Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Something is wrong.” Her hands move as though she can feel the air around her. “It’s coming from the outside, but it’s focused on you, Your Highness.”
Someone said the girl has a way with witchcraft, and it seems that she’s also sensitive to psychic episodes. But I don’t have time to think about it. I can feel Bron’s heartbeat as though it’s my own. I’m suddenly out of breath, like someone punched the air out of my lungs.
I hear Paige calling for her parents, feel Duffy’s arm on my own, but I can’t see him anymore. My physical vision clouds, giving way to the eyes of my mind, going miles and miles away. I see a small brownie on the ground, dirt swirling the earth beside her. A large leather boot rears back in a kicking motion.
“Damn it, Shim. Don’t!” Duffy shouts, his hand coming off my arm.
I try to hold on, but Bron’s pull is so great. She calls to me, demanding my fire, my protection. I feel my power shimmer, skimming along my skin from someplace deep inside.
Now my own panic begins to take over. I remember the last time I lost control. Lach nearly died. My brother was marred for the rest of his life. If I lose control here, in such a small setting, I won’t be able to save the men in the house, much less the children. Gods, the Harper children are here.
I force myself up, stumbling, not quite able to see the world in front of me. I try to concentrate. Try to force my brain back to this reality. It’s so hard because I can feel Bron’s emotion. She moves from pure terror to a rage that threatens to completely overtake me. I have mere seconds before the fire will no longer be containable. I can already sense it building. It will be a blast that flows between me and Bronwyn, the flames shooting into both places. The Harper’s nicely kept house will become their children’s tomb.
And then I feel a calming presence. Paige. She puts a hand on my elbow, whimpering a bit because she surely feels the heat in my skin. She’s like a wash of cold water, quenching me briefly.
“Tell me what to do,” she says, her voice shaking a bit.
Duffy’s hand is suddenly in mine. “Damn me, Shim. You’re blazing hot. Come on. We need to get him outside before he blows.”
“Blows?”
I hear Paige’s shout through the chaotic mess of my brain. My world? Bron’s world? It’s hard to tell what I’m seeing. I hold on tightly to the power, but it’s growing. Bron’s need is a wild wave overcoming my will. She’s so strong, and she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
I stumble, forcing my eyes to focus on my feet.
“What’s happening?”
It’s my brother’s voice. I hear feet pounding and voices calling out, but I’m not sure where they’re coming from.
Bron is so angry. Her rage fills me. Years of impotent anger bottled up, and now it won’t go away. My anger. Her anger. Our power.
“Damn it all.” I feel my brother’s hands on my shoulders. “Get away! Get away now!”
But my brother is still here. Lach lost too much. Lach might die if he gets caught in the fire, and it will be a big one. Grabbing on to the final vestige of my will, I push my brother away and run.
I’m outside now, I can feel the air on my skin as my clothes begin to burn off.
I stop, my vision utterly taken over by Bronwyn.
I see a guard standing in the middle of a large crowd, a brownie child at his feet and his mercy. The guard has none. Bron’s memories assault me. It’s so much stronger than ever before. Being on the same plane with nothing between us but miles, I can feel her power. She transmits so strongly, but not only can she transmit, she pulls power from me.
The fire builds and I give in to my instincts. I force the fire into my hands—Bron’s hands—and direct it in a thin line, trying to keep it away from the crowds. Once I let it flow, it immediately becomes easier to control. Flames shoot from my fingertips. My skin is on fire, every inch of my body engulfed in flames, but I can control them.
The guard screams, but the brownie Bron was trying to save skitters away. A long breath comes out of her body and then I hear a single word.
“Witch.”
I fall to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut. The flames goes out, and I’m aware that I’m alone again.
My hands shake as I sit up. Something is very wrong. The connection was brutally severed. Bron is in trouble.
I struggle to my feet. My naked damn feet. As my power grew, I discovered my skin can handle the flames that engulf me, though my clothes never survive.