Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth, and a wrenching cough sprayed droplets across my face.
Confusion puckered her brow, her lips parting as if to ask a question, but her eyes rolled to show white.
No, no, no.
“Becca?” I looped my arms around her waist, holding her upright. I scanned her as best I could, but I couldn’t find an injury. “Hold on, okay?”
Pink foam poured down her jaw, her body jerking, and her breath whistled through her teeth.
Afraid I would drop her if she kept thrashing, I eased her down onto her back before thrusting my arms in the air and summoning every bit of fire I could scrape from within me. We had gone far enough I couldn’t be certain the others would hear cries for help, but they would see this signal. Even if I had to burn out, I would make sure of it.
“Stay with me.” I scrabbled a safe distance away, since my control was zero. “Help is on the way.”
From where I stood, I couldn’t tell if Becca was still breathing, and that fear caught in my throat.
All I could do was send up this flare to the others and pray I hadn’t lied to her.
two
Sweat poureddown my face as I blasted my flames higher, urging them to burn brighter.
Double vision set in, but I shook my head to clear it and reached deeper within myself for strength.
As I panted through the strain, a hulking silver pickup squealed to a stop, bouncing two fat tires onto the sidewalk in the process. A man with pale skin and a shock of orange-red hair leapt out with a quick nod for me before he descended on Becca. “What happened to her?”
“She was fine one minute then bleeding from her mouth and seizing the next.”
“I’ll get her to Burdock.” He lifted her small frame with care. “Then I’ll circle back for Jess and Sloane.”
“You’re Seamus.”
“I am.” He shifted her weight, opened the passenger side door since I was a flaming mess, then set her on the bench seat. “We’ll have to do a proper introduction sometime.” He shut her in, noticed my issue, and cocked a bushy eyebrow at me. “Do you need help with that?”
“Maybe send Fayne?” I flushed even hotter, wishing I’d had the courage to practice control over my fire more after nearlydrowning Rían. “I’ll try to get this under control before then, but no promises.”
A moment’s hesitation tugged him between two duties, but I made it easy for him.
“She’s the priority.” I flexed my fingers. “Worst-case scenario, I burn out. I’ll survive, but she might not.”
Grumbling under his breath about how he might not survive Rían finding out, he jumped in and drove away.
With a growl in my throat, I folded myself into a seated position, shut my eyes, and focused on the flow of magic within me. I couldn’t burn out again. That weakness left me too vulnerable. I couldn’t afford to let this power control me. I had gotten lucky so far, but I would seriously hurt someone if I didn’t devote more time to mastering my flames.
Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.
A wave of tiredness crashed through me, but I refused to let it pull me under.
Teeth gritted, I pictured my palms as the water spigots at GSG, the ones we hooked hosepipes up to when we sprayed down the kennel runs. I imagined twisting them off to kill the flow, but when that didn’t work, I grew frustrated enough to mime the action.
As cool air skated across my palms, I cracked open one eye and almost collapsed with relief.
It worked.
It actually worked.
Slow claps jerked my head around in time to watch Liam applaud my accomplishment with a genuine smile on his face. Had my cheeks not been rosy from the heat, I might have blushed at how pleased I was with myself. And, okay, maybe a little bit with his acknowledgment that I had done well.
Ugh.
