Scorched by Cassie Swindon

Author:Cassie Swindon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cassie Swindon

Shit, the whispering returned. I didn’t look around this time, hoping it’d simply leave me alone.

Jadox stopped our ascent. “Show me your wrists.”

“Uh, you’re connected to one of them, genius.”

He tried to hold back a smile and flipped our joined wrists over. The trail of veins crawling up his forearm showed me the path to his heart. A journey I’d rather run from.

“Can I touch you?” he asked softly.

Swallowing the feeling of rocks lodged in my throat, I nodded slowly. Gently, Jadox traced my own river of veins from the base of one wrist, carefully, up to my elbow, then shoulder, and held his finger still at my neck. I used all my effort not to lean into his touch.

“The Magik runs through your veins. To connect with it, you must feel it, become a part of the fire, and accept yourself as Elidian. Your strength will come from knowing yourself…” his fingers brushed to my heart, “knowing yourself in here.”

Hoping he couldn’t feel my heart clamor like a spastic drum, I rolled in both lips and stepped back. “Okay, cool, cool. So, try something on me, then. I’ll block you.”

“Kyra, it’s not that easy.”

“Do it.”

A frustrated animalistic growl vibrated in his throat. I felt a sudden urge to kiss his large Adam’s apple and show him what it felt like to have a fingertip skim him like a tickling feather. Instead, I blew out a breath and concentrated on my Magik, racing through my body. With a flick of his hand, Jadox beckoned the trees to shake above.

Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and carrots impossibly plummeted from the unknown above, raining and smashing all around my feet. At least none rammed into my head. Then thousands of leaves attacked head-on, soaring like arrows straight to my temple.

I thought of meditation. Deep breaths. A calming center. Nothing happened. All the sharp edges of the leaves scraped into my skin in a thousand mini cuts.

“Ow!”

Jadox hovered a hand over my head, and each scratch instantly healed shut.

“Your skill is really impressive, Jay. You’re very valuable to everyone in Draven.”

“If that was true, they wouldn’t have shunned me years ago,” he grumbled. “Try again.”

I craned my head up to the robin-egg sky. “Maybe the Golden tattoo means I have some defect.”

“You can do it. What’s your gut telling you?”

“That the meditation thing won’t work. It’s not who I am.”

He leaned in with a twinkle in his eye. “Who are you, Kyra?”

Memories ambushed my mind. Pranking Hallie, high-school friends daring me to jump off a roof, creating havoc in kickboxing class, and drumming with my bands until two in the morning.

The answer became obvious. I was chaos. Ruckus. Energy. Wild at heart.

I smiled up at Jadox. “Do it again.”

He widened his stance, and his face turned so sexy and serious that I could have climbed him right there. At Jadox’s whispered command, a loud crash split through the rock next to us. A giant root sprung to life, twirling and twisting in a frenzy. It flung itself toward my ankle.

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