“We are trying,” Jeremiah told him as he glanced around the circle. “You’re still a student, Ra. Regardless of how you feel, you are not privy to the plans of the school heads or the elementals. You must trust us.”

  Ra’s hand lifted and flung out in front of him before he could even think. A flash of blue fire burst from his palm and shot straight for Jeremiah. The headmaster jumped out of the way just in time. An instant of hesitation, and the man would sport a sizzling hole in his chest. “I trust no one,” Ra growled. “And when it comes to the woman who shares my soul, then, student or not, I am privy to every plan that relates to getting her back.” He reached out his other hand and raised his arm slowly. Blue flames stretched out in an arc over his body. Ra swiftly brought his arm down and wielded the flame like a whip. He snapped it toward his headmaster. Before the fire could touch Jeremiah, a massive wave of water crashed through the circle of fire and blocked the whip before it could strike the older elementalist.

  “You can’t go around killing headmasters, Ra.” Liam’s voice came from across the circle. Water continued to rain down on them, dousing the flames that covered Ra’s body and sending up gouts of steam. “I’m not saying you don’t have a right to be angry. I’d be pissed, too. But going on a killing spree isn’t the answer. You’re lucky they haven’t locked your ass up the way they did Elias.”

  Ra’s head snapped to the side to face his friend, and literal fire shot out of his eyes. He heard gasps from the onlookers. Such a power was rare, but then Ra wasn’t just any ordinary elementalist. He carried the magic of his ancestors in his DNA. Ancient power that flowed in the blood of every pharaoh of the line of Ramses the Great. That power magnified his elemental abilities, though Ra usually kept that knowledge to himself and his brothers. But now the secret was out. “No one is locking me up,” he said, as sweat practically sizzled on his skin from the heat.

  Liam whipped a hand up and released another torrent of water that extinguished the flaming projectile before it could hit him. “Neat trick.” He smirked. Only Liam could crack jokes while facing off with Ra in his current state. “Perhaps you’d like to reveal more of your secret arsenal?”

  “Walk away, brother,” Ra said through gritted teeth. He honestly didn’t know if he could keep from hurting Liam. Ra fought the urge to see everyone as the enemy. He tried to remind himself that regardless of what he’d told Jeremiah, there were some people he did trust. But that was only when he was in his right mind. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Liam threw his head back and laughed. “Since when? Let’s be real, Ra. I stay on your shit list. That’s how our relationship works. I do stuff to piss you off, and you put me in my place with your powerful Ra-ness.” He turned and looked at his female, Gabby. “Ra-ness, get it?”

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “Could you maybe focus on not getting fried by your friend?”

  “Baby,” he drawled. “I’m not worried about that. I know you got my back.” Liam turned to Ra. The playfulness left his voice as he said, “And Ra won’t hurt my female.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Unless he unleashed his fire completely, Ra would never willingly hurt any of his brothers’ mates. Or any female that wasn’t actually attacking him or those he loved. Ra didn’t look at Gabby but kept his focus on Liam, the joker of their band of brothers. Elias, his brow drawn into a deep V, stepped up beside Liam.

  “It isn’t like you to lose control,” Elias said. His stance was casual, but Ra wasn’t fooled. His earth elementalist brother would attack in a flash if he needed to. “You said you don’t trust anyone. I’m asking you to trust us.”

  Ra knew when Elias said “us,” he was talking about their close-knit group. He wasn’t including the school faculty or even the elementals in his statement. As he stared at Elias, his mind was a mess of chaotic thoughts. He’d been wracking his brain day after day trying to figure out a way to get into the underworld. But no matter how many things he came up with, none of them were possible. Short of a miracle, there was no way they could get into Osiris’s territory.

  “Ra,” Elias said, his voice firm. “Stand down and come talk to us. I’m sure Headmaster Jeremiah will give us a break for the rest of the day.”

  Ra glanced at the headmaster, who gave him a sharp nod. “I think a break is a good idea. And, Ra,” Jeremiah said, “this is the last outburst we will tolerate. We’ve been lenient because of your circumstances. Up to this point, you haven’t been a threat to the students of the academies. But your outburst today is the final straw. We will do what’s necessary to protect the students from any threat. We are not ignoring what has happened, Ra. Despite what you think you know, there is more going on. Information is being gathered, and a plan worked out. That is all you can know at this point. You don’t have to like that answer, but you will follow our rules and orders. There are going to be consequences if you do not. Am I clear?”

  The water stopped falling, and Ra managed to keep his flames from erupting over his skin, though they simmered just below the surface. “Yes.” His voice was tight from the emotions that seemed determined to strangle him. Still, nobody moved. After several tense moments, Ra finally nodded and added. “Crystal clear.” He thought he heard a collective sigh, and he could feel the tension filling the sparring grounds evaporate.

  Ra focused solely on Elias and Liam as he walked toward them. He didn’t look around to see how many people had witnessed his outburst. Not because he was concerned about their judgment, but because it didn’t matter what they thought. They were inconsequential in his world. He had tunnel vision, and at the end of that tunnel stood his female, his mate, his Shelly.

  “Never a dull moment,” Liam said as Ra reached him. Ra kept walking, and from the corner of his eye, he saw the others fall in line beside him. Once he was at the edge of the sparring grounds, he opened a portal. Ra stepped through into the basement of Crimson Academy.

  “I thought this place was warded,” Liam said.

  “It is.” Ra walked over to one of the charred walls and turned. He leaned back against it and slowly slid to the stone floor. He rested his forearms on his bent knees and tilted his head back, pressing it into the hard surface behind him.

  “So how are you able to get in?” Tara asked.

  “Because I am tied to this place through my ancestors,” Ra answered. He didn’t want to talk, but he wouldn’t be rude to his brother’s mate. “They can’t ward me from the room, but they’ve managed to prevent me from being able to use the river to get to the underworld. These damn runes.” Ra ran a hand over his arm. “They feel like ants under my skin. I’ve done some research.” He didn’t add that he had plenty of time to do the research because sleep was no longer a concern. He was pretty sure his friends would find it unstable for his mental health that he couldn’t sleep, so he kept that information to himself. “But I’ve not found anything that can remove runes put in place by a royal.”

  “What happened down here?” Gabby asked.

  Ra looked up from where he stared at his arm and saw the two couples looking around at the blackened room. He let his eyes roam over the space and tried to see it from their perspective. But all he could see was the moment when he realized there was no way for him to get to his female. There’d been no stopping the rage that had erupted out of him like an active volcano.

  Elias walked over and took a seat next to Ra, leaving a foot between them. Ra appreciated the space. “You did this?” Elias asked.

  Ra nodded. Remembering the emotions he’d felt that day made his barely controlled ire rise again. “You asked me to trust you.” Ra glanced at Elias and then Liam. “Does that mean you’ve come up with a plan?”

  “It’s more like a rough draft.” Liam ran his hand across the dark scorch marks on the stone.

  “Liam thinks we should blackmail a demon,” Gabby said quickly. “But I think I have a better idea.”

  “You’ve been holding out on us?” Tara asked.

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “It’s been all of a half hour since we had lunch. It’s not like I’ve been scheming for the past few weeks and I’ve just now suddenly decided to reveal my master plan.”

  Tara crossed her arms in front of her. “Fair enough. Now share. Anything you’ve come up with must be better than Liam’s plan.”

  “I’ve been thinking about the girl who took Aston—” Gabby started

  “Okay, I stand corrected,” Tara said “Apparently you have come up with something dumber.”

  Gabby ignored Tara’s comment. “I’m not sure which one, but she is either a dark acolyte or a witch. And considering she didn’t seem to fight alongside the dark elementals, I’m guessing she’s a witch. If that’s the case, then that means she’s worked with demons.” Gabby paced as she tapped her chin. “If she’s worked with demons, then she probably knows how to summon one. Which opens a portal to hell, correct?” She looked at Elias, then Liam, and finally Ra.

  “Technically,” Ra said slowly as he tried to follow her line of thinking.

  “Is there a way to go through that portal when the demon is summoned?” Gabby stopped pacing and stared at Ra.

  “Possibly,” he answered.

  “Your one-word, monotone answers are not inspiring confidence,” Tara muttered. She walked over and sat down across from Elias, crossing her legs as she rested her elbows on her knees.

  “Even if it is possible,” Elias said, “we can’t do anything unless we get Aston and the witch.”

  “And they’re in the dragon realm,” Liam added. “Which is nearly as impossible to get into as the underworld. And you are just as likely to end up a pile of ashes there as you would in hell. And”—he held up a finger and pointed it at Ra—“you can’t go into hell because of that crap Aviur did to you, even if you could jump through the demon’s portal.”

  “I’m telling you,” Tara said, “you guys have got this whole pep talk thing down.”

  “That’s sarcasm.” Gabby looked from Ra to Liam. “In case you weren’t sure.”

  “Thanks, beautiful.” Liam grinned. “I can always count on you to make sure I know when I‘m being insulted.”

  Gabby’s smile was saccharine sweet. “It’s our thing, babe. You say ridiculous crap and make me want to strangle you. And I roast you so that you have a modicum of humility.”

  “You’re failing,” Tara said. “Do better.”

  Gabby raised a brow. “I’m rethinking this whole ‘having a BFFF’ thing.”

  Tara shrugged. “You’re stuck with us now. Get used to it.”

  Ra tuned them out and turned his thoughts to Gabby’s suggestion. As far as far-fetched plans went, it wasn’t too bad. There was the minor issue of him not being able to travel to hell. He nearly snorted at that. How many times did a person tell someone else to go to hell? He would be the only one to say, “Sorry, but I cannot accommodate your demand, literally. And I actually wish I could.”

  “It’s a start,” Ra said. “Though there’s a lot to consider if we manage to get me into hell.”

  “Like?” Tara cocked her hip to the side and crossed her arms in front of her.

  “Like getting back out again,” Ra answered. “Remember? You don’t leave hell for free. There’s a price. Every. Single. Time.”

  She nodded. “All right, well then figure out what you can bargain with. Obviously not your souls.”

  “That’s the currency of hell,” Ra said. “Souls.” He watched as Shelly’s best friend’s eyes narrowed, and her jaw clenched.

  “You’re not helping me feel real confident in our loose-as-shite plan, Ra,” Tara said. “I’m trying here, okay? But you keep shooting ideas down.”

  Ra held up a hand. “It’s not my intention to upset you, Tara. It’s more of a reminder to myself that I can’t just worry about getting into hell. I have to consider how to get us back out again as well. Forgive my abruptness.” His nostrils flared as he took several deep breaths and then pushed up to his feet. “I’m going to look into the demon portals and do some more research on the damn runes. You four work on how to get Aston and his witch out.”

  Elias nodded and then stepped up to Ra. He wrapped an arm around him and pulled him in for a hug. Ra didn’t return it, but neither did he pull away. Elias gave him a single, firm pat on the back.. “You’re not in this alone. Stop trying to do it without us. Yeah?”

  Ra met Elias’s eyes and saw the fierce love his brother had for him. They all cared for one another. They were a family, chosen to be so instead of born into it. And that meant more to him than any blood relative. “Okay.”

  Elias stared at him a couple of seconds longer and then nodded. “You gonna let us out of here?”

  Ra reached out his hand and opened a portal back to Terra Academy. “We will meet back at my room in two days,” he told them. “If we have no more information than we do now, we keep searching. By any means necessary, we don’t stop until we find something to help us.”

  “That sounds extremely ominous,” Tara whispered.

  “And also like there’s the possibility of getting to kick someone’s ass.” Gabby grinned. “I’m totally down for that. Let’s do this.”

  “Damn, woman.” Liam looked his mate over. “Just when I think you can’t get any hotter.”

  “And with that, I’m out.” Tara turned to hurry through the portal.

  Ra watched them go and then closed the portal. He reached for the calm inside of him. Usually he found it effortlessly, even in stressful situations. Now it was harder to grasp. But he had to keep his head clear. Ra needed to remain focused. And most of all, he had to keep from developing the same sadistic streak Gabby seemed to have at the thought of torturing their enemies. Because if he allowed himself to find gratification in that, he knew he could give himself over to it completely. He could and would do anything to get Shelly back. That terrified him almost as much as not getting her back at all.

  Chapter

  Four

  “A person might think there isn’t much to do in hell. They'd be right. Give ’em a cookie. And make it shaped like fire with red, orange, and yellow frosting. Then somehow deliver me one. One of the postal carriers in the upworld must deliver to hell, right? They deliver everywhere, and neither snow, nor heat, nor rain, nor gloom of night will stop them. See? It says right there–heat won’t stop them. And besides, the devil must get his mail from somewhere, mustn’t he? Yes. I’m aware that I sound batcrap crazy. But it’s quite hard to remain sane in a place filled with insanity.” ~Shelly

  “You realize that your creepy factor—which was already high, by the way—goes through the roof when you sit and stare at someone for longer than five seconds, right?” Shelly found it impossible to ignore Osiris’s stare. He sat on the loveseat across from her, leaning back, his arm across the top of the couch and one ankle resting on his bent knee. It was his typical way of sitting when he morphed into creepy, staring guy. She wondered if he somehow believed that if he stared at her long enough, she’d magically come to her senses and jump into his arms, then declare her love for him and promise to be his forever. Not even if hell was transformed into the most perfect paradise imaginable, making all the beaches of the Caribbean pale in comparison. Shelly continued to flip through the magazine that Osiris had conjured up for her.

  “I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything I could do that would make me less creepy in your eyes,” he said. “I abducted you, demanded you choose me over your soul mate, and plan to keep you prisoner for all eternity, whether you learn to love me or not.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. You’re at the very top of the creepy chart. Not to mention the sadistic asshole chart. Not to mention a whole bunch of other charts: cruel, vicious, barbaric, uncaring, unkind—”

  Osiris cleared his throat. “I get the picture.”

  Shelly looked up and met his straightforward gaze. “Has there ever been a time, in all of your long existence, when you grew tired of being this?” She motioned to him with her hand. “Have you ever felt a smidgeon of guilt?”

  His face was unreadable as he answered. “This is my role, Shelly. My purpose. No one else was created to do it. Being created for a specific purpose means you were also given certain abilities to succeed.”

  “You didn’t answer the question.” She pursed her lips and closed the magazine with a snap, setting it down next to her. “I didn’t ask you what your role was. I asked if you ever tired of it. Just because you have a certain purpose in life doesn’t mean you always like it. Sometimes, one may even fight against their purpose.”

  He inclined his head to the right, his ear nearly touching his shoulder, and narrowed his eyes at her. Osiris seemed to study her, as if she was an interesting new insect he wanted to dissect. “If nothing else, you are persistent,” he muttered. Osiris took a deep breath and let it out in a slow, measured exhale. “There was one time … only one”—he lifted his hand, holding up a finger—“that I found myself wishing things were different. That I was different.”

  Shelly’s stomach whirled like a boiling cauldron, and she worried its contents might climb up her throat and spew from her mouth. She had a suspicion as to what he was about to say, and she desperately hoped she was wrong. Shelly could taste the bile at the back of her throat, burning as she swallowed over and over to stop from vomiting.

  “Are you going to ask me when this time was?” Osiris’s eyes lit with amusement, and the sound of his voice cajoled her to answer him.

  “I don’t think it’s necessary,” she blurted out. “You answered the question. I wanted to know if such a time had ever occurred, and you said yes. Boom. Done. Case closed. Conversation over. So, how’s the weather here in hell? Are there different seasons, or is it pretty much just wildfire time year-round?”

  His lips turned up in a sly smile. Osiris dropped his foot from his knee and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. Though there was a table between them, he suddenly felt too close. He’d invaded her bubble. Bubble invading was a hard no-go.