Wicked Flames (Solsti Prophecy) (24 page)

Vague details popped into her memory. Demons, fairies, elves. Were there witches here too? Nicole and Brooke had said it was dangerous. Gin tried to recall more, but it was like trying to throw a choke hold on a ghost. There was no substance to dig into.

She could kick herself now for not filing every detail away. But she’d never planned to come here. Everything about it screamed in contrast to her chosen career. She loved science. Order and formulas. Hypotheses and explanations.

This was as far from scientific explanation as she could get.

“This way.” The man jostled her, tucking her against his side, and began walking along a dirt trail.

She peeked up at him. He didn’t look particularly evil. Tall but not huge, with curly dark hair and dark eyes. Wait…he had
horns
above his ears. Panic surged anew as she recognized the same kind of demon Ria and Mathias had fought.
“Let me go!” She struggled but his grip was like a vise.

Of course, if they were in a demon realm, she had no idea what to do. If she escaped this guy, where would she go? Were there some kind of demon police? Would she be eaten by some creature? The old saying came back to her.
Maybe it’s better to stay with the devil you know
.

“Shut up, fae. I may have to sedate you.” He paused, a predatory gleam in his eyes. “Or I could tie you up.” His chuckle sent cold spikes of fear down her arms. “That may be more fun.”

Eew.
Fighting disgust, she strained for anything rational. What did people do when they got kidnapped? You had to examine your surroundings so you could tell your rescuers where you were. Well, crap. It was pitch black. The two moons didn’t cast much light. She decided to try talking. “Why do you keep calling me fae?”

“Because you smell like one. And until I know what kind you are, that’s what I’m going to call you.” He marched them toward a small house, its dark frame barely discernible against the night.

“I don’t even know what a fae is.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Really? That’s a good one. You expect me to believe that, when your energy practically vibrated that human gas station off its foundation?”

“Energy? What energy? And did you say
human
gas station?”
Um, is there another kind?

“Stop playing dumb.” He leaned down to her ear. “Or I’ll bite.”

No, no, no!
Gin shuddered, stifling a squeak, and strained to examine the house ahead.

They were close enough for her to see that it had one story. As they neared a light bulb turned on, illuminating a door. The house looked barely held together, its weathered wooden panels scraped and dotted with holes. In front was a porch.
Wait a minute
…Gin stared at the light. It was moving.

Ow!
A sting engulfed her foot as she banged her toe on something. She lurched forward.

“Dumb
and
clumsy.” The man yanked her up, and she belatedly realized the porch had three worn steps.

Ignoring the throb in her toe, she fixated on the light. “Why is that light moving?”

He sighed. “You’re doing a good job trying to convince me that you’re stupid, female. Next you’re gonna tell me you’ve never seen a fire bulb before. Up.” He tugged her up the last step and toward the door.

A set of keys appeared in front of them, making her gasp. They seemed to hover, dipping toward the lock. They took on a blue glow, and then she saw they were hanging from his
tail
.

Oh God.

She froze. Couldn’t move as the key slid into the lock, rotated, and the tail pushed open the door.

“Move.” The man pulled her inside.

Gin found her feet.
What else can I do?
He’s a demon. He yanked me to another world, he’s strong, and he has a goddamn tail.
And she’d seen what tails could do, thanks to the brawl in her parking lot earlier.

She shuffled into a sparsely furnished room. It reminded her of a cabin. A stove and sink occupied one corner of the small room, with two closed doors opposite them. There was one tacky orange couch and…what the heck?

Her eyes locked on a large beat-up roll top desk. A rack filled with test tubes sat front and center, with flasks, beakers, and droppers lined up neatly around it. Who the heck was this guy? Had she found a kindred spirit or deranged lunatic? “What’s that?”

He snorted and pulled her toward one door. “Nothing for you to worry about. Like you could even understand it.”

“But I—”

“Shut it.” His fingers bit into her arm. She clamped her lips closed. He seemed pissed at her and she didn’t know why. She didn’t want to make it worse.

His tail snaked in front of them to push open the door. “In here.” Another one of those weird hovering lights came on. The sole piece of furniture was a twin bed with a metal frame. “Sit.”

She balked, feet planted on the wood floor. “No.”

His tail snapped in the air above her. “Yes.” Strong hands propelled her toward the bed and she dropped awkwardly onto it.

“I’m not going to sedate you yet. First, we’ll use this.” With his tail, he picked up a length of rope from the floor. He transferred it to his hands and tied her wrists to the frame. The rope started a quiet buzz, like a radio playing static with the volume set low. Just like with the keys, the rope glowed blue. Faintly, but it was there.

“Lay down.” He shoved her shoulder and down she went, bouncing on the mattress. At least it looked clean.
Maybe it has magical bedbugs? Eew!
She needed to think clearly. But everything she thought she knew had been turned on its head. She needed to learn as much as she could about this place. She didn’t care if he thought she was dumb.

He wrenched her arms above her head and pulled the rope tight.

“Why are you doing this? Why me?”

Finished with her hands, he paced slowly to the end of the bed, his glare raking over her body. “I’d like to keep you. I like puzzles. Since you’re so unique that my phone didn’t recognize you, my boss may be interested as well. So she may get you first.”

She?
“What’s her name?”

The man grabbed her feet and secured them to the frame. “You’ll only be calling her ‘my queen.’” He moved back up to the headboard and leaned down, tracing his finger along her cheek. “You’re rather pretty. We’ll have fun together, you and I.” His gaze drifted to her breasts.

She shuddered, feeling exposed and vulnerable. Swallowing her fear, she whispered, “What’s your name?”

He tilted his head. “Xavier. And yours?”

May as well tell him
. Hopelessness weighted her limbs. How would anyone find her? “Gin.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard. A simple answer. That’s all I ask.” Straightening up, he turned toward the door and then paused. “Try to get some rest, Gin. Later, you’ll either be spending time with me or her.”

She heard the front door slam and his footsteps on the stairs, then the crunching of the small rocks on the trail.

Time passed and she remained alone in the room. She didn’t know if it was minutes or hours. She didn’t even know if time passed the same way here. She recited facts in her mind. Xavier. Torth. He had a boss. There are two moons in the sky.
I’m alone.

Thoughts popped in and out of her mind. Her sisters had explained the way to get here. What had they called it? Some way of transporting yourself almost instantly.

Did her sisters know Xavier? Did they know she was here? Probably not. That gas station had been deserted. Only the clerk was there, and what was he supposed to tell police? That she disappeared into thin air? Yeah, that explanation would get him laughed straight into a psych ward.

The gas station...had Xavier said a name when he grabbed her? Everything happened so fast. All she remembered was the strange shimmery ring they had jumped into.

She wiggled her arms and legs, but the rope was knotted securely. It didn’t
look
tight, but when she tried to pick at it, it only slipped from her fingers. Like she couldn’t hold on to it.

There’s a very strong possibility that no one is coming for me
. Mathias and Ria…maybe they could help her, but they didn’t know where she was. Though their deception cut deep, maybe she shouldn’t have told them she never wanted to talk to them again. Maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess if she had listened to them and not raced away.

Tears burned behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Crying wouldn’t help
.
She fought the negativity that loomed in her mind, threatening to drag her under. She struggled to hold on to something rational. Something solid, like work. Facts. Science.

She recited the periodic table of the elements in her head. Hydrogen, helium.
There has to be something I can do
.

Carbon, nitrogen.
Think, Gin
. Oxygen. Oxygen…gives life to people, to animals, to…

Fire.

She gasped as flames danced in her mind’s eye.
It’s your power. Use it.
Her breath came in staccato bursts.
No! It’s dangerous. I’ll hurt people.

It’s your power. Use it.
The voice repeated in her mind
. Learn it. Tame it
. It was her, but a different, bolder version of her.

Tame it? Can I?

Something awakened deep inside her body. A door cracked open, only a millimeter, but it was one she hadn’t opened since she was a child.

Fear rode her hard. She was so used to running away from her ability, so used to locking it down tightly. The idea of embracing it was foreign. But the question bloomed like a flower, soft petals unfurling to tickle her with the possibility. What if?

She looked up at the single light, blazing from the wall opposite the bed. Xavier had called it a fire bulb. She had no idea what that was. It was white, and she couldn’t see any wires or fixtures. It simply hovered near the top of the wall, looking like a baseball-sized sphere of fire. And looking…beautiful.

Tilting her head, she stared into the white depths. It lulled her, and on some level she couldn’t explain, it was waiting for her.

Could I? She couldn’t stop asking herself the question. She swallowed hard, terrified to try. What if she set the house on fire while she was still tied to the bed?

She blew out a slow breath. Focus. Deep breath in, deep breath out. The breathing exercise had the blessed and scientifically proven effect of lowering her panicked heart rate.

Look at the facts Gin. You’re alone. You could try to use your ability. Just try. Start small.

She focused on the fire bulb.
Just try.
She willed it to grow bigger. She pictured it as the size of a basketball.

Instantly, it grew to the size she had imagined, and stopped. It didn’t grow any bigger.

Holy shit, it worked!
She stared at it. It maintained its size, still hovering close the wall.
Now get smaller
.

The fire shrank back down to its original baseball size.

It…worked
. A strange feeling washed over her—a mixture of relief, happiness, hope, and power. Maybe she could use it, just this once, to get herself out of this jam. She didn’t have to do it ever again. She didn’t have to run around using her ability against bad guys, the way her sisters did.
Just this once. Okay, that sounds good.
She stared down the fire bulb and experimented with its size again, making it change at her command.

After a few more tries, she’d mastered changing its size. Next she needed to work on the shape. She willed the fire to create a line outward, just like the ribbons of fire from
Vôo de Dragão
.

A tendril cautiously emerged from the bulb, slithering through the air like a snake. It extended about two feet, then its end tipped up, as if expecting her instruction.

Go back
. The tendril moved back to the bulb, which absorbed it. She practiced a few more times with no problems.

Whew
. The big question was, would she be mentally dexterous enough to make the fire burn through the rope without burning herself in the process? What if—

The ground rumbled beneath the house.
What the hell?
Did Torth have earthquakes? She wasn’t even sure she’d recognize one. Growing up in the Midwest, she’d never experienced one.

The earth shook again, enough to make the bedframe bounce along the floor. Gin’s breath again came in short gasps. Was it an earthquake? Or something worse?

C
HAPTER
24

R
IA
AND
M
ATHIAS
LANDED
IN
A
heap on the needle-strewn floor of a pine forest. Normally Ria loved the scent of pine, but after that portal journey, the sweet evergreen notes soured her stomach. She scrambled away from her brother, trying to put some distance between them, and threw up.

She remained crouched close to the ground as she caught her breath. “Dammit.” Rocking back onto her knees, she swiped her sleeve across her mouth and turned to Mathias. “Ugh, gross. When do you get used to portal travel?”

Mathias strode over and offered a hand to help her up. “It takes a while. Gets a little easier each time.”

She shoved her hair out of her face. “Can’t happen soon enough. I need more assignments in different realms.”

“Tell that to Arawn.” Mathias typed away on his gem phone. “Got our coordinates. We’re on the south edge of the forest. And.” He held up the phone, then drew it close for another look. “We have the place to ourselves.”

That was one thing in their favor—no immediate enemies to fight. “So, big brother, how do we search an entire realm for one female?”

Mathias blew out a breath. “She was taken by a Deserati. And we were attacked by several, on three different occasions. I have a Deserati contact. I’ll start with her, while you get to call our boss.”

She opened her mouth to protest. This news was absolutely the last thing she wanted to tell Arawn.
By the way, we lost a Solsti.

Mathias held up a hand. “Don’t even start. You begged off talking to him last time. It’s your turn.” He turned away and started tapping on his phone again.