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

at doing pretty much anything by themselves. Apparently, I needed a posse of professionals in order to look my very best. Whatever. Lucille was paying for it, and I had dedicated the whole day to doing obligatory nonsense.

I had never seen an elemental wedding, and as it turns out, it was for good reason. No one was allowed to be present besides for the mating couple and their officiant. Both Aiden and I were given explicit instructions for how to proceed. Aiden seemed somewhat familiar with the protocols, but I suppose I should have expected that, with him having grown up in the society.

As was apparently customary for elementals, Aiden and I approached each other, alone, from opposite ends of a circular room. The circular room represented the planet, the opposite ends represented the difference in our elements, and we walked alone to show there was no outside coercion to our union. Hah, what a joke.

We met in the middle by the marriage marker and turned to face the priest. The priest had us interlock our hands together, and he bound them at our wrists with a strong cord. He removed a ceremonial knife from his robes and moved to cut us where our hands intertwined. The knife hovered above our hands as though he was hesitating. Just before he made the cut, he looked intently at Aiden and commanded,  “do not let go.” He quickly made a superficial slice between our index fingers and our thumbs. Aiden grasped my hand in a viselike grip. I watched my blood as it trickled towards Aiden’s, as though pulled by a magnetic force.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” He said, right as our blood intermingled. I felt a blast of pure unadulterated fire enter my veins through our interlocked hands. OH MY GOD, THE HEAT. It was too much to bear! It surged quickly through me, from the tips of my hair follicles to the pads and soles of my feet. I’m not going to make it! I thought to myself, no longer sure where my body ended and Aiden's began. I felt my own element build up and release, triggered by my fight-or-flight response.

My element howled around me, it’s cooling power channeling through me until I felt it leave the tips of my fingers and enter Aiden’s hand. I felt his grip on me tighten in response. The heat slowly subsided. And I took deep gulps of clear fresh air. I blinked the tears from my eyes and the room came back into focus. I looked over at Aiden. He was hunched over, breathing heavily, one hand on his knee. The other hand still holding mine in a death grip. He turned to look at me, and seemed to try to smile, but it came out looking more like a weak grimace.

The priest resumed speaking as though nothing had occurred. Maybe from the outside it appeared nothing had. It was hard to say with no witnesses besides for the priest.

“You have completed the ceremony,” the priest intoned. “You have melded your elements as one. So too shall you be forevermore.” he said it as though reading from a scripture. Weird. Maybe there was some sort of sacred elemental text that I didn’t know about. I made a distracted note to myself to look into it.

After a brief recovery period, we left the circular room, and walked down the main hall to join the guests in the reception area. My whole body felt strange, like it was attached to a live wire. My legs felt like jelly, but somehow they kept me upright. Aiden was still holding my hand. I was too shocked from the ceremony to remove it from mine. I wasn’t even sure I could let go at this point, even if he wanted me to.

We approached the large, gilded doors that led to the ballroom. Aiden stopped with his hand on the handle and turned to me saying, “Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

He pushed the door open, and we walked in. We were at the top of a wide ornate staircase that led down to the main room. There was noise, lots of noise. We were announced to the room, and immediately a hush fell over the crowd. I felt awkward and intimidated, and still in a state of shock from the ceremony. What seemed like thousands of eyes looked back at us from below, and most of them did not seem friendly.

As I had expected, there was a large number of people in attendance. The who’s who of the elementalist elite had all made an appearance, along with other important international figures. As we began descending the staircase, I prayed that my legs would hold out a little longer, and I wouldn't fall. We made it down the last stair and music began to play to initiate the first dance. Well shit, I had completely forgotten about the first dance. Thank God it was a slow song, and all I had to do was cling and sway.

Aiden leaned down and put his mouth next to my ear. “You won’t regret this,” he said. “I know you’re unhappy with me right now, but once you get accustomed to Elementalist society, you will see that the choices that I made were not only beneficial, but necessary for both of us.”

I turned, so that we were face to face. It was time to clear the air, and make my peace. “Aiden, you may be controlling and arrogant, but I know you are also genuinely kind and generous. I owe you an apology for sparking animosity between us.” He gave me a strange look, “you think I’m kind? You want to apologize?” he asked in confusion, searching my eyes. “Wait a second, are you dying?” “no silly,” I said, smirking up at him, “stop worrying. Lets just enjoy this dance”. “Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?” He asked in a slightly suspicious tone. I leaned in and gave him