Page 1 of Luna

Chapter One

LUNA

Luna, princess of theearth elementals, drew closer to her prey. She tracked a formidable enemy. Kole of Kelvinia, captain of the ice warriors, had frozen half of their fertile land and taunted her people by outmaneuvering Thornica’s security measures. Old world profanity was beneath her, but still, she cursed his name.

Crouched low, Luna harnessed the moon’s gravitational pull on the earth. A tingle started beneath her skin as she channeled her powers. Familiar warmth filled her now glowing digits. Using the light to navigate the darkness, she examined the trampled underbrush along the forest border between their lands and the forbidden zone. Unlike the sectors belonging to the three other elemental races, their home, with its large parcels of towering trees and its swaying blades of emerald grass, most resembled a bygone era. Boot prints with deep overlapping treads branded the tender vegetation. Luna frowned. Kole was not alone.

“This way,” she whispered against the wind to her sisters. “They are headed to the ocean.” Sahara and Palma served as backup, their faces hidden beneath royal blue cloaks, legs clad in fitted cloth coverings usually reserved for males.

Luna blamed Kole’s brother, Celso, that females had to travel in disguise for their personal safety. The firstborn son had broken the inter-elemental treaty agreement by mating outside of his kind. The former head of the ice nation’s royal guard had chosen a fire elemental as his mated female.

Rumors of the forbidden pair had spread faster than a summer tide, enticing males to disregard the sacred laws. Many lobbied against arranged matings. Some rogues went as far as to kidnap weaker females. Again, the Kelvinians’ recklessness had infected their well-ordered society with the twenty-first century upheaval. Instead of honoring three-hundred years of tradition, ice warriors had disobeyed the Elemis Council for the sake of what... choosing a love match? It was unthinkable. For a member of a royal family to put personal desire above the people—it was criminal.

Who Luna mated mattered not. The King and Queen had selected a strong male to father her offspring... she hoped. Ambassador Clod was a trusted elemental advisor to the council and an honorable male of her kind. That would have to be enough. Whenever an errant thought about his selfish ambition and heavy-handed leadership led her to believe otherwise, she looked to her mother’s example. She would be a logical and thoughtful leader when Clod could not. They would balance each other’s weaknesses.

“We draw near to danger, Luna.” The note of warning made Sahara’s voice tremble. “Let us return to the safety of our brothers.”

Sahara, with her light brown skin, looked like their mother and possessed the power to shift and move the soil at will. Though, most times she was too anxious to use her powers in self-defense. Luna didn’t want her sister harmed. When she suspected a high probability of a physical altercation, she did her best to send Sahara in the opposite direction.

“Sari is right. Clay and Moss will expect our travels to take us south by sunrise,” Palma called, her lean frame emerged from a leafy camouflage, the tree limbs moving aside to clear a path in obedience to her command. Darker in color and mood, Palma’s height matched that of many males of their race.

Their father, King Turf, had enlisted his royal offspring to hunt down all culprits trespassing in the wasteland separating the four elemental territories and divest them of their heads. Patrolling the forbidden zone had become a necessity for all elementals—earth, wind, fire, and water. Radiation fallout had decreased in the last century. More people wanted to spread to unsettled lands, making illegal acquisitions and encroachment a growing problem.

“You want to pursue Kole because he is handsome, like the actor of Aquaman,” Palma teased. “What will Clod think if he discovers you delayed our return for your ice warrior? He is hungry to be our next king.”

Luna shot up to her full height, glaring at her kin. “Watch your words, young Palma,” she snapped, the words' sharp edge cutting away the joviality. Her responsibilities to the sector took precedence over trivial matters like—nourishment, warm sleep pods, the lack of Clod’s attraction to her, or Kole’s hard male body. Leadership did not require love. To lead was a sacrifice.

Chagrinned, two pairs of eyes, pure as onyx stone looked away.

“Aquaman,” Sahara huffed, shaking her head, “your love of old earth vids will cause you unwanted trouble.”

“Sorry,” Palma muttered more to the ground than Luna.

“Our brothers will understand the delay in our return,” Luna assured her closest allies. The male her parents had chosen as her mate, well. “I will deal with Clod in due time. As for Kole, this is the closest he has ventured to Thornica in three moons. We must strike tonight, sisters.”

Sahara took a step forward. “You saw a male but for a second, Luna. How can you be sure it is he that we seek?”

Inhaling, Luna tried to calm the growing agitation coursing through her at their hesitation. Call it female instinct, but she had to find Kole. She knew the male’s scent. It had been imprinted on her nose the first time she’d encountered him swimming in her hidden lagoon deep in the northland forests. His eyes, the color of a summer sky, had held her spellbound. An action she regretted when his wintery chill left her naked and paralyzed on frozen ground. But for a second... she’d felt a connection... a shared longing... no, it was a fool’s oasis she best erase.

“It is him,” she said, lowering her head. No way did she want her sisters to witness the heated flush that she felt spreading beneath her skin. There was a silent pause while she waited for their answer.

Palma, having found her courage once more, met Luna’s gaze. “You saw more than one set of footprints. What if the others are with him?”

“If you two want to turn back, do as you wish, but,” she paused, “which of you will be first to tell our father of our failure, yet again?” she questioned, the reality of the situation waiting for them at home hitting its mark.

Sahara extended her hand towards the ground. “Fine. Let us get this done.” Before their eyes the sand loss it dips and valleys better to avoid a tumble this close to circling the one they hunted.

Luna inhaled in relief. “I do not scent more of his kin. We cannot allow him to reach the Niagara, beyond the Old York ruins.”

No one dare breech the Kelvinia’s northern icelands and survive the frigid temperatures. Rumors had reached Thornica of Cindra’s powers, the fire elemental’s ability to bare the Kelvinian heir apparent’s touch. With Luna’s ability to light the darkness, she imagined her powers could protect her from an ice warrior with Kole’s strength, but she had yet to test her theory. Not that she would...

She’d need not bother with irrelevant hypotheticals. Royal leaders had grand issues to remedy. There were known cases of elemental people evolving, manifesting new abilities and powers none could explain. The Elemis Council had plans in the works to discuss another treaty. Luna hoped the leaders would put an end to the folly of elementals warring to select a mate. Fools.

“Then let us go claim his head,” Palma grinned, placing her hand against a giant oak. The tree top bowed at her feet, an infantile twig against the wind. Like the young princess she was, her sister stepped upon the trunk with a flowy grace she hadn’t mastered. “I will take to the trees. He will not escape to the south.”

“I will light your path,” Luna said. Concentrating, she jacked up her powers. The tingle started in her hands and then spread, warming her as more light began to pour from her. Luna pulled two strands of hair from her head, each one aglow. She bound the light string to each sister’s wrists. “Sahara, form a ridge between the North Americas and Canada.”

Luna turned to leave, but Sahara stopped her. “That will take a lot of time. What will you do, sister?”