You’re distracted. Byhim.
Am not.
We share a bond. I can hear your thoughts.
Then you know that right nowyouare the only thing distracting me.
“Let’s try something else. Come down. Put your hand on her chest. On my count, inhale for four, hold for two, and exhale for five.”
“That’s confusing,” I say, slipping onto the ground.
“Only if you can’t count to ten.”
“Can we just keep it simple? Four, four, and four?”
“Fine. Whatever. Three, two, one, inhale.”
Jace counts, anchoring my thoughts as Furi and I breathe together, my hand resting against her smooth scales. Her breaths rise and fall beneath me, and I become acutely aware of her heartbeat aligning with mine. “When you’re perfectly in sync, you’ll feel it lock into place. Hold onto it. Don’t let go.”
A moment later, I sense the shift. It’s like a rope tightening around the very fibers of my soul.
“I feel it.”
“Good. Now slowly call her fire.”
Sweat breaks through my skin as her fire begins to flow through me like a river of lava, streaming into my veins. Hot and thick, it mingles with my blood, twines with my magic and races through me at an alarming speed.
The heat intensifies, vibrating within me so fiercely that my entire body trembles.
“That’s it. Keep going,” Jace coaches. But his voice is far away.
Furi is silent, focused on funneling her fire into me. The sound of my gnashing teeth grates against my ears, but I don’t feel it. All I feel is endless heat, mere seconds from devouring me.
A loud, choked cry cuts through me.
“That’s it! You’re almost there?—”
“I can’t take anymore! It’s killing me?—”
“Now! Push it out now!”
I break away from Furi, my hands turned up toward the sky. My roar bounds off the trees, shaking every branch and leaf for miles around. I become a live wire, electricity coursing through me as my eyes fly open.
The blast feels nuclear.
A line of blue fire explodes from my palms, sending two twin beams of light up into the sky. My shout is lost to the rushing flames. It’s a purging. A cleansing, burning away every impurity, every thought drifting around my head as I become a hollow vessel for Furi’s magic.
Jace catches me as I collapse, easing me down to the ground.
“That was it. That was fucking amazing. You’re?—”
His words drift off, lost to the wind as his golden eyes roam over me. We stay like that for a moment, my head leaning against his shoulder, tension coiling around us like a brewing storm. I’m so engrossed in him that I don’t even notice Furi ducking to lick my face.With the size of her ridged tongue, it’s really more of a full upper-body lick with Jace in the crossfire.
“Lovely,” he mutters, wiping his cheek clean.
The tension breaks as I crawl out of his arms and haul myself onto a tree stump. He follows, sinking back on his heels.
“What is it?”
