largest in the world,” Ra explained. "If it stops generating power, there are going to be millions without heat.”
“Is it weird that I find your spouting of knowledge hot?” Shelly asked him.
Ra smirked at her. “Spouting of knowledge?”
Shelly shrugged. “My brain goes on the fritz when you get me all hot and bothered. I stop making sense.”
Tara wanted to point out that Shelly rarely made sense anyway, but she managed to keep her comment to herself.
“What are the professors going to tell the people running this plant?” Gabby asked.
“I’ve simply told them we’ve been sent by the US government to assist and that we have a heating source that will thaw the water and the engines of the plant,” Professor Frost said as she came striding down the long metal bridge where they waited. “I’ll let the pixies handle the rest. They have a way of making humans see what they want them to.”
“Did they buy that?” Shelly asked. “The government part?”
Frost shrugged. “They’re desperate. I think they would buy just about anything at the moment if it means there is a chance that this plant will keep working. But again, pixies. They’re not just for dust.”
Shelly snorted. “Pixie dust, get it?” She shook her head as she glanced at Tara. Tara smiled back. Professor Frost was proving to be quite hilarious.
“The others have already begun spreading out around the area. It’s a huge amount of space to cover,” Frost said. “There are eight fire elementalists, and we’ve managed to get some fire elementals to come in to help.”
“Salamanders?” Shelly asked, her eyes wide with eagerness.
“Yes,” Frost answered without pausing. “We have six soul-bonded couples. They will make our success possible.”
Shelly grinned. “Because we kick ass.”
Tara sighed. “You’ve never even used your newfound powers, Shell. How do you know you kick ass?”
“I can feel it in my bones. I’m a lean, mean fire-making machine.” Shelly pulled out of Ra’s arms and jumped around, punching her arms out as if she were Rocky about to go twelve rounds with that big Russian dude.
“Does she ever stop?” Professor Frost asked.
“Do pigs fly?” Tara asked.
“We can all hope that one day they might,” Elias said.
Tara held up her hand and he high fived it. She laughed. “Good one.”
“Bestie,” Shelly sang. “You’re supposed to defend me, not join in the cajoling.”
“Meh, the world might end any second,” Tara pointed out. “I think I’ve earned the right to cajole you.”
“Are you two even using that word correctly?” Gabby asked.
“Probably not,” Shelly and Tara said at the same time.
“Well, at least you own your ignorance,” Gabby said with a tip of her head.
“If you three are done,” Frost said with pursed lips, “can we please get on with our task?”
“Absolutely,” Shelly said. “Lead the way, fearless leader.”
Frost shook her head and then turned, walking back the way she’d come. They all started to follow her, and Tara felt as if they were marching toward their doom.
“We’re going to be fine,” Elias said, obviously having picked up on her anxiety through their bond.
“I feel like a popsicle, Shelly’s acting like a kid about to get her first ice cream cone, and Gabby looks like she’s going to have an emotional breakdown at any moment. Yet we’re supposed to keep this plant from shutting down. Forgive me if I don’t feel confident in our abilities to follow through on our task.”
Elias sighed. “Okay. When you put it like that, it sounds quite ominous. So, how about you not put it like that?”
Tara grinned up at him. “You mean you want me to look at the glass like its half full instead of like it’s frozen?”
“Exactly,” he said, tapping her on her cold nose.
“Suck it, dirt boy. I’m not a glass-not-frozen kind of girl.”
“She’s really not,” Shelly called out from just in front of them. “She’s pretty much a ‘the sky is falling and we’re all going to die’ kind of girl.”
“I’m with Tara,” Gabby said, raising her hand. “We’re totally going to get our asses handed to us by this next ice age.”
They rounded a corner of the bridge, and Zuri came into view.
“Nobody is getting their ass handed to them,” Zuri said dryly. “Just do what you're told and everything will be fine.”
“Because that’s what always happens when everyone does their job.” Shelly sighed.
“Notice how the males in your group don’t talk?” Zuri pointed out. “It’s because they’re focused on what they have to do. Maybe you vagina carriers should try it.”