Free Nine Lives of an Urban Panther by Amanda Arista

energy I’d sent him as Chaz dropped me off.
    When Delmont had told me about the others in the city, I realized all the lore I knew on Wanderers had to do with shifters and fey. I knew the others existed, had felt their power or been at the angry end of it at some point, but I didn’t know about the rest of my universe.
    Suddenly, that seemed very dangerous.
    Which was why I sat across the library table from Nash. “I need everything on elementals and vampires and witches.”
    Nash was ready. He looked at home among the stacks of books that flanked him on the table. With only the minute and a half warning I’d given him, he still managed to have bright sticky notes stuck into the pages of the volumes.
    He smiled, like he’d been waiting his whole life to tell someone everything he knew. “Elementals, even though they are the closest to the shifters, are the polar opposite. The elementals’ magic can only control one element. The element isn’t passed down, just the power. But like us, it takes in some and not in others.”
    â€œSo you could have a mom water elemental and a father wind elemental and what? Get a baby tornado?”
    Nash reached for a book and flipped it open to some crazy-looking diagram. “Not exactly. The offspring would be doubly powerful, but ultimately would only be in control of one element.”
    It was a pretty picture, but I was a little slow when it came to translating what I assumed was Latin. “So a family unit might have all four elements. Then how do they choose their leaders?”
    â€œThe elementals choose the strongest of the elements to lead them.”
    â€œWhoever can whip up the best firestorm?”
    â€œMore like who can squelch the other contenders.”
    I winced. I didn’t want to be squelched.
    â€œDo we know anything about their way of doing things? Do they brush each other?” I didn’t know if I wanted to send my animal power out into a burning ring of fire, but weirder things had happened.
    Nash shook his head. “I know they don’t commune like we do but they have their own set of rules. I think you have to have all four elements to even have a Kiln. I tried to find something written down, but elemental manuscripts don’t survive well.”
    â€œCan’t weather the ages?” I smirked.
    Nash’s dimples flashed for only a moment before getting back to business. I tried to keep the smart-aleck remarks to a minimum so he could do his thing.
    â€œWhat do you know of Inez Walker?”
    His eyebrows jumped. “She’s who they chose as their Akasha?”
    I frowned. “Do you think she was one of the ones Carlisle would have needed to defeat to take over the Pride?” I asked. It was a harsh question. Carlisle had systematically killed or conquered everyone else in the Pride before our showdown.
    Nash shook his head. “He wouldn’t have seen her as a threat. She isn’t a legacy.”
    â€œWhat’s does that mean?”
    Nash licked his thin lips again. I was thinking that I needed to get the boy a water and some lip balm. “She wasn’t born with a legacy. Her parents weren’t Wanderers.”
    I was just about to point out that Tucker’s parents weren’t Wanderers, but I had a feeling it was more than that. When I didn’t say anything, Nash filled in the blanks. He looked down at his long fingers and rubbed them together. “The fire chose her.”
    â€œLike the earth gave her magic?”
    â€œIt’s been recorded a few times. The Mother chooses her children , I think the phrase is.”
    â€œLike the Mother who created the Wanderers?”
    Nash nodded. “There are several viewpoints about what her name actually is, but the all-seeing, all-powerful who created the Wanderers as harbingers of the earth chose Inez to harness the fire. The Mother has a plan for us all.”
    â€œOh.” And I thought I was the only