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

Darcy scrunched up her face as she tried to dumb it down.

“Stabbed to pin down while questioned. Shot in the top of the head, so the face is easy to identify. Burnt likely by an elementalist after death.”

Aiden’s face shut down, his mouth set in a firm line. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“I didn’t do it,” he said.

"OK, well if you didn’t do it then that leaves one other Fire Elementalist family with no motivation to kill Jerry. He was their eyes and ears in the no-go zone. Why would they sever that?”

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Aiden answered, setting his jaw.

He drove me back to my house at around seven-thirty, giving a curt nod as I stepped out of the car. One of the guards at the entrance to the house nodded back, then watched me walk up to the front door, holding it open for me as I stepped inside. If I had enough money, I would have rented a hotel room. But I didn’t. I sighed and trudged upstairs to my room. The stupid steel plate was still there soldered to my window. There was no way I could sleep in a room without an alternate exit. I grabbed my pillow and blanket, and headed towards Penny’s room. Penny was sound asleep in her full-sized bed. I climbed in and pulled close to her, needing the comfort of another living person. Putting my arms around her waist, I snuggled up and fell fast asleep.

Chapter 18

Two weeks of investigating passed. There was a frustrating lack of evidence regarding the other Fire Elementalist household. In addition, the bar was having less and less customers show up, and we had no idea why.

That afternoon, at two pm, as I was waking myself up slowly with a nice cup of coffee, I got a call from Lucy, Aiden’s mother.

“Darling! Are you aware that we only have one month to find you the perfect dress?”

“Oh!” I said, caught off guard, “I actually have one already.”

“What’s this now?” She said, “don’t move, I’m stopping by to see it.”

She’s WHAT? I thought to myself, panicking. I wasn’t really awake yet, and having my future mother-in-law over was not on my agenda for today. Was my room even clean enough? I hadn’t really stepped foot in there since Aiden had put up the steel plate. Instead, I had been cuddling up with Penny at night, much to the chagrin of Aiden’s guards. Aiden wasn’t really present in my house, and if they had informed him of my sleeping situation he didn’t let on.

I ran up to my bedroom, and started shoveling dirty clothes into the hamper. The room desperately needed to be aired out, but I couldn’t do anything about the stuffiness because of the damn steel plate. I opened the door and sprayed Febreze everywhere. Then I frantically shoved through the clothes in my closet, looking for my white sundress. Thank God it was still there, near the back of my closet.

“Zephyr?” Aiden’s mother called. The guards must have let her inside. “Can I come up?”

Oh my God, I thought, as I looked down at myself in horror, I’m still in my pajamas. I threw on the first dress I found, which turned out to be a smock dress that I had last worn when we were painting my bedroom.  There was paint splattered all over it, but there was no time to change again.

“Come on up Lucy,” I called, in a voice I hoped sounded chipper. Lucy marched up the stairs and paused in the hallway when she saw me. “Oh!” She cried in surprised delight, “Aiden never mentioned that you were an artist too.”

 “Oh no, I’m not an artist-” I began.

“Pshaw, darling, why is it that artists never admit to being artists? Really, your all so secretive about your work.” she peered nosily into my room, as though I would have half-finished canvases lining the walls. “Well,” she sighed, “whenever you feel like you can share your work with me I would love to see it.” She came into my room and sat on my bed before looking over at the window.

“What is that ghastly monstrosity?!” she demanded upon seeing it. “Really darling why are you still living in this… quaint little place? I have at least one extra house you could easily move to that would be much more comfortable for someone befitting your station.”

I looked over at the plate, then back at Lucy. “THAT monstrosity is Aiden’s idea of a security feature,” I said dryly. She paused as she thought about it, then patted the bed next to her, indicating that I should sit. I hesitantly sat down. “It must be hard to move away from everything that you have known your whole life. I’m sure you find the prospect of leaving here to be jarring and perhaps even unnecessary.” I was surprised by her empathy, even if she didn’t understand the whole picture. “I view you as my own child now, Zephyr. As such, my job is to make your life together with my son as happy and wonderful as possible. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help ease this transition.” She took my hand in hers and her hand was surprisingly strong and warm. Must be a fire elementalist thing, I thought distractedly.

“Now” she said, letting go of my hand and clapping hers together. “Lets see this dress you have picked out.” I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go over very well. I took it out and held it up. She was silent for a bit and I was scared to meet her eyes. “Well.” She said finally, “that’s not quite what I was expecting.”