Page 8 of Veiled By Smoke (The Nature Hunters Academy #5)
“This should be fun . . . said no one ever when it came to sparring dragons.”
~Shelly
K imba had never understood why humans needed coffee to wake up. In her experience, nothing beat a dragon king’s roar at the break of dawn. It was efficient, effective, and, judging by the string of curses coming from the various caves, universally unpopular.
She grinned, smoke curling from her nostrils in the chilly morning air. Sepheron’s roar echoed off the mountains, bouncing around the dragon realm like a toddler on a sugar high. Honestly, it was a little extra, but dragons weren’t known for subtlety. That was more of a pixie thing.
One by one, the soul-bonded pairs, now eight in all, stumbled from the divided cave, hair sticking out at odd angles, eyes puffy and blinking against the morning sun.
Gabby led the pack, muttering about “inhumane reptilian alarm clocks.” Liam followed, still pulling on his shirt.
Rory wore a look that said she might try to set Sepheron’s tail on fire if he did that again.
Shelly clung to Ra’s arm, her glare daring anyone to comment on her fuzzy socks that peeked out of the top of her boots.
Aston and Elias looked remarkably put together, which Kimba found suspicious.
They both might be early risers, or perhaps being young and newly bonded just made them eager for morning activities.
She was not about to dwell on that possibility.
Or the fact that she’d been separated from her mate for so long that she couldn’t even remember any type of activities, morning or otherwise.
Tara yawned widely, and the four new couples–Riggs and Lark, Lawson and Cara, Rush and Brianna, and Crey and Tinely–all had some pep in their step and looked as if they got up at the crack of dawn every morning, ready for battle.
Probably because they did, considering they actually were out in the field fighting the dark elementals.
Riggs, a wide grin on his handsome face, saluted Kimba. “Morning, your majesty. Or do we call you Highness . . . because you’re a dragon.” He paused and looked around. Blank faces stared back. “You know, Highness, because she can fly high?”
Lark patted his shoulder. “We don’t even have kids and you got the dad jokes, Babe.”
Rory, never missing an opportunity to attempt to get under Kimba’s scales, snorted. “She responds to ‘Queen of Secrets’ too. Or ‘By the way I forgot to mention sometimes I don’t have a tail.’”
“That seems a little long to say,” Gabby pointed out.
Kimba rolled her eyes at her dragon bonded.
“Good morning, sunshine and destruction,” she called, shifting from dragon to human in a shimmer of magic.
Her pale hair tumbled down her back, and she was, of course, fully clothed—dragons had standards.
“Hope you slept well. Not that it matters, because you won’t be sleeping again until you can fight as one. ”
Liam groaned. “Is there a waiver for that? Because I’m pretty sure Gabby will kill me if I accidentally blast her with water magic before breakfast.”
Gabby elbowed him. “You blast me, I burn you. That’s the deal.”
“Couple goals,” Liam said with a flirty wink.
Aston adjusted his glasses. “Should we stretch first, or does dragon boot camp skip warm-ups?”
Kimba snorted. “If you need to stretch, do it quickly. The dragons are eager for breakfast.” She motioned for the others to gather close as three more dragons landed nearby, their wings stirring the snow into miniature cyclones.
Tara inched closer to Elias as she eyed the dragons. “Just an fyi, I don’t taste like chicken. In fact, I have a distinctly skunky flavor.”
Rory raised her hand. “I won’t taste good because I’m pissy and it’s a well-known fact that pissy females are nasty.”
“Bloody hell,” Elias muttered.
Gabby roared with laughter. “Why didn’t somebody record that? That needs to be her ringtone or text alert or something equally embarrassing.”
“Roar, Babe,” Shelly said with a gentle smile. “Maybe you should just not talk today?”
Rory shrugged. “ Whatever I say is because I’m still recovering from the fact that my dragon bff is actually an elemental, and a royal one at that,” Rory said, raising her hand. “So there should be no judgment if my concentration is a little off.”
“Or if you say crazy shite?” Elias asked.
“Exactly.” Rory nodded.
Kimba shook her head at her dragonrider. “You know me better than that, little one. I give no grace when it comes to being able to protect yourself. I still reserve the right to fry you if you do something stupid.”
“Damn,” Rory huffed. “You’re just as grumpy in your two-legged form as you are when you’re a giant reptile.”
“Classy, Rory. Now, moving on. Meet your chariots for the day,” Kimba announced. “The blue one with the chipped horn is Zephyra. The green one with the scar across his snout is Brontes. And the gold one with the attitude problem is Solyn.”
Zephyra dipped her head in greeting. Brontes gave a rumbling snort that rattled the pine needles. Solyn just rolled his eyes—which, for a dragon, was somehow even more dramatic than when Gabby did it.
Brianna glanced at her mate and then to Kimba. “Do we get to pick, or are we assigned to the dragon least likely to eat us?”
“They don’t eat soul bonded,” Kimba said, deadpan. “Usually.”
Aston paled. “Define usually.”
Rory grinned. “Relax, nerd. I’ll protect you.”
Crey nudged Tinley, and his deep voice rumbled as he said, “Will you protect me, Babe?”
She patted his shoulder. “Love you, but I got no plans to be dragon brunch.”
“Ouch,” Crey clutched his chest as if she’d physically wounded him.
Riggs chuckled. “Good to know it’s not just my female who’s brutal.”
Rush grinned at Brianna as she bounced on her toes. “I call the blue one. Looks fast.”
Brontes, the green dragon, snorted.
Lark shook her head at Riggs. “You called it yesterday. It’s my turn.”
“I’m the dragonrider, I get first dibs,” Rory announced, “And I’ve been slighted. Everyone knows the slighted gets preferential treatment.”
“You do remember that I am your bonded dragon, right?” Kimba crossed her arms, pinning Rory with a look.
“That means I’ll be the one you’re riding.
It would be a shame if I hit some wind turbulence and your sassy butt fell off.
But I’ll gladly give you some preferential treatment if you need to feel special. ”
Rory grinned. “No need for threats, Beasty. We all know who wears the pants in this relationship. Even if you hid your pants for, oh, centuries.”
“And now I’m picturing all these dragons in pants,” Liam snorted.
“Seriously, can we just take a moment?” Cara piped up, grinning. “Our dragon instructor is literally a secret queen. This is the best plot twist since we found out Crey can’t cook.”
Crey rolled his eyes. “One time. I almost set the house on fire. One time.”
Osiris’s voice slid into Kimba’s mind, smooth as the black silk he favored. “You know, if you let me handle this, we’d be sparring already. I was a king who no doubt led warriors, after all.”
Kimba mentally rolled her eyes. “When you accept who you are, and who you are to me, I’ll let you run a boot camp. Until then, you’re on cleaning duty. Straighten up the caves and keep the fires going.”
“I am not a servant, woman.”
Kimba smirked. “And yet, here you are, cleaning the spaces of elementalist students and fetching wood.”
She turned her attention back to the group. “Mount up,” she ordered. “We’re headed to the training clearing. Get on whichever dragon doesn’t growl at you. Yes, they can all speak. It doesn't mean they will.”
By the time they reached the vast, open meadow—big enough for even Sepheron to do a victory lap—the sun had burned away the worst of the chill. The dragons landed with a thump that rattled teeth and scattered a flock of startled crows.
Kimba shifted to human again, hands on her hips. “Gather round, children.”
Rory raised her hand. “Are there snacks?”
Gabby elbowed her. “If you ask for juice boxes, I’m out.”
Kimba waited until the laughter died down, then schooled her features into seriousness. “Listen up, because this is important. You need to know why you exist. Why Mother Gaia created the soul bond.”
Tara leaned forward, all business. “Elias and I learned about some of it, but I’m sure there’s more we don’t know.”
Kimba nodded. “The soul bond was never just about love, or even power. It’s about saving each other from the darkness.
When a child, a future elementalist, loses a parent, when grief or trauma rips away too much of their soul, there’s a risk.
An open door for the darkness to creep in.
Mother Gaia pairs that soul with another elementalist, one with a whole, unbroken soul.
The bond protects the broken, keeps them from tipping over the edge. ”
Lawson raised a hand. “So, are we like . . . soul insurance? Because I’ll need a better premium.”
Cara elbowed him. “You’re not even the responsible one in our pair. If anyone’s the insurance, it’s me.”
Kimba grinned. “You could say that. The bond lets you share power, even if you don’t share the same element. It lets you heal each other, keep each other whole. But it’s not automatic. You have to choose each other. Every day.”
Ra looked at his soul bonded, and the devotion Kimba saw in his eyes made her a little jealous. She’d once had that. Shelly leaned into his side as he spoke. “So we’re here because we’re all a little broken. And a little saved.”
“Exactly,” Kimba said gently. “And together, you’re stronger than you could ever be alone. That’s why the soul elementals were the original gatekeepers. We kept the balance. When the soul element disappeared, the gates weakened. The world went . . . well, it went to shit, as Rory would say.”