Air: Elementalist Book 1 by Rebecca Wolf (christmas read aloud .TXT) 📗

to divorce. When you are married, your air magic is used to stabilize his fire, which is caused by a certain amount of elemental melding that cannot be undone. Even by death.” I paused as I tried to take in the finality of signing the contract. Never mind, I thought, as I felt the flutterings of  a panic attack. Now was not the time to have a meltdown. I  tried to refocus on what I could control.

“Is there anything else you think I should know or request as part of this contract?” I asked.

“I think you should probably negotiate a joint checking account,” he said glancing at Aiden, “Done.” he said.

“I think you should write a clause that you both won’t hand incriminating evidence against each other into the hands of the law or to third parties that would use this information to harm one another.”

“Done." said Aiden.

“This means once we’re married you will not be able to use evidence of smuggling or other illegal acts to coerce me,” I reiterated.

“Yes, sweetheart, I understand the ramifications.”

“I think you should negotiate a stipend upon spousal demise,” continued Stevens, ignoring our exchange.

“No,” said Aiden emphatically. “I need insurance that she will try to have my children, and writing in sexual clauses is invalidated in court proceedings.”

“What, you don’t think your man enough to make me want you on your own?”

“Sweetheart, right now NOBODY is man enough to tempt YOU.”

I huffed, “it’s fine. I don’t want his money.”

“Good, then let me call in witnesses and we can all sign and get this over with.” Stevens paused before adding,

“There is one last thing I wish to address before this contract is finalized. The marriage, and therefore this contract, is invalidated without both parties attending all ceremonial affairs and fulfilling their roles in them to their fullest capacity. In fact, from the moment of signing, this contract goes into effect in full.”

we both nodded in understanding.

“Good,” said Stevens. He called in Tweedledee and Tweedledum, both in somber black suits and business haircuts to bear witness, and everyone signed the documents.

“ My mother has arranged our engagement ceremony for two weeks from today, and the wedding is being planned for two months from now,” Aiden said, “I’ll send you a card with the details.” I turned without acknowledging him and left.

Chapter 15

Two days passed. A card arrived at the house, delivered together with a dress in a garment bag. I didn’t even bother unzipping it to look. I just sniffed and sent it back. Penny had promised to come to the engagement party as a woman so we could hide out in the bathroom together if things became overwhelming.

Secretly I was hoping Penny would benefit from a night of dressing up and going out, even if it WAS for something as horrible as my engagement party. I was worried. Penny had been more withdrawn and stressed lately. Some idiot had graffitied the doors of the bar with profanity, and Penny didn’t feel comfortable going to the enforcers. I finally called them for her, but the enforcers said they couldn’t do anything since the person who did it was wearing a ski mask and nondescript black clothing in the surveillance video. Honestly, I had known the enforcers were corrupt, but hearing the snickering in the background during the phone call left me feeling a little sicker and more helpless. Tommy was doing his best to be helpful, but he was small and scrawny and it took him double the time to get things done. Not that we would ever tell him that. Both Penny and I were relieved that in the past few weeks his coughing had gotten much better.

There was a lot going on to keep us busy, and I tried not to think about the coming event. Penny finally convinced me to go dress shopping with her, and after trying on the 10th dress I almost wished I hadn’t turned the original dress away.

The day of the party arrived,  and I dressed in the jade-colored cocktail dress we had finally agreed on. It had a sweetheart neckline, and it clung to my curves in all the right places. I wore four-inch nude heels, making me feel sexy and fierce. Penny did my makeup, and I did my hair. Penny wore a silk champagne colored blouse tucked into a black A-line skirt. She didn’t want those snobbish elemental women to have any ammunition to use against her regarding her attire.

On the way out to the car, we were met by Ben coming up the path to our house. Penny stopped cold as Ben   sauntered towards us.

“Hello Penny.”

Penny nodded stiffly in response.

“Listen, I actually came to apologize. I was thrown off by discovering your… dual nature and I wasn’t ready to deal with it.” Ben paused, but Penny remained silent. He shifted nervously on his feet before continuing, “I didn’t mean to escalate things so far. It started out because I was angry. I was venting to some of my buddies on the force, and I let them in on it. I didn’t realize that the harassment was still continuing this long.”

“It’s partially my fault,” blurted Penny “I should have told you right off the bat that I was a shifter.”

“Probably,” said Ben “but that doesn’t excuse my behavior.”

“Your right,” said Penny, “it doesn’t.”

Ben shifted again, “so am I forgiven?”

“If you get your friends to back down you are.”

“It’s already been done,” Ben replied quickly.

Penny gave a half smile, “Yeah. Your forgiven.”

I gave a little tug on Penny’s arm, “Penny I hate to cut in, but we’ve got to get going.”

“See you around Ben,” Penny said, “I appreciate you coming by.”

Ben watched us as we headed towards the car. I wasn’t sure what to make of the whole exchange.

We got in the car and started driving away. “Can you believe that??” said Penny as she buckled her seatbelt. “Not in my wildest dreams!” She let out a relieved laugh. “Now