Read elemental 07 - lonely hunger for Free Online

be considered cruel and unusual punishment; though torture itself was frowned upon by the community, Dylan thought that just being in the cells alone, exposed to the vibrations of such powerful magic, was torture on its own. 
    The three of them approached the front desk, where a water elemental was seated, watching the door and the security feeds with equal attention. He looked up at the three of them with only the slightest of surprise on his face. “Aira,” he said, his eyes widening. “I wasn’t told to expect you.” The man frowned slightly, looking down at the papers on his desk. Aira smiled and Dylan could sense—indirectly—the force of her charm, her persuasive ability radiating out of her and towards the man in front of them. She wouldn’t resort to subverting his will right away, but Dylan had noticed that as Aira matured in her fully-fledged powers, the persuasion tended to flow from her whenever she spoke to anyone she wasn’t already connected with.
    “It’s a sort of last-minute thing,” she explained. “I need to question one of the prisoners here about an ongoing case.” The man briefly hesitated.
    “Which prisoner do you need access to, Aira?” It still hadn’t ceased to amuse Dylan that upon ascending to her rule of her element, Aira had gone from being a notorious figure to a celebrity of sorts—of course, everyone in the elemental community knew the three rulers. He remembered Leigh’s remarks about his brother and his new sister-in-law being the “royal couple.” He wondered—he would have to ask Aiden later—whether the notoriety had extended to him, and how Aiden felt about it.
    “I need to speak with Oriel Peters,” Aira said firmly, and Dylan felt her reaching out with the first tendrils of her active persuasive ability. The man’s dark eyes went dreamy for a moment.
    “Oriel Peters is not to be disturbed,” he said, though his voice was full of doubt. “By order of her grandfather, she’s supposed to be left in her cell.” 
    Aira shrugged.
    “I mean, I suppose we can pit two rulers against each other, but the elders have put me on the trail of a group of earth and fire elementals who were responsible for killing five air elementals and injuring many more.” Dylan glanced away from a moment as he felt Aira’s persuasive ability intensifying, her energy cracking in the air around them, reaching out to push at the other man’s mind. “Let me speak with Oriel Peters.” The man hesitated only a moment longer as the compulsion came over him. 
    “She’s in Room 548,” the man said almost absently. Dylan suppressed the snort that threatened to disturb the subtle spell that Aira had woven around the man in an instant. Dylan wondered just how the process would go; Aiden would be just as incapacitated as Oriel was by the water energy vibrating around them in the cell. Aira and he would be capable of still exercising their abilities—Dylan even more so than Aira, with the strengthening influence of the water-aligned materials.
    They strode quickly through the halls of the holding facility. “What are we going to do about Aiden?” Dylan asked quietly as they made their way to Oriel’s cell. Aira paused—but only for a moment. 
    “We will have to get through it as best as we can,” she said, glancing at Aiden with a flicker of concern. “You should be able to at least ask her questions, right?” Aiden licked his lips and then nodded. Dylan wondered just how capable his brother would be.
    They came to the room and stopped outside of it. “Dylan, you’re going to be the point person in this,” Aira said lowly. Dylan could feel the water-aligned energy flowing on the other side of the door, almost calling to him, almost intoxicating. He wondered just how much stronger his abilities would be in the room. Aira took a deep breath and turned the key in the door, slipping it back into her pocket in an instant. She turned the knob and Dylan felt the rush of