Page 4 of Embers

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The guys keep telling me I’m powerful but, right now, they seem far more powerful than me.

Curling my fingers, I set the flames free, leaving them suspended in the air in front of me, and sigh as their warmth licks my face.

Watching the trees, I try to calculate how far Kole and Tanner have gotten by now. I hate the fact they’ve left. I hate the fact they’re going back into town when we know bad things are happening there. But I know it’s necessary; we need to know more, and we need to know fast.

After a few quiet minutes, Sam joins me. He’s holding two steaming mugs. Passing me one, his eyes distracted by the floating fire ball in front of me, he says, “Hot chocolate.”

I smile and breathe in the smell of the cocoa.

“Your mom used to make us hot chocolate.” He sits down next to me. “When we couldn’t sleep or if one of us had a nightmare, she’d make hot chocolate and put those funny little sprinkles on the top.”

“In the shape of a smile,” I add, the memory tugging at my chest. “I remember.”

For a moment, the two of us sit side by side looking out at the lake and the trees. Then I ask Sam, “Is it strange? That Kole and Tanner are going to be seeing Sarah?”

Sam presses his lips together, thinking about my question. “Yes,” he says. “But I think I need a little more time before I come face-to-face with her.” He shakes his head, his curly hair falling over his forehead. “It’s been so long. I remember her, but…” He sighs. “I don’t know, it’s all a bit muddled in my head.”

“There’s no rush,” I tell him. “She’ll wait as long as you need her to.”

Smiling at me, Sam sips his drink. Then he says, “How about you? Are you alright?”

“Fine.” I’m not very convincing.

“You’re worried about them?”

I breathe in deeply. Being apart from Kole still feels so wrong, so unnatural. My body fizzes with the need to be closer to him. Every second, I fight the urge to run after him. And Tanner? My heart can’t handle the thought of something happening to him. But that’s too much to put into words, so I just say, “We don’t know what’s happening in town. Last time Rev came out here, she told us people were behaving strangely. That bad things were going on.”

“Bad things?”

“That’s why the boys need to go. If it’s got something to do with Ragnor and what he’s planning, we need to know.” I uncross my legs and stretch them out in front of myself, rubbing my left thigh with my empty hand. “We also need to know what the Bureau is doing. If their agents are still looking for me or if they’ve given up and moved on.”

Sam flicks his hair from his eyes. It’s dark, and curly, and thick. “How about you?” I ask. “Are you alright?” I look down at my hands. “After last night…”

Laughing a little, Sam inches closer to me. “After last night,” he says, “I’m very all right.”

He meets my eyes and brushes a loose strand of hair from my face. “We didn’t rush you?” I ask. Worry flutters in my chest; it felt right at the time. In the moment, making love to Sam felt like the most natural thing in the world, but it was hisfirsttime. “We kinda ganged up on you.”

At that, Sam shakes his head. A crooked grin dimples his cheek. “You definitely didn’t rush me, or gang up on me.” He takes my mug, setting his and mine on the veranda behind us. “Nova, I spent eight years locked away. Feeling nothing but pain.” He cocks his head. “And the occasional quick, dirty orgasm—alone in my cell.”

I flinch at the word ‘cell’. I haven’t asked Sam what it was like to live and work atSpine. I want him to tell me when he feels ready. I don’t want him to feel he owes me a story or an explanation of where he’s been for the past twenty years.

“Last night, for the first time in my life, you made me feel like I was in control. The three of you gave me something incredible, and I won’t ever forget it.” He turns my hand over and kisses my palm.

“And you’re not freaked out that we’re…”

“That we were almost siblings?” Sam tilts his head from side to side. “For a long time when I thought of you, you were my sister. I used to rewrite the past in my head. Imagine the fire never happened, that I’d stayed with you, that Charles and Alice asked me to call them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’.” He breathes in deeply. The mention of the fire brings hot tears to the back of my eyes, but I blink them away. Sam is stroking my palm. “But maybe that’s because I didn’t know any better. Maybe the way I missed you, the way I longed for you… maybe it was always something else and I just couldn’t recognize it.” He lets go of my hand and shrugs a little. “Does that make any sense at all?”

I angle myself toward him and reach out, tracing the line of his jaw with my index finger. “Yes,” I tell him, “it does.” I’m about to slide my hand lower, over his chest, when I stop myself and sigh. “We should go inside.” I jerk my head toward the door. “Research.”

“I’d leave it a while if I were you,” Sam says, glancing at the window. “Polar Daddy and Fire Daddy were having a pretty heated conversation.” He chuckles at himself. “No pun intended.”

In front of me, the flames I made spark higher. “Fucking Luther,” I mutter.

“You guys don’t get on?” Sam frowns at me. “I thought…fated to five? He’s not one of your five?”

Tutting, I roll my eyes. “No, he isn’t.” As the heat in my belly subsides, I pick at a loose thread in the hem of my sweater. “Luther hates humans.”

“You’re not human anymore.”


Tags: Cara Clare Fantasy