I swayed, clinging to the thin top of a cedar tree as storm winds surged around me. Reedy branches slapped against my body and fern-like needles scratched at my exposed skin. Currents of wind tore at my hair, snapping my tie and jacket that had torn in places as I clambered my way up here.

Where is she, where is, she where is she—

Lightning erupted, scorching the sky in a flash of white.

Thunder exploded.

Nelle had swifted and there was no way I could easily track her. But up here at the canopy, adrift in an ocean of trees bending with the gusts and swell of wind—something might give me a clue.

The sky shuddered in vibrant skipping light.

There—

Right there—

Lightning had forked in the exact same spot only a moment ago.

***

I found Nelle in a small clearing.

The earth was barren of life, the greenery burnt so thoroughly by the silver fire dancing behind her figure nothing was left.

The front of her dress was stuck to her sweat-slick chest that heaved for breath. She looked like a wraith with her pale hair and the fine layers of the silver dress—soot-stained and burned—teased by the wild wind she spun through the clearing. Filaments of magic weaved around her lithe body like sea anemones swaying beneath the ocean and silver fire reached almost as high as the treetops.

She was balanced upon the remains of a tree, whose broken trunk had collapsed on the woodland floor to rot and now was half aflame. Her head was tipped to the sky, and the sight of tears glistening on her cheeks had my throat tightening. I'd come to a stumbling halt at the edge of the clearing, my eyes wide and my heart thumping at my ribs. Her berry-sweet scent flowed on a current of wind, beckoned to me, and it took restraint to remain enclosed in the treeline and not go to her.

The clouds hovered low, so low it looked as if she could touch them. Bending both knees she cupped her hands, and as she drew her fingers apart, fire expanded between her palms in a ball of flames. Springing up, she threw the flaming ball skywards, so she ended up on her tippy-toes as the fire razed through the clouds like lightning.

Thunder boomed a second later and rippled across the horizon.

Stretched on her toes, arms outstretched to the sky, the silver flames and slender threadlike magic glanced over her slender body and swirling the ends of her moonlit hair.

Gods, she was ethereal. Otherworldly.

My mother's soft voice haunted me, one of the last things she'd shared with me—She's going to be something we've never seen before. Someone unique. Someone who could rival the Horned Gods themselves.

Power. So much power wrapped up in a tiny little package. I could feel its undulating pulse sweeping through the glade, the almost indiscernible tremble of the earth, the trees bowing back by her blustering wind, and the shimmer and spark of aether in the air, waiting in anticipation like a breath held.

Earth, wind, and fire...what else was she, what else could she do?

But the fire, those silver flames—

There was something faintly showing in the shape of that fire, in those twisting coils of magic and power...something that had my gaze sharpening...but I couldn't quite make it out.

A roiling curve...

...and is that a sliver of sharpness?

But my eyes, keenly honed like a bird, had gone back to Nelle. I could see every single individual bead of sweat glistening over her lithe body, dewy drops sliding down her swanlike throat to curve over the swell of her breasts straining against the fabric of her dress.

I swallowed, hard.

She was utterly enchanting. She always had been. I couldn't look away. I couldn't even remain apart. My feet started to move toward her before I realized it.

Nelle sent another bolt of fire up into the sky, and a desperate, ragged sob tore from her as it raked through the churning charcoal clouds. The air surrounding me crackled and fizzed. My hair stood on end with the static energy. A maelstrom of violent wind spun from her, and I braced against the wicked gusts shoving at my limbs, trying to push me backward.

I couldn't...I couldn't stay away.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry—

It chanted inside like a litany, the words drenched in despair.

What I'm going to take from her...

She'll never forgive me.

The silver fire grew weaker, fading like a banked fire, and the flames burning the rotting tree trunk beneath her feet were extinguished leaving wisps of smoke behind. Her squalling wind becalmed and the slight tremors beneath my feet ceased. She slowly blinked as if dazed, wiping her forehead with the back of her wrist. Exhausted, her body swayed and her footing stumbled on the decomposing tree trunk. She collapsed, toppling over—

I threw myself into a burst of speed—

And caught her in my arms.

She startled. "Gray—"

"I'm sorry," I whispered, cutting her off, pressing my face into the crook of her neck and nuzzling into her messy hair.

"What for?"

"Everything."

Everything I've done.

Everything I'm about to do.

I whispered it again and again, lost in that one word. Everything.

I don't know how much time passed, but eventually, she nudged my face aside, pushing at my shoulders to see me better. There was another quality to her gaze, swimming with tears, something half-wild and untamed and angry that unsettled me. "Elyse...did you know about her being other?" Her voice was hoarse as if she'd been screaming.

I shook my head. Not a fucking clue.

Gods, Mela...

Sickness washed against my insides. I knew perfectly well what my friend would be going through right now. A blustery storm of desolation and wrath rushed through me, hard and vicious, so vicious every muscle locked and I nearly didn't hear Nelle when she asked, "What are they going to do with her?"

I swallowed back the rage in bitter mouthfuls, eased the tension in my body until I was able to breathe calmly and lift my shoulders in a defeated shrug. "There was nothing you could have done."

Nelle glared, shoving at me to free herself. She bolted to her feet and snapped back stubbornly, "I could have tried!"

I rose, clenching my hands. Gods, didn't she understand? It would have been her on the stone floor of the temple begging the Horned God to spare her family's lives. "You would have died!"

Her eyes slit defiantly.

"Or worse. The Horned Gods would have stolen you. And what happened to Elyse's parents..." I let that sink in, relief flowing through me when I saw the flash of memory in her wild gaze, before continuing, "That would have been your entire family. The Horned Gods wouldn't have stopped at your parents. Evvie, Lise, her unborn baby... Every single Wychthorn standing on that dais would have died."

Full of righteous fire, Nelle was breathing hard. As I approached, she blinked and warily backed up, her feet moving through life, grasses, and moss that edged the clearing where her fire hadn't reached. She gave a startled cry when her back hit a tree trunk. I leaned down to brace my hands on either side of her, caging her in. I carried on, looking her dead straight in the eye. She needed to fucking hear this. "Sirro, Lyressa, Urstlo...they would have massacred every single soldier and guard and servant until there was no one and nothing left but your home. And then they would have burned it to the ground!"

Her bottom lip trembled but fire gleamed in her eyes. "I hate this. I hate this life. I hate them. I hate feeling this way—impotent. Hide, hide, hide...that's all I ever hear!"

At odds with her words, aether erupted, skating against my skin. Wicked wind hissed and blustered around us, and the earth beneath my feet began to tremble.

She half-twisted around and shoved her shoulder at me, shunting me back. Pacing back and forth, she tugged at her riotous locks of hair with agitation, bare feet rustling through soft ferns and dead leaves.

"Wychthorn," I murmured in warning, my bones rattling with the building quakes.

She rounded on me with her hands fisted.

What the hells are you?

She must have read the question on my face because she responded as if she'd heard it. "I don't know." Frantic hands tugged violently at her hair. "I DON'T KNOW!"

The fight suddenly left her and she crumbled in on herself. "It should have been me on my knees begging," she wailed.

And there, was her truth.

I felt her, that desperation of grief and overwhelming guilt, a toxic bloom suffocating her.

Nelle threw her arms up in defeat. "I don't know what to do with this." Fresh tears slid down her blotchy cheeks, as she gestured at herself. "All this anger and hatred and grief..." She frantically swiped her hands over her arms as if she could slough the unwanted emotion from her skin.

I cursed low as the earth shook harder, jostling my body and shivering my hair.

Trees bent and groaned as a chilling wind exploded, scuffing up leaves and twigs, making them swirl and dance on ferocious gusts.

Shit, shit, shit—

"Let it out, Nelle. Do it now, before it overwhelms you."

Her hands slackened and fell to her sides as her shoulders slumped. But her delicate features pinched as she desperately tried to keep herself from falling apart. She lifted her gaze to look at me, her eyebrows slanting upward, and her eyelashes blinked back the silver. "I-I need..."

I took a step toward her, twigs snapping underfoot. "What, little bird? Tell me what you need."

And there was some thought, some rash and despairing decision made, that flashed across her features as her gaze recklessly swiped me from head to toe.

She pounced. There was no other way to describe it.

Hitting me right in the chest, she tackled me to the shuddering ground. I hit it with an oomph, my back cushioned by springy ferns and woodland litter. Maybe she was still in that other place, caught up in her world of flames and wind, and that's why she kissed me.

It wasn't soft and gentle. It was needy and desperate and she was crying again—salty tears skimmed my cheeks and slipped over my lips and into our kiss. Her bittersweet scent washed over me, infusing my very soul. I couldn't breathe, could barely think straight. Her tongue tangled with mine, stoking the flames of my desire into a raging fire. She moaned into my mouth. The kiss was feverish, desperate and wrong, yet I couldn't stop myself.

I should stop.

I should stop her.

I should stop myself.

She was frantically pulling at my clothes, at my jacket and shirt as she kissed me. Her fingers worked at my belt buckle. "What the hells are you doing?"

"I need to feel something else...make me remember you...n-not what happened back there..." she said between our furious kisses.

I grabbed her greedy hands to stop her before pulling my mouth away from her lips. "I want to, Nelle. I really"—fucking—"do... But no."

She half-sat up, her thighs straddling my hips, confusion only a shadowy hint within those wild eyes glazed with need and shimmering with tears. She sniffed, wiping away the moisture streaking her pinked cheeks with the heel of a palm. "You don't want me?"

I picked her up, standing us both in one smooth motion before placing her on her feet.

Fuck, I wanted her. I really wanted her. However, I took a couple of steps back, needing distance. Needing to get myself under control. I raked a hand through my hair. "Not like this, Nelle. Not the why of it all. I want you but I don't want this for your first time."

Maybe that's what stoked her fire. The reluctance, the pity.

I could scent her arousal, her body frustrated and humming for release vying against the oppressive guilt and anguish I felt from her, burning beneath my skin. She glared, furious, and rushed me, shoving at my chest. That strength of hers shunted me back, making me stumble.

Fuuuck!

"I need it!"

I shook my head and went to turn and leave, but she had other ideas. She threw out a tangle of power. Silvery threads of magic twined around my calves, and with her fierce tug, I lost my balance, falling backward upon a sprawling of soft foliage.

She was on me a second later.

Kicking myself free of her magic, I rolled us over until I was on top pushing her body into the soft embrace of the leaves with my weight. "You don't want to do this."

She hooked a leg around my back, her strength startling me, and rolled us both so she was back on top, her hands spread over my chest pinning me down. "Please," she breathed, bending her head down to press her closed lips to mine in a sweet innocent kiss.

My breath caught.

And just that weakness for a chaste kiss, her kiss, the girl that warred with me endlessly, had heat and want and need incinerating through what was right, what I should be doing, stopping her for her.

She purposefully pressed her breasts against my chest, my muscles rippling at the touch, and she breathed into my ear. "Tonight, I want to feel you right, here," and she pushed upright to straddle my hips, lowering herself right on top of my hard length. Her heat pressing against my cock made me grunt, and my whole body shuddered.

Her eyes were dilated, excitement vibrating from her. "You like?"

"I don't like." And my low, gruff voice told her exactly how she made me feel. "I fucking crave it."

Her pale brows nudged together as she stared intently at my mouth, brushing her thumb across my bottom lip. Heat flared through every single part of me, setting me alight, coursing from the crown of my head to the ends of my toes. "I just want now. I just want this. I just want you," she whispered, leaning forward, her lips ghosting mine. Her tiny hands wound around my tie and she tugged at me to sit upright. This time her lips moved over mine, slower but greedy, and at the flick of her tongue along the seam of my mouth I opened up, letting her in on a soft groan.

She kissed me until I was mindless and all I craved was her.

It sang to me in time with my heartbeat—Mine. Mine. Mine.

She was mine.

And I was hers.

And everything that would come tomorrow could go fuck itself.

Her powers, which had been seeping outward all this time, began to calm. The trembling earth gentled, and the aether charging the air doused. Trees snapped back, righting themselves before their leaves began to rustle in time with our heartbeats.

I slid one hand beneath her hair to the back of her neck, and the other coasted down her back to clasp her firm round ass. My fingers flexed—

Suddenly, I was alone.

I startled in surprise as her weight on me vanished.

Standing up, I furtively glanced around to find she'd swifted, and now stood across the glade, near the fallen alder tree she'd used to toss fire into the sky.

Her chest rapidly rose up and down with shallow breaths, as she stared at me beneath lowered lashes, her cheeks flushed with desire. One hand clasped the half-ruined adamere bracelet, turning a bead over between her fingers. Sucking at her plump bottom lip, the flesh glistened between her teeth as she bit down. And because she had, it made me want to bite my lip too as lust burned through my blood, matching the intense need glowing in her silver eyes.

Her gaze darted to my mouth and I watched in fascination as her nipples pinched and strained against her silky dress as her breath came quicker just before her eyes changed color. Like ink spilling into water, black ate up the irises until there was nothing but a thin golden band and flecks of gold.

She slowly raised a hand, never taking her eyes from my lips. Her fingers were clenched, and then...she flicked them wide.

I had one moment to mindlessly scramble at what she was about to do.

But I never could have anticipated this.

Fire erupted—

A squall of cold bright flames engulfed me.

Incinerated my clothes in a whiplash of fire.

Vanquished a heartbeat later.

All that remained was a cloud of black dust swirling about my figure, before scattering into the undergrowth with the wind. I stood frozen to the spot in shock.

I stood in front of her completely naked.

Holy fuck...

She's not messing around.