Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Once I’ve fallen into step with him, he releases me, but considering the battle that’s behind me, I’m not exactly trying to run away from him, either. “Will the Mokie come after us?”
“Not when you’re with me. This is my land. They won’t cross me. It’s your land, too, but they need you to show them that by taking control. Once they understand survival means following you, they’ll follow.”
“And I do that how?”
“By actually listening to me,” he snaps, casting me a sideways scowl.
“If you keep this up, I might prefer the crab over you. I was punished already, Micah, but for the record, you push me to do more and be more and get mad when I try.”
“When humans learn karate, they are not pitted against a black belt on day one,” he says. “That doesn’t mean the instructor doesn’t push them. It means the instructor pushes them in an appropriate way for their knowledge. I left you reading in the library, and you ended up fighting a crab on the beach. You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t, and I improved my ability to wield my own skills. I reached out to you through our mental connection as if it was second nature. It just kind of happened. And as a bonus, I made the water boil.” That statement, that reality, sinks in, and I’m blown away by the sheer magnitude of what I’ve achieved. I race forward and step in front of him, facing him. “I made the water boil, Micah,” I say incredulously. “Does that mean I can make fire?”
“Yes,” he confirms, the muscle in his jaw tensing to a thick band. “But don’t expect me to celebrate with you. Fire’s far too close to Hell for my comfort.”
“Are you suggesting I’m more demon than angel?” I demand, the fire he’s referencing is nothing next to the fire he just evoked in me. “Did you really just say that to me?”
“It’s the truth, Ember. You need to know that.”
“If I’m more demon than angel, why am I here?” I hold up my hands to halt his reply and answer for him. “I know. To bind the demon inside me. Why don’t you just lock me away?” I demand. “Or kill me?” My hands fly up again. “Don’t answer. I don’t want to know.” I try to turn away from him, but the damn sand piles around my feet.
Micah catches my arm, the heat of his touch scorching me inside and out, and when he rotates me back to him and steps close, so very close that the heat of his body burns my own, I want to hit him. I want to kiss him. I want so much he never gives me, and I know why. “You believe—”
“—in you,” he supplies, his voice roughened up with emotion. “I believe in you, Ember.”
“Do you, Micah? Because I can feel the wall between us. You want me, but you don’t want me. You kiss me and walk away. You touch me, but you fear me.”
“When I touch you, I can’t think, Ember. And we both need me to be clear-headed.”
“So you can remember I might be the end of the world?” I demand. “So you still have the will to kill me?”
“What I fear, Ember, is losing you to him.”
“Jeremy will never own me.”
“No one owns you but you, but he’ll try to prove that wrong.”
“And you? Will you try to prove me wrong? Is this all a battle to see who controls my powers?”
“It better be you who controls your powers, or we’re all fucked.”
For several long beats, we stand there, air puffing between us, heat lancing our bodies, but I can’t do this with him. I can’t do…this. I yank away from his grip and start walking, almost expecting him to grab me again, but he doesn’t. And I hate that he doesn’t. I hate it so much. Instead, he falls into pace with me and says and does nothing, no denial of anything I’ve laid upon him. The ocean crashes against the shore, slow and rhythmic, and I’m seduced into a calmer place, but it doesn’t shift my awareness of Micah. With each rush of the sea, each lap of water on the sand, the silence between us expands and thickens.
It’s more than a full mile before Micah motions to a rocky slope that looks rather treacherous, but I don’t comment. I survived the crab and his attitude. I can climb that damn slope. He’s on the move upward, and I follow suit and do so without incident. Fifteen minutes later, we’re only a small climb from the top to reach the house. Micah disappears, and I glance up to find him looking down at me from on top of the cliff. Obviously, we’ve passed the spellcast barrier.