Rory opened her hands and muttered a spell under her breath. She felt heat in her palms. “Now that”—she pointed at him—“is getting closer to the truth, though I don’t think wood pixies are what you’re after. This isn’t a place you should be hunting anything, Tucker. Not unless you want to be roasted and then served up like fried chicken.”

  He slipped his hands into his pockets, and his shoulders dropped forward. Rory got the odd feeling that he was trying to come across as nonchalant. “I’m not looking for the dragons, if that’s what you think.”

  “I don’t know what to think,” she said. “I just came out of the portal to the dragon realm, which is in a remote part of the world. A few minutes later, a human male suddenly materializes out of the forest. He clearly knows this is the location of the portal into the dragon realm, which means he knows about the existence of the supernatural world. And yet, you’re not looking for the dragons? I find that a bit hard to believe.”

  “Okay.” He dropped his chin. “When you put it like that, it sounds suspicious.”

  “You think?” She stared at him, waiting to see what bullcrap he’d come up with next. Meanwhile, she continued to deal with the metaphorical devil on her right shoulder while desperately hoping for an angel to show up on her left.

  “The truth is,” Tucker began, then paused and clenched his jaw, his face taking on a pained look, “I came on behalf of Aston.”

  Rory felt as if she’d been sucker punched. It took her a minute to recover before she could ask, “How do you know Aston?”

  “I was at the Devil's Heart battle,” he answered. “I’m a water elementalist.”

  “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

  “I saw the dragon you were on take Aston from the battle,” he continued. “We all did. We didn’t know what you wanted with him.”

  Rory thought back to that moment. She couldn’t remember seeing Tucker during the battle. Kimba had hovered over a group of elementalists that had been fighting alongside Aston. Things were chaotic, and her focus had been mostly on Aston. It’s not a surprise she wouldn’t remember him, but still … something felt off. “You weren’t there. I saw who fought with Aston, and you weren’t among them.”

  “I wasn’t standing with the group at that moment. I was a little busy trying not to be killed by the bad guys,” Tucker said. Rory heard defensiveness in his voice. “But it’s hard to miss a dragon that snatches up a human and flies off with him.”

  Rory continued to pour magic into her hands in case she need to use a spell on Tucker. “None of that explains how you know Aston.”

  “I go to school with him.”

  “Hmm. Aston isn’t a water elementalist.” Rory knew this didn’t exactly mean that this man didn’t attend Aston’s academy. Aston had shared with her how the different academies were divided by element, and how each taught students of their own respective affinities. But he’d also mentioned they’d recently begun training different elemental students together so as to grow stronger and gain synergy fighting alongside one another.

  “That doesn’t mean we don’t know one another. We train together.”

  “Why did he send you?” Aston had talked about his three best friends and how inseparable they were. He’d never once mentioned some guy named Tucker.

  “I’m not soul bonded. The other guys are. It’s painful for them to be separated from their mates.” Tucker's explanation made sense, and that pissed her off. She was experiencing firsthand what it felt like to be apart from her soul bonded. It wasn’t something she’d ever willingly do again once she and Aston were back together. If she and Aston were ever back together.

  Rory shook her head, forcing that thought away. She had to think positively. She couldn’t let herself entertain the idea that she wouldn’t find him, or that he wouldn’t be willing to work out their issues. If she didn’t, then the darkness would grow that much faster. She wouldn’t let that happen. She would get back to him before the darkness destroyed her completely.

  “Look.” Tucker slipped his hands from his pockets and held them up again, as if showing her he had no weapons. “I mean no ill will toward you. I was sent here to wait and see if you’d come out of the dragon realm. If you did, I was to bring you to Aston. That’s all.”

  Rory bit her lip and attempted to get her crap together before she asked her next question. When she was almost certain she wouldn’t cry like a baby, she asked, “Why didn’t Aston come himself?”

  Tucker’s face fell, and Rory saw pain fill his eyes. “He’s not doing good.” The boy seemed to study her, but Rory couldn’t figure out what he was looking for, and she didn’t ask. Then he continued. “Being separated from his soul bonded has made him … sick.”

  Rory’s muscles went taut. Something in Tucker’s tone was off. His statement sounded more like a question, as if he wasn’t sure about the truth of his own words. Why would he be unsure about Aston being sick? Or is he unsure that I’m Aston’s soul bonded? If Tucker knew Aston, and had seen him recently, then he would know that Rory was Aston’s soul bonded. Another thought filled her mind, and it nearly made Rory vomit. What if Aston hadn’t told Tucker she was his soul bonded? What if he truly believed what he’d said to her when they’d fought? If that was true, then why would Aston send Tucker to wait for her?

  “So, you’re supposed to take me to Aston? Right now?” Rory wasn’t sure what Tucker’s actual intentions were, but she knew she could protect herself if he turned out to be the enemy. Regardless, if he was an elementalist, then he’d be able to open a portal, which would make travel a heck of a lot faster.

  “Yes.” Tucker reached out beside him and rotated his hand. A portal swirled into view. On the other side of it, Rory saw a quiet neighborhood.

  “That doesn’t look like a school.” Despite her reservations, Rory took a step toward it.

  “He didn’t go back to the school,” Tucker explained. “Aston knew once he got back on academy grounds, they wouldn’t let him leave again. He didn’t want to take that chance with you still in the dragon realm.”

  Rory had no way of knowing if Tucker was being honest, but she’d already made her decision. If there was the slightest chance this man could lead her to Aston, then she had to go with him. If he was lying, she was going to turn him into a toad. Rory was a witch, after all. She might as well do a classic witch move. And toads were decidedly classic. Rory smirked as she thought of what Kimba would say to that. It would be hilarious, she was sure. “Fine.” Rory walked straight past Tucker to the portal. “For the record, if you’re lying, I have no qualms about doing unsavory things to you until you cry for your mother.” Okay, so apparently turning him into a toad was enough for her, but it wasn’t enough for her dark side.

  “Noted.” Tucker said and followed her through the portal.

  She stopped on the sidewalk and turned in a slow circle. It was a large subdivision with row after row of houses. Each one looked almost identical, right down to their louvered shutters and box hedges. Rory couldn’t help but imagine each was inhabited by a mindless robot-housewife. “So, where is he?”

  “Not far.” Tucker motioned for her to follow him. “I couldn’t take us right out in front of the house in case there were any acolytes keeping an eye out. After the dark elementals got their butts handed to them, they went into hiding. We’re not sure what they’re up to, but we are certain they are planning something.”

  Rory imagined they were licking their wounds, but Tucker was right in that their enemy would eventually attack again. She felt more than heard a voice whisper in her head. You belong with the dark ones. She shuddered and hoped Tucker didn’t notice. Was there any light left inside of her? Or am I too far gone?

  Aston had explained to her everything he knew about the soul bond and what made them a soul-bonded pair. And once Kimba had confirmed that Danni wasn’t her mother, they’d concluded that Rory’s parents had been killed which must have caused Rory to lose a massive part of her soul. Perhaps that’s why she’d so easily accepted that Danni was her mom, simply because the woman had told her so.

  What it all meant was that Rory’s affinity for magic had given her the ability to be trained quite easily as a witch. But she didn’t know what her elemental power would have been or was. If only she’d been found by an elementalist and brought into the fold of one of the academies…

  “Can I ask you a question?” Tucker asked, interrupting her thoughts.

  Rory clenched her teeth, irritated at being disturbed while she was trying to work out what the hell her existence meant. What was her purpose? “If you must,” she said, unconcerned whether Tucker caught the bitchiness in her tone.

  “How did you become a witch?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well…” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him rub his chin. “If you’re soul bonded, then you have to be an elementalist. So, how did you become a witch?”

  She wanted to tell him it was none of his damn business. But then, if he actually wound up being Aston’s friend, she might feel like a jerk later for being rude. Maybe. Okay, she probably wouldn’t care that she’d been rude. It was taking every ounce of her self-control not to reach over and smack the water elementalist. The longer they were together, the more she realized she simply didn’t like the boy. “How did you become a water elementalist?” she asked instead of answering his question.

  “The same way any of us becomes an elementalist,” he said. “My parents were murdered by dark elementals. I was marked and brought into the family, so to speak.” His words said one thing, but the bite in his tone said something different. If Rory had to guess, she’d say that Tucker was bitter about something, and it had to do with being an elementalist. Or maybe it was just because his parents were murdered. That could certainly make a person bitter. Maybe she was being too suspicious.

  “Do you like being a water elementalist?”

  “I suppose it has its perks,” he said, his voice changing from bitter to pleased. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to have the power to wield an element?”

  The word “power” reverberated off the inside of Rory’s mind. She wanted power. She craved power. Power would have given her the ability to resist Danni’s lies. She would have been able to keep Aston with her if she’d been more powerful. Power would give her the ability to take what she wanted.

  “Whoa,” Tucker said quickly. “You’re crackling over there, little witch.”

  Her head snapped around, and she felt electricity ripple up her skin. “Don’t call me that.” Little witch was Kimba’s nickname for her, and no one else was allowed to use it.

  Tucker took a step back, almost falling off the sidewalk. “I’m sorry. But you haven’t told me your name.”

  There’d been warning bells in her mind since Tucker had shown up, but this one seemed to be louder. “Why would I need to tell you my name if Aston sent you after me?” Her brow rose. “Surely he would have told it to you.”

  “I don’t know if you know this, considering you’ve been around witches and not elementalists, but soul-bonded males tend to be a tad possessive. When I asked him for your name, he told me he didn’t like the idea of me speaking your name.”

  Rory narrowed her eyes at him. “That sounds ridiculous.” Despite her skepticism, something in his eyes told her he was telling the truth, although in other ways he seemed shadier than a rain forest. She had no clue if soul-bonded males were possessive, though if they were, she couldn’t imagine Aston being that way. He never came across as the possessive type. “That doesn’t sound like my Aston.”

  “Maybe that’s because you’ve only been together in the dragon realm. He didn’t have any reason to show any possessiveness. It’s not like a dragon was going to woo you away from him.” Tucker chuckled, seeming to think the idea was ridiculous. It was, but she remained skeptical.

  “I suppose,” Rory said slowly, though she still didn’t offer up her name. As far as she was concerned, Tucker had no reason to know her name. They started walking again. As they walked, she noticed something. There was a power emanating off of Tucker, and it seemed to be reaching toward her. If it had been a physical, visible thing, she imagined it would look like dark tendrils attempting to wrap themselves around her. She tried not to flinch away from him when he turned his head toward her, but her feet moved of their own volition. She backed away and nearly tripped over a fire hydrant.

  “Whoa.” Tucker reached out to catch her, but Rory lifted her hand and muttered a spell, sending a bolt of electricity through his hand just before it made contact.

  She hit the fire hydrant at an angle, which sent her toppling to the right, and she landed on her hip. “Dammit,” Rory gritted out. She sat in the grass next to it and rubbed her side. She glared at the hydrant, but then realized she was glaring at the wrong offender. It was Tucker who deserved her fury.

  “Why the hell are you shooting spells at me?” Tucker shook his hand out and then glanced at his palm. “I was trying to keep you from falling on your ass.”

  “I don’t like to be touched.” She didn’t add “by weirdos with magic tendrils attempting to molest me” to her statement because she didn’t know what the hell was going on. And she still needed to see if Tucker could actually help her, even inadvertently.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, sounding less irritated. “Next time, I’ll just let you fall.”

  “Thank you.” Rory climbed to her feet and dusted off her pants. She looked around the cookie-cutter neighborhood and realized she couldn’t tell how far they’d walked because all the freaking houses and yards look identical. “Are we in some alternate reality? This place is giving me the creeps.”

  “You’ve been living in the dragon realm, and a subdivision gives you the creeps?” he asked dryly.

  Rory rolled her eyes. “Dragons are much nicer than people. They’re honest. If they want to eat you, they don’t lie about it.”

  Tucker nodded, his lips pressed tightly together. “Sounds very comforting.”

  “Are we almost there?”

  Tucker pointed to a stop sign at the end of the sidewalk. “Just around the corner.”

  The closer they got to the stop sign, the more ominous the feeling in Rory’s gut grew. But the longer she was in Tucker’s presence, the more she felt a weird familiarity—a familiarity with something she couldn’t describe. Rory didn’t like it … at all. Then, just as quickly as that thought hit her, something else collided with her. The feeling in her chest shook her to the marrow of her bones. What the…? Rory straightened her spine and tried desperately to look like her entire world wasn’t being turned upside down. It was Aston. She could feel him as if he was right beside her with his hands on her face, forcing her to focus on him. Rory could feel his soul reaching out to hers.

  She wanted to scream, “I’m here.” Rory didn’t have a clue why she could feel him and, frankly, she didn’t care. All she knew was that she had to get away from Tucker and the darkness inside of him. It was drawing her in. Rory needed to be reunited with her soul bonded … now. She longed to make things right between them.

  “You said Aston is staying here because he knew the Academy wouldn’t have let him leave?” Rory hoped the conversation might help her focus and keep her from doing something stupid, like running away when she had no clue where she was or where Aston was. She was sure of one thing, though. Wherever Tucker was taking her, it wasn’t to Aston.

  “He’s still a student, despite also being a warrior,” Tucker explained. “And they keep tight tabs on their students, especially after the battle at Devil's Heart.”

  Rory wracked her brain for something else to ask, but she was having a hard time focusing. She was battling the part of her that craved the power. She feared if she hesitated for a mere moment, the darkness in Tucker would reach out and grab her. At the same time, she was trying to focus on her soul bonded. Rory worried that if Tucker captured her, or did whatever he planned to do, she wouldn’t be able to fight the darkness for long.

  “Here we are.” Tucker motioned to one of the identical houses.

  She followed him up the walkway, unsure of what she should or could do. Rory figured she could put a spell on him, but she noticed that when she’d used her magic on him moments ago, it had caused the darkness within to grow.

  Think Rory.

  Tucker unlocked the door and pushed it open. “After you.” Tucker’s smile looked more like a leer.

  Why do I feel like the dumb blonde chick in one of those horror flicks that goes outside to search for the source of a mysterious sound? No offense to blonde chicks.

  “Let me get this straight. Osiris is planning to make Shelly his underworld bride, but then what is she supposed to do, rule legions of tortured souls for all eternity?” Aston sat across from Elias and Tara at Terra Academy. His leg bounced up and down relentlessly. He fought to sit still, but all he wanted to do was take action. He needed to move. Being separated from Rory and feeling like his damn soul was being ripped from his body confirmed what an idiot he’d been.

  Tara nodded. “Pretty much.”

  “Hanging around in hell must negatively affect the brain cells,” Gabby said. “Dude is not right in the head.”

  “And Ra, I imagine, is about to lose his mind?” Aston asked.

  “Well, he tried to kill a professor, set some forests on fire hoping to gain the royals’ attention, and has basically caused as much chaos as he could in his attempt to get answers,” Elias said. “So far, the powers-that-be have been very evasive as to what they are actually trying to do to get his mate back.”

  “Maybe they do not know how to get her back,” Aston offered. “Osiris has complete control over the underworld. It’s not like they can just storm the gates of hell.”

  “Perhaps not,” Liam said. “But there must be some way in.” He raised his eyebrows up and down. “Instead of making a grand entrance, we could be sneaky about it.”