Playing With Fire

by Adrienne Woods et al.

  It took me a long moment to realize what the hell he meant by ‘endangering me’, but then it hit me with jarring clarity: we didn’t have any contraception. Condoms obviously weren’t a think here, and I’d been off the pill since going to prison. Seeing as how I didn’t want to end up on an episode of Salamander Teen Moms, I reluctantly agreed to hold off on that particular endeavor.

  He returned his lips to mine for a long, languid kiss. “Don’t worry, there are many other things we can do.”

  I was walking on air as I made my way back to my little apartment in the training area. Fenix had proven there were indeed many things to do besides actual sex—all of them amazing.

  When I got back to my room it was to find an unexpected visitor waiting for me. I started at the sight of Aidan sitting casually on my bed; it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him, but more that I was surprised and a little confused about seeing him here in this space.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not here to ravish you,” he said with a smirk. “Looks like that’s already been well and truly accomplished this evening.”

  I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. “And why are you here Aidan? You never come to my room.”

  He shrugged. “Seems the cat’s out of the bag anyway, so what does it matter?”

  He had a point.

  “Dante’s on his way as well.”

  My eyes widened in alarm. Not one but two of them in my room? That was a sure fire way to quell the gossip—not.

  Dante arrived a few moments later; his eyes widened the moment he saw me, his expression quickly morphing into a knowing smirk. I narrowed my eyes in annoyance—did I seriously look that sexed up right now?

  “Okay, seriously, am I wearing a sign or something?”

  Aidan let out a soft chuckle. “No, but your lips are all puffy, your hair’s a mess, you’ve got hickeys on your neck and when you walked in here just before you were all blissed out like you were walking on a cloud or something.”

  “The hot springs are relaxing,” I countered.

  He arched an eyebrow. “And I guess a bee stung you on the lips?”

  “Okay, why don’t we just get to why you’re here?” I suggested.

  “We need to start making a plan for the Testing,” Aidan said. “Go over the sorts of things that might be expected to come up…make a plan for it.”

  “Okay…”

  “Listen, Sera, this is important,” Dante said in that quiet way of his. “People have died in the Testing before. We need to make sure you’re as prepared as possible so you can get through this.”

  Okay, that didn’t freak me out at all. I merely nodded and glanced between the two of them. “Shouldn’t Fenix be here for this?”

  “This isn’t a boyfriend thing,” Aidan clarified. “Fenix knows we’re helping you with this but he can’t actually be here. He’s the fledgling instructor—he can’t be giving you special treatment.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough. So what are we working on tonight?”

  Dante leafed through one of the massive books he’d brought with him, stopping on a page with a sketch of what appeared to be a giant slug. “I think we should talk about the possibility of fire worms.”

  Chapter 9

  We continued with the ‘Testing prep’ for the next couple of weeks, and between that, my actual training and my sessions with Aidan I was actually starting to think I might survive this thing.

  That was until one night when I was walking back from the baths and was waylaid in an empty passageway by Flint.

  “Seraphina, isn’t it? You’re the one everyone’s been talking about.”

  I bit down on my jaw, cursing myself for taking the short cut back to my room instead of the longer, more populated route. I wasn’t a hundred per cent sure why, but ever since I’d seen him at that party Flint had just rubbed me the wrong way. We’d never actually spoken before now, but I’d caught him eyeing me a few times and it always made me uncomfortable.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s me,” I said, before turning and attempting to make a hasty getaway.

  He was faster, however, and before I could get further than a few steps he had me cornered, backed up against the rough cavern wall and caged in with his arms.

  “What is it about you, I wonder, that has three of my brothers so utterly besotted?” As he ran his eyes slowly over my body it felt like slime dripping all over me. “You’re nice to look at, I’ll give you that. Definitely good for a lay. But you’re still a fucking halfling,” he added with a curl of his lips, “and yet my brothers seem to actually care about you. What’s that about?” He let out a huff of disgust. “You even got Fenix to go against his better judgement. You must have a magic—”

  Not wanting to hear any more of his shit, I cut him off by lifting my knee to slam right into his groin. He let out a grunt of pain and immediately moved his hands to protect his area, freeing me from the cage he’d held me in against the wall. I wasted no time in making a break for it, but it seemed I’d misjudged the recovery time from my kneeing—salamander guys clearly had a higher pain threshold than humans—and before I could even get a few steps away from him, he was lunging at me, grabbing a hold of my shoulder and yanking me back to slam against the wall.

  My head felt like it was splitting in two after slamming into the rock behind me; I knew I’d likely drawn blood but I had more important things to worry about—like the psycho with his hand wrapped around my neck as he held me against the wall.

  I realized now why I’d been so wary of Flint from the moment I first saw him: he’d reminded me of my foster brother—the one who’d been all jokes and easy conversation when he had an audience, but who terrorized me behind closed doors. The one I’d killed in a fire eighteen months ago. Flint wasn’t just an obnoxious asshole, he was a sadistic prick, the glint in his eyes making it crystal clear just how much he was enjoying watching me in pain.

  I felt a weird sensation rush over me, and I realized far too late what was happening—Flint was disabling my power. Terror ripped through me as it occurred to me that for the first time in my life I was utterly powerless. I’d been an idiot to try and fight him off without fire magic; sure he was more powerful and more magically skilled than I was so he’d probably whoop my ass in any kind of magic battle we had, but the flamed might have caught someone’s attention, or it might have bought me time to get away.

  I gritted my teeth, my eyes falling closed as I fought desperately not to let the tears escape my eyes. How was it possible that my beautiful, amazing princes shared blood with this psycho?

  “I can definitely see the appeal—not of sharing one female,” he clarified with a sharp shake of his head, “that’s utterly ridiculous. But multiple partners? Yes, I can see why you might be drawn to that. When I’m king—”

  I opened my eyes, fixing him with a defiant glare, and as though for a split second I’d forgotten he held me by the throat, I growled, “You won’t be king.”

  He didn’t increase his grip, however. If anything, he seemed amused by my outburst. “Haven’t you heard, sweetheart? Your boyfriends aren’t all that popular anymore—thanks to you. It seems people are looking for someone new to lead them. Someone uncompromised. They’re looking to me.”

  “No. There’s no way.”

  I may as well have not spoken for all the attention he paid me. “And when I’m king, I think I’ll have my own little harem. I’ll have to have a proper consort, obviously, but I’ll have a separate harem, and you’ll be the star.”

  My defiance clearly wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I decided to change tack. “You seriously want your brothers’ sloppy seconds? Or I guess it would be sloppy fourths by the time it got to you.”

  He smirked. “I’m not an idiot. I know none of my brothers have actually bedded you—they’re all too honorable.” He spoke the last word with the kind of distasteful tone a child might use to describe Brussel sprouts. “No…you’re going to be all mine.”

  “No.” I tried shaki
ng my head but he held me firmly in place, his fingers digging deeper into the flesh on my neck. “No. Aidan, Dante and Fenix would never let that happen. They’d never let you touch me. And they won’t let you become king, either.”

  He flashed a manic grin. “Your precious princes won’t be around long enough to interfere with anything.”

  The bottom of my stomach dropped out, a new wave of terror engulfing me. I suddenly didn’t give a shit what Flint did to me right then, as long as I could get away long enough to warn the guys. They’d told me countless times not to worry about them, that they would never fall for the kind of trap that had killed their other brothers, but I wasn’t sure if they realized exactly how ruthless Flint was. If he wanted them out of the way, I had no doubt it would get done.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw something that made hope kindle in my chest—Ember approaching slowly from behind Flint, her expression horror-struck. I made sure not to react to her presence, instead keeping Flint distracted with conversation.

  “Even if you somehow manage to kill them, you’ll still never have me. I’ll kill myself before I let you touch me. I’ll fail the Testing on purpose just so I don’t have to go near you.”

  “How very passionate you are—I can certainly see what my brothers see—”

  He broke off then, because Ember had unleashed the kind of fire ropes I’d come to think of as Aidan’s trademark and lashed them around Flint’s entire body, prompting him to release his hold on me. With my magic now flowing back, I released some fire ropes of my own to better secure our hold.

  Then something that I could only describe as carnal came over me. I bent to pick up a large rock from the cavern floor and climbed on top of Flint, who was now lying on the ground struggling against the binds. In an absolute frenzy, I bought the rock down hard against his face—again, and again, and again, and again—until his face was unrecognizable and there was so much blood the rock was slipping out of my grip.

  “Sera!” I heard Ember shout from what seemed like a long way away. I had the impression it wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get my attention. I looked up to find her staring at me, her expression one of shock mingled with sympathy. “I think that’s enough now,” she said gently.

  It wouldn’t be enough until he was dead, but judging by how still he was it was quite possible that had already happened. At the very least he was knocked out, and we decided to leave him tied up in the empty cavern and seek out the guys for help. It was unlikely someone would find Flint in this secluded area, but we figured it would be less suspicious if he was found there on his own than if one of us was found there with him.

  Fenix’s apartment was closest so we headed straight there. I was surprised and grateful to find not only Fenix, but Aidan as well; it appeared whatever rift had developed between these two after Fenix killed my father had begun to heal in recent weeks, and I was glad.

  “What the fuck?” Aidan spat out the moment he saw me. He jumped to his feet and rushed over to me, Fenix hot on his heels. Both of them wore matching expressions of alarm mixed with concern.

  “What happened?”

  “Are you hurt?”

  “Whose blood is that?”

  “Okay, okay,” Ember cut into the barrage of questions, “why don’t you give her a second to breathe.”

  I gathered myself, my eyes darting between both Aidan and Fenix. “I-I killed Flint. At least, I think I did. I don’t know—there was a lot of blood and he wasn’t moving…”

  “Where is he now?” Fenix asked.

  “I can take you to him,” Ember said.

  Fenix nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

  I moved to go with them but Fenix placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “No, you stay here and get yourself cleaned up.” He pressed a gentle kiss to the side of my head and then followed Ember out of his apartment.

  I turned back to Aidan to find him glaring at me. “What happened, Sera?” he asked, his tone seething with barely contained rage.

  My eyes widened in alarm. This wasn’t really the reaction I’d expected, but I guess Flint was his brother—that had to mean something. “I-I-I’m sorry…I know he’s your brother. I didn’t mean…”

  He shook his head sharply. “Fuck—shit. No, I’m not mad at you. I know you didn’t do anything wrong. I want to know what the hell that bastard did to you to make you try to kill him.”

  I let out a deep breath, relieved now to see some of the anger had drained; it was still there, bubbling under the surface, but it was like he was trying really hard not to let it overflow.

  “He scared me,” I admitted. “He didn’t touch me, he just scared me more than I’d ever been scared in my entire life. I was freaking terrified and I didn’t like it.”

  Chapter 10

  Aidan wrapped his arms around me and I found myself snuggling into his broad chest, tears leaking freely from my eyes. “He said he was going to kill you. You and Dante and Fenix.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, rubbing a soothing hand over my back. “He can’t touch us now—you made sure of that.”

  Did I? What if I hadn’t actually killed him? What if I’d just made him angrier and more determined to take out my princes?

  I voiced this thought aloud but Aidan didn’t seem deterred. “Trust me—even if you didn’t kill him, he won’t survive much longer. Fenix will see to that.”

  He stepped away from me, taking hold of my hand instead. “Come on, lets get you cleaned up.”

  He led me toward a little basin in Fenix’s bedroom; there was no plumbing or anything, it was just a simple crevice that had been carved into the wall and somehow connected to the hot springs so it was full with warm water.

  Aidan helped me out of my blood-stained shirt, leaving my top half bare but for the blood I could feel crusting around my neck and arms. He didn’t say anything to acknowledge the fact I was standing here half-naked before him. This wasn’t a sexy moment; it was me being taken care of after an ordeal by one of the people I trusted most in the world.

  Dipping a cloth in the basin, he began to gently wipe at the blood.

  “I thought you said he didn’t touch you?” Aidan asked angrily upon cleaning away the blood to reveal the handprint around my throat.

  I shrugged. “This doesn’t really count.”

  “You have finger-marks around your fucking neck!”

  “Aidan, calm down—I get bruises worse than this on a daily basis in training.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  I pressed a palm to the side of his face, my thumb running over the rough stubble on his jaw. “Aidan, I’m fine, okay?”

  His eyes fell closed for a moment, as if he needed a second to gather himself. He opened them again and in a gentler tone asked, “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  I debated not telling him, but I knew that wouldn’t be fair, so I gestured to the back of my head. “I banged my head—there might be a little cut there.”

  His jaw feathered in frustration but he said nothing as he turned me around to inspect my head. His fingers were gentle as he probed the area. “Fuck. There’s blood everywhere.”

  He dipped the cloth back in the basin, bringing it to the back of my head to clean away the blood. “Are you feeling okay? Do you have a concussion?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t feel dizzy or nauseous or anything.”

  “We’ll have to keep an eye on you tonight just in case.” That was something I wasn’t going to complain about.

  I was beginning to shiver. My skin pricking with goosebumps from the water and the open air.

  “Here,” Aidan said softly, and the next thing I knew, he was pulling a shirt over my head. It was warm and smelled like him, and I knew before I’d even glanced around he’d given me the shirt right off his back.

  “Now you’re going to be cold.”

  He offered me a warm smile. “I’ll survive.”

  Fenix and Ember returned a few moments later with Dante in tow.

&n
bsp; “He’s dead—I made it look like an accident,” Fenix announced darkly. He walked over to me, pausing in his step as his eyes fixed on the bruises around my neck. “Is that what I think it is?”

  I drew my hand up to my throat in a feeble attempt to cover the marks. “I’m fine—really.”

  Fenix shook his head angrily. “Bastard. I should have strung him up by the balls.”

  “She has a concussion,” Aidan told them.

  “I don’t have a concussion,” I argued. “I just banged my head.”

  “Someone needs to stay with her tonight,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I have to be at the barracks.”

  Fenix let out a sigh of frustration, his eyes falling closed. “I can’t stay overnight with a fledgling.”

  “Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’ve got three boyfriends,” Dante said with a smile. “I’m all yours, babe.”

  I kissed Fenix and Aidan goodbye and then Ember and Dante and I made our way back to the training area.

  I didn’t want to think about what had happened earlier, but it was kind of hard not to, and my mind kept going back to one little detail.

  “How did you find me?” I asked Ember once we were back at my room.

  “Huh?”

  “When Flint had me in that passageway—people hardly ever use that one…don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful you came, I was just interested to know how you knew I was there. Or was it really just a coincidence?” If it had been, it was the luckiest thing ever.

  Ember bit her bottom lip, averting her eyes for a moment. “No, it wasn’t just a coincidence.”

  “Okay, so how…?”

  She straightened up, looking me squarely in the eye. “Okay, don’t be mad, but before training started Aidan kind of asked me to look out for you. My brother’s a guardian, so Aidan kind of knows my family and—”

  “Wait, so you’ve only been pretending to be friends with me?”