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what I was able to find out, Hestia has a bunch of people under her,” Leigh said. “Not sure what Aidan’s status is.”
    “Aidan’s grabbed some fire-aligned followers; most of them aren’t all that strong, but together they can be pretty major in terms of nuisance.” Aiden’s lips twisted and Dylan saw the flicker of uncertainty on his older brother’s features. “Seraphina… well, we’ll deal with her when we get that far.”
    “I still think she’s going to try and bust Oriel out,” Aira said. “It makes too much sense not to do.”
    “Would she even be able to do that?” Dylan glanced at Aira in surprise. “I mean, you can talk your way in, but it’s not like just anyone can.” Aira pressed her lips together firmly. 
    “There are still some idiots among my element who think they can make things right by overthrowing me. They want someone else to be the ruler of the element.” Aira took a long drink of her beer. “I kind of want them to spend as long a time as possible in the cells if we can catch them.”
    “So what’s our plan of attack?” Leigh asked, spinning the base of her beer on the countertop. 
    “They’re hiding out in the mountains. We have some backup from a few bounty hunters I’ve been able to get in touch with, but this is mostly us.” Aiden picked at the label on his bottle and Dylan could feel the anxiety radiating from his older brother. “It’s not a big compound, but two of the most important members of the organization are in it. Neither Aidan nor Hestia is going to go down easily. I expect they’ll be much more prepared than the first group.”
    “I know Hestia pretty well,” Leigh said. Dylan raised an eyebrow; she hadn’t mentioned that to him. “She almost joined my family—then backed off of the last moment.” 
    “You hadn’t mentioned that,” Aira said, glancing at Dylan. Dylan shrugged. He wondered—not for the first time—if he really knew what he was getting into with the woman he had partially bonded with. Maybe Aira had had a point in her comment about how short a time he had known her. It was hard to imagine that it had only been about two weeks—less than a month— and that he had invested himself in her so fully.
    “It wasn’t relevant until I was free to start asking questions,” Leigh pointed out. “I’m not friends with her or anything—I didn’t even really want her to marry my brother. But I know her pretty well after all that mess. She’s unstable.”
    “Well,” Dylan said wryly, “deciding to attack a bunch of people to overthrow an elemental ruler would point to that.” 
    Leigh shook her head. “No, seriously unstable. She was her parents’ pet growing up, so they never taught her any discipline. She doesn’t know how to manage her energy properly.”
    “That gives her a vested interest in keeping Earth as the prime focus of power in the council,” Aiden said, taking another pull of his beer. “With Maralah calling all the shots, she keeps under the radar, maybe doesn’t go on trial.”
    “Overshot that one, didn’t she?” Aira smiled wryly. Dylan chuckled.
    “So she’s going to be a difficult opponent, but nothing we aren’t used to.” Dylan considered the situation. He and Aiden had tracked unstable elementals before—and so had Aira, once she had gained her title. 
    “It’s more the people she has under her that are going to be the problem,” Leigh said. She bit her bottom lip. “My brother tells me she’s got powerful backing—money, resources. Aidan’s the stronger elemental, but without Hestia he’s dead in the water—no one wants to work with him.” “Aidan’s always been kind of an asshole,” Aiden agreed. “I’d be more concerned if he’d gone through with his family’s proposal to mate him to Seraphina, but Connor came out against it. I think he wanted Aidan for Oriel, though they can’t stand each other.”
    “Oriel’s into Seraphina, isn’t she?” Aira smiled slightly.