Ra had constructed out of blankets he had brought in his pack.
She shivered and Ra snagged her around the waist and pulled her tightly to him. He tugged the blankets up around them until they were just under her chin.
“It’s getting colder,” Shelly said as she attempted to get closer. Ra was shirtless, and the heat of his skin was quickly enveloping her, warming her much faster than the blanket alone.
“I’ll keep you warm,” he promised, and she swore she could feel the temperature under the blanket increase.
“Do you have some sort of internal thermostat?” Shelly asked as she grinned to herself, picturing Ra adjusting a temperature gauge in his mind.
“Something like that.” His deep voice rumbled in his chest against her back. “I just want to warm up, and I do.”
“Can I do that? Now that I’m all fiery?”
She felt his silent laughter. “You were all fiery before Aviur made you an elementalist.”
“Uh, yeah, I was. I went to hell. I’m pretty sure that makes me fiery as hell.” She paused and then snorted. “Get it? Fiery as hell? Because I was in hell.”
“I think you’re tired, beloved. You’re getting goofier than usual, and that’s saying something.”
“I’m hilarious. My hell jokes are even funnier than if I’d never been to hell,” Shelly said. “But I am tired.” Shelly let her mind wander back to the remainder of their day after they left her parents’ house. She and Ra had been delivered to their team, then they’d been taken to a power plant in California.
Professor Briggs from Hydro Academy had met with some of the workers at the power station and somehow convinced them that Shelly and the others were there to help keep the plant running in the event that the plummeting temperatures caused an issue.
The first thing Shelly had noticed when she’d seen the people at the power station was that they were very confused about the dropping temperatures. It was May… or June? Hell, she didn’t even know anymore. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time. But she did know it wasn’t supposed to be thirty degrees in California in either of those months.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Ra asked. “I can practically feel your wheels turning.”
“Is that because of our bond thingy?”
“It’s a bond, Mery. Not a bond thingy.”
“Bond thingy is the technical term. Don't argue. You won’t win,” she teased.
“I’m too tired to argue so I’ll give you this one. Will you please tell me what you are thinking about?” His hand rested against her stomach.
Shelly liked how secure he made her feel. His physical presence gave the emotional support she needed to voice her concerns.
“I guess I’m just wondering how we are going to keep power plants all over the world running,” she said, expressing the worry that had begun growing the minute Professor Briggs had explained why it was so important they keep the power stations from freezing.
“We aren’t the only elementalists helping,” Ra said. “There are others, and elementals as well. Even more are being contacted.”
“But an actual fire elemental can’t exactly walk up to a power plant employee and be like, ‘Hey, I need to warm your plant up because we’re about to be plunged into an ice age.’ How can they help?”
Ra chuckled. “No, they can’t walk up to a human, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help. Elementals have been around since the beginning of time, beloved. They know how to stay hidden.”
Shelly’s curiosity outweighed her fears as she listened to him talk about the elementals. “So what fire elementals are there besides dragons?” she asked. “I mean those are obvious, but what about the less obvious?”
“Besides dragons,” Ra began, “the other one you might have heard of is the salamander.”
“Like the lizard?” Shelly asked.
“Yes and no.”
“It can’t be both, Ra. Pick an answer,” she said, though it sounded a little distorted since she began yawning in the middle of her response.
“It can be both, stubborn female,” he said as he nipped her shoulder with his teeth. “The fire salamander can look like a lizard, or it can look like fire.”
“Like an actual flame?” Shelly asked.
“Yes. And when it looks like the flame, it is hot like the flame as well. They can radiate heat much like a heater.”
“Much like a pharaoh I know, too.” Shelly snickered.
“The pharaoh you know is happy to give you a different kind of heat if you are not tired enough to fall asleep,” he said, his voice