“You are not the only royal standing here. I have generations upon generations of royal Egyptian blood flowing through my veins. I have the power of pharaohs pouring through me, and you think you can stop me?”
“Can’t he?” Gabby whispered to Liam. “Can’t the royal fire king elemental stop a freaking fire elementalist student?”
When Liam didn’t answer right away, Gabby turned to look at him.
“Well,” he said, drawing the word out, “technically, yes, absolutely. But Ra, well, he’s not your everyday normal student or even your everyday exceptional student. Ra is in a league of his own.”
There was a brilliant flash of light, and when Gabby turned back to look at the fire elementalist, she saw light blazing from his eyes and his body engulfed in flames. He spoke in an ancient-sounding language, and the power around him just seemed to grow.
The other royals circled around him. Several tried calling out, but he ignored them and kept his focus on who he deemed to be the biggest threat: Aviur.
“You cannot go like this,” Aviur said. “You will not win.”
“She is my soulmate,” Ra said, returning to a language Gabby understood. “No one will tell me when or how I can save her.”
“Ra,” Elias spoke up as he grabbed Tara’s hand and jogged closer to his friend. Liam did the same, pulling Gabby along with him. “Let us make a plan. Rushing in, it’s not your way, man.”
Ra’s blazing eyes snapped to Elias. “And if it were your female? Would you stand around, waiting for others to tell you when you could go for her?”
Elias’s jaw clenched.
Ra turned to Liam. “What about her? Would you let her be trapped in hell with that monster for even a second longer than you had to?”
Gabby knew that neither of them would answer him because they could understand where he was coming from, and they wouldn’t lie to him, not their best friend whom they considered a brother.
“He’s not going to hurt her,” Aviur pointed out.
“Bloody hell,” Elias spat.
Liam shook his head. “Wrong thing to say, fire king.”
Ra chuckled, but it was utterly without humor and so sinister that it sent a chill down Gabby’s spine. “No, he’s just going to force her to mate with him and bind her to hell for all eternity. It will be a walk in the park for her, no doubt. And being separated from her soul mate won’t be painful at all either.”
“Damn,” Liam muttered. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“What?” Gabby asked.
“Their bond is different. She can’t live without his soul and vice versa. It’s going to be very painful for them to be apart.”
“Why?” Gabby asked.
It wasn’t Liam who answered. Ra turned those freaky eyes on her. “Because being separated like this will cause us both to die, slowly. We will wither away without our joined soul being whole.” He paused and Gabby sensed he wasn’t finished speaking. Everyone around them seemed to be holding their breath, waiting to see what the pharaoh would do. “Imagine someone trying to dig out your heart with a spoon, starting at your completely unblemished flesh.”
The air whooshed out of Gabby as if she’d been kicked in the gut. “Damn.”
Ra’s lips turned up into a feral grin. “I am, for all eternity, as is my mate. Unless they let me go get her.”
“We need Aston,” Liam said, his eyes focused on Elias.
Elias nodded. “We do, but he needs saving too.”
“Why Aston?” Tara asked.
“He’s the only one who can reason with Ra when he gets an idea in his head that he won’t let go of.”
Their attention turned back to the fire king as he threw out his hand, and a whip made from fire wrapped around Ra. The whip pulled tight, and Gabby winced as she watched it scorch Ra’s flesh.
“What are you doing?” Elias yelled at Aviur.
“I have to bind him,” Aviur answered. “He cannot be allowed to enter the underworld.”
“You can’t just tie him up like a freaking animal,” Tara snapped as they all watched Ra roar in rage.
“He’s behaving like an animal. I’m not going to leave him tied up,” Aviur growled back at her. “I’m holding him still so my magic can burn through his and leave runes on his skin that will keep him in the human realm.”
They watched as Ra struggled against the fire king’s hold. Aviur spoke in the elemental language. With every word, the whip uncoiled one layer at a time and, in its wake, left symbols burned into Ra’s flesh. They