intellectual—that’s in keeping with her elemental alignment—but he’s stronger physically, and he’s got a survival instinct that’s gotten us out of a lot of scrapes.”
    “What about you?” Leigh stopped him at a bulk display of different grains, running her fingers over the bin labels until she came to one she wanted. “What do you bring to the team?” 
    “I’m less volatile. I’m … calmer. I make the peace when things get out of hand. I help them settle.”
    “Not much room for a fourth then, is there?” “You’ve seen them,” Dylan said, laughing. “They need way more grounding than I can provide.” 
    Leigh smiled. “Do you really want me working with you? I mean … I know there’s … we’ve partly bonded. I wasn’t exactly planning that and I don’t think you were, either.” 
    Dylan pressed his lips together as he thought before answering.
    “A while before Aiden and Aira got married, my mom told me that I would find a mate,” he said slowly. “She’s great at reading the scrying bowl—way better than I am. She told me that I’d find someone, that I was on the point of it, but that there would be obstacles.” Dylan shrugged. “A war seems like a pretty big obstacle to me.”
    “My parents won’t be entirely pleased that I didn’t let them … negotiate, or try and make the most advantageous alliance possible.” Leigh twisted her lips into a wry grin. “But I think they’ve always known I would go my own way. I’m more independent than my brothers and sisters.”
    “Makes even more sense that they used you as a spy. Why exactly was that, by the way?” 
    Leigh shrugged, tying off the bag of grain she had scooped and adding it to the basket.
    “They wanted someone they could trust, who hadn’t already come to any conclusions about Aiden and Aira. Some of my siblings are excellent earth-aligned beings, but they aren’t exactly sharp. Before my cousins abducted me, my parents would have almost killed me rather than let me ally with you three.”
    “Why’d they abduct you?” Dylan still wasn’t sure he was entirely clear on that detail. He had heard her explanation—that she had been informing the authorities of their world about the attack—but it still didn’t entirely make sense. 
    Leigh sighed. “Well, partly it was to get me out of the way; I was a peripheral witness. I’d known who was involved. Partly it was because they wanted me on their side. As I said, not always the sharpest, us earth-aligned folks.”
    “You seem plenty sharp,” Dylan told her with a grin. 
    Leigh smiled slowly, the expression lighting up her brilliant green eyes.
    “I had to separate myself from my siblings some way, didn’t I? So I studied lore, and I spent a lot of time with my grandmother—she was a water elemental, very much a supporter of Aira’s grandmother. She taught me to think