Page 2 of Luna

Luna grinned and raised her hand to the full moon. “I will hold back the high tide. Without the water, Kole will be weaker and cannot flee into the Kelvinian sector.”

By morning, the Thornican people and the king would celebrate their triumphant return.

Chapter Two

KOLE

Kole pumped his legs, running faster. Vision proved unreliable as he transversed the forbidden zone’s hollowed ruins. Jagged lava stones cut into his flesh, leaving a bloody path for the two wind elementals in pursuit, but he thought only of the females he’d made vulnerable with his presence. His error in venturing too close might cost Luna and her siblings their freedom. Lunging across a molten river of liquified rock, steam poured through the earth’s opening, overheating his quivering muscles. The rising heat evaporated the precious water vapor he needed to fend off the males tracking him. He stumbled but held his footing. Kelvinia’s icelands lay beyond the fiery walls of the Nepherian sector. His best hope of survival would be to reach the water. As the boots pounding the earth grew louder, a howling wind bit at his back. Kole prayed to the goddess for the female.

He had scented Luna at the edge of the forbidden zone, so had the rogue males. Instead of approaching the female, Kole spun on his heels, leading the males away from her location. But now her scent grew stronger.

The brave and foolish female had pursued him deep into the unpatrolled sector. Now, with a member of the royal earth elemental family in danger, he wondered why he’d surrendered to his need to see Luna, violating the law... again. The Elemis Council, formed to negotiate shared governance and resources for the survival of all, had outlawed inter-elemental mating. It was a lofty goal aimed at limiting any race from controlling more than one elemental power. As such, the stipulation was non-negotiable. For hundreds of years, it seemed a reasonable concession until the strongest males in the ice nation of Kelvinia, his homeland, grew too cold to mate with females but for the briefest of time. They could not carry a male’s seedling to term. Eventually, the Kelvinian females were unable to bear a warrior’s touch without sustaining ice burns.

Then his brother, the coldest of all the ice warriors and defender of the realm, found Cindra, a Nepherian fire elemental, fleeing a mining camp where she’d been ill-treated. The female not only craved his touch, but she also welcomed his cold as a counterbalance to her raging fire. In an attempt to recapture the powerful fire elemental, a contingent of Nepherian males, under the guise of diplomacy, had attacked Kelvinia. None survived. Now, Cindra lived among his people, the lady of Ocean Crest, his brother’s private home on the glacier shore. Kole did not fault his brother for claiming a female outside of their race. He envied him.

With every turn, the waters that could save his life, evaded reach.

“Come out. Come out wherever you are,” Kole called the males following him. He would dispatch them before the female arrived. Then he would introduce himself. The sound of gravel underfoot drew his attention. A foul wind swooped in, surrounding Kole.

“We are here, water boy.” Two wind elementals emerged from a cave ruin, evil grins spreading across their dirty skin. As a race, wind prevailers stuck close to the earth and fire sectors. The naturally occurring dust, soil, and flames in those territories served as kindling to their mischief. Many of the biochemical weapons deployed during the third World War had altered the genetic code of the remaining humans. Each of the four races contained varying degrees of elemental control over the earth, wind, fire, and water. One elemental race would not possess the natural resources to survive without the assistance of the other three. The need to coexist to ensure their survival did not preclude the rise of predators, like these two, within the species.

Chest heaving from exertion, Kole discarded his leather ration’s sack and drew his ice sword from the scabbard strapped to his back. “I’ve been wanting to kill someone. Guess two corrupt wind bags will do.”

“Hear that, Cyclone?”

“Yeah, Gust,” a bulky male with deep craters in his skin said, pulling a dehydration gun from his back. Oh, this was not good. Kole was still too far away from the great waters with low internal levels to form his ice weapons.

The female’s scent lifted on the wind, a song he knew by memory. She was here. He had hoped to win her heart, but it seemed the fates had chosen another destiny for him.

Inhaling, he stilled at her night-blooming jasmine scent, before her curvy form came into view. She was behind the rogue males, and he prayed to the goddess that she kept her presence hidden. Wide midnight eyes met his the second the first heat ray penetrated his skin. In his weakened state it wouldn’t take long before evaporation seized his muscles and left him to die an agonizing death.

Gust’s brows furrowed. “Why isn’t he fighting back?”

Simple, Kole wanted all their attention to have been on him. He had prayed for the goddess to gift him a female, fierce and strong, like his sister-through-mating. A full season, known as one year in the old world, passed with his plea unanswered. Resigned, he focused on his duties, protecting the Kelvinian waterways and keeping the forbidden zone near their sector free of those who would encroach on their land. Then it happened. During a night patrol, a siren’s song beckoned him to the waters flowing from Thornica.

Not a fire elemental, yet a comely female swam alone.