Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
“I know.” I returned to stacking wood. Once I had a passable pyramid, I glanced back at the wolves watching us from beneath their bush. “If I summon the fire’s flames, will they be scared like they were in the cave?”
He pressed his fingertips into the earth for balance as he remained on his haunches. “They can leave if they want.” He studied my hands intently. “Do it.”
I nodded and settled on my knees. With a final look at the stern-faced male who made my heart trip and tumble, I closed my eyes and cupped my hand.
I pictured a single word.
Burn.
It happened faster than a heartbeat. The flash of light in my blood. The tickle of warmth in my palm. I opened my eyes to find a cheery flame.
A scuffling sounded behind us as the wolves shifted. They sniffed the air but didn’t leave, growling quietly as I encouraged the flame to grow. Bringing it toward the wood, I tried to figure out how to transfer the fire to the sticks.
I frowned as I touched the wood, but no flames caught.
They didn’t want to leave my skin.
I tried again, pressing my palm against the kindling, urging the tiny fire into a bigger entity. Another flash through my veins. Heat snaked up my arm.
The stranger stiffened beside me, his skin dancing with my orange glow.
The fire crawled over my wrist and up my elbow, tickling, licking.
“Does that not hurt?” he asked quietly, his gaze following the fire’s path.
“No.” I shook my head, twisting my arm, just as fascinated as he was. “It feels...nice.”
“Nice?”
“Warm.” I smiled as smoke appeared, coiling around my bicep like his shadows coiled around him.
“Instinct tells me I should throw you into the river, but your smile is full of wonder.” His gaze locked on my lips. “You’re telling the truth.”
I nodded, goading the fire to grow even bigger.
Brighter.
The flames listened.
And then, they answered.
In a yellow, glowing woosh, they enveloped me head to toe.
The stranger sprang to his feet and backed away. “I didn’t see your Fire Reader do that the night I watched.”
I stood too, prickling with awareness, aliveness. The fire cascaded over my hair, my breasts, my belly, kissing my skin but not burning my deerskin dress. My eyelashes glowed and smoke tangled around my throat and wrists, granting necklaces and bracelets made of magic.
The longer I encouraged the fire to consume me, the more powerful I felt. The more whole I felt. The fire seemed to seek out the hollow holes within me, filling them with its lifegiving flames, soothing and erasing my pain with its friendly, frisky smoke.
“Runa...”
I looked up, catching the stranger’s dark stare. He crossed his arms, his biceps rippling with strength. “Enough,” he murmured. “I can barely see you anymore. You’re more flame than mortal.”
I looked down at my body, barely making out the outline of my form beneath the golden glow. I didn’t want to smother the comforting warmth. It took effort to tell the fire to let me go. But I balled my hands and whispered, “Burn the wood, not me.”
It was as if the flames could read my thoughts.
They leaped from me and exploded into the kindling, jumping with sparks and tiny lightning storms.
Fresh air licked around my earthen skin. Cool and breezy after the cloaking heat.
I looked down again.
I was just a body. A body of blood and bone once again.
A sudden shooting pain lanced through my head, making me wince.
A bright orb of light filled my vision.
Blistering pain filled my heart begging, pleading, screaming to remember.
Light and bright and power.
Sunshine and magic and life.
I vibrated with it.
I longed for it.
I was it.
But then, the vision was gone.
Popped like a dirty bubble, dropping me into darkness.
My knees buckled.
I fell.
“Runa—!” The stranger caught me, his touch stinging my sunburst mark and his concern as hot as a flame. “What happened? Are you well?”
My sudden weakness vanished, and I blinked back into this world. I couldn’t remember why I’d tripped. I couldn’t recall what I’d seen.
Frowning, I nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.”
He scowled as he placed me carefully back on my feet, touching me tenderly. He shifted as if to speak but then tensed as my gaze tangled with his, and this time, I fell in a totally different way. A tripping kind of way, tumbling from this existence into one that belonged with him.
I couldn’t breathe as he drew me into him.
I couldn’t move as his feet kissed mine, his wolf pelt to my deerskin, his hips ever so close.
The rest of the world ceased to exist as his dark, turbulent eyes dove into my spirit, cracking open my chest and filling my heart with winged things. His gaze dropped to my mouth, his tongue wet his lips, and he shifted even closer as he trembled. “Who are you?”