MICHELLE IRWIN
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2016 by Michelle Irwin
First Edition October 2016
Published in Australia
Print ISBN: 978-0-9945337-9-1 and 978-1539646174
Cover Artist: Desiree DeOrto Designs
Cover content used for illustrative purposes only, and any person depicted is a model.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The following story is set in Australia and therefore has been written in US English. The spelling and usage reflect that.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and for all other inquiries, contact:
Michelle Irwin P O Box 671 MORAYFIELD QLD 4506 AUSTRALIA
www.michelle-irwin.com
[email protected]
DEDICATION
“We know what we are, but not what we may be.”
~ William Shakespeare
To everyone who made this book happen the way I wanted it to happen.
To the wonderful people who inspired different characters in this series.
To Evie and Clay.
I salute you all.
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CHAPTER ONE
EVIE’S SOFT LIPS caressed my skin.
One of my hands ran through her silken, red-gold hair. The uniquely colored strands danced in the afternoon sun pouring into the open space of the warehouse as they fell from between my fingertips. My other hand trailed familiar paths across her bare skin. The satisfied smile on her mouth, whenever her lips lifted off my skin, cemented one simple fact in my mind—I was one lucky sonofabitch.
With my love in my hold, it was easy to ignore the worry that had filled me in recent weeks and relish the moment. To grin as excitement for what the future might hold flooded into place. Resting on my side, and savoring the fact that we were back together—at least for the moment—I marveled at the way things had gone since the first time I’d met my little phoenix.
My life had taken some crazy twists and turns since then. So many of them had torn me from her arms, but the latest ones had lead me straight back to her, back to the warehouse where we’d spent seven magical days hidden from the realities of the world so many years ago.
After everything we’d fought through to end up where we were, I knew without doubt or fear that standing at her side was exactly where I needed to be. Wherever life took us from the perfect moment we shared, we would traverse it together. With that certainty burning through me, each of our missteps and errors almost made sense. They’d all lead us here.
Over the years, I had spent time away from her and we’d shared time together—too much of one and not nearly enough of the other. All of it had led me back to her though, and left me with the truth of the world tattooed across my heart. Because of our forced separations, I knew more about the beautiful creature who’d granted me her love than I’d ever expected to or might have learned otherwise. Of course, it had also forced me to endure situations that left me with a head full of memories that would continue to haunt me until the day I died.
With Evie at my side though, none of those recollections could hurt me. Instead, they made me certain that I could face anything, do anything, just so long as she was with me. We’d shared a blissful, but far too quick, reunion in the warehouse where we’d truly began the first time, and it was both a reminder of everything I’d been missing and a promise of things to come.
It was exactly what I’d needed and more than I’d hoped for when I first left the note for Evie on her father’s grave. All I’d really expected to achieve was to warn her that in a little over a year, her unique ability to start fires would fade. It would see the loss of her greatest defense and increase the danger the world—my family—posed to her.
Her cheek brushed across my palm, so I cupped my fingers against her face. As she leaned into my hand, her loosened hair swept across her shoulder in a silken flow of red, gold, and bronze tones. Her lilac irises retracted as her pupils dilated in response to the sun. As our eyes met, I wondered what it might take to persuade her into another round of reunion sex. Probably not much based on the way her lips parted as my gaze trailed over them.
When our gazes locked, I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that split my mouth and lifted my lips. I was certain I’d smiled more in the little time I’d spent with her than I had in the last eighteen months. There was no way I would ever doubt her again, nor could I deny the strength of our love.
Even as I moved to kiss her once more, the blood drained from her face, and she leapt to her feet. It was a reminder that we weren’t a carefree couple. We weren’t able to claim anything more than a few stolen moments of happiness. In the next instant, she was standing with her jeans and panties in her hand, already re-dressing. My name fell from her lips in a concerned whisper.
I pushed myself up to rest on my elbows and waited for her to continue. Something had her spooked, but there were no sounds nearby, so I didn’t think there was any danger. At least, nothing immediate.
She sucked down a deep breath and frowned as she asked, “If you weren’t hunting me, who was?”
Her question was enough to cause me to leap to my feet and follow her lead in getting dressed once more. We might need to flee the warehouse without notice. Better to be prepared and clothed than caught out naked. Once I’d pulled on my boxers, I saw the shiver of fear running through Evie’s body, and I had to ignore my task to comfort her.
“I can’t say for sure,” I said to answer her question. I had my suspicions but had been too preoccupied with other things to let them develop. My head was too full of joy that Evie hadn’t run from me because she’d hated me, like I’d assumed, but rather because she’d overheard words of hatred I’d intended for my father.
With her in my hold, we talked in circles about the different possibilities, but the one that made the most sense to me was my older brother, Ethan.
Eth had spent so long trying to convince me of Evie’s guilt. Both he and my father had worked to convince me that Evie had captured me in some spell. As it turned out, they’d been right to a degree, but not the way they’d thought. When I mentioned to Evie the reasons I thought it might be Eth, the fact that he’d blamed her for what had happened after Detroit—after my sister’s death from a fire—she’d frowned.
“I never meant for any of this
to happen.” Even without the sorrow in her voice, I would have believed her. There wasn’t a malicious bone in her; I knew that . . . now. My certainty was born from my own experience, as well as a result of the research I’d undertaken about her ancestors.
“I know,” I assured her as I moved to comfort her, lifting her chin so she’d meet my eye and then cupping her cheek.
“I’m really glad you tried to find me,” she said, leaning into my touch.
The sensation made me think of our blissful union just minutes earlier, and I longed to share that with her again before long. My tongue slicked across my lips as I thought about kissing her again.
“Whatever the reason,” she continued, breaking my concentration on her full bottom lip, “I’m glad you did.”
The words were a bucket of cold water over my lust. They were a reminder of why I’d come home from Europe and the reason I’d set up the elaborate trail to lead her to me. I broke apart from her before brushing my fingers through the shaggy brown hair that hung over my face, pushing it back out of my eyes.
“Sit,” I said, moving to my bag to gather the notes I’d gotten from the professor of linguistics and mythology, Zarita Cristou, who I’d met overseas. As I pulled them out, I was almost ashamed my own terrible scrawl covered so much of the sheet. “I almost forgot.”
When Evie was sitting, I offered the pages to her.
“This is the reason I left you the note. This is all the information I found out about you, well, about where you come from—about the phoenix and the sunbird.”
“There’s so much here.” Her voice was quiet, and her face paled as she flicked randomly through the pages. “You probably know me better than I do.”
“Like I said, I needed to know.” I wondered if I should tell her the truth. Or at least, how much of it I should tell her. Could I really explain that I’d gone in search of information about her past to try to figure out how she’d ensnared me?
I didn’t know how to do it without running the risk of saying something wrong, something that might hurt her again. The peace we’d found in each other’s arms—peace I’d barely dared to hope was possible again—was so perfect I couldn’t risk anything disrupting it. I certainly didn’t want her to run from me again.
“That you’d be okay,” I added so that I didn’t say more than I should.
“And you realized I wouldn’t be?” The pitch of Evie’s voice raised from the husky, lust-filled tones it had imbibed only minutes earlier, and I wondered exactly what she’d been through in our time apart.
I reached for the documents and flicked it open to a familiar page. The text within detailed the legend of the sunbird. Evie reached for it and the twisted red scar that circled her wrist drew my attention.
Without thinking, I reached for her arm and ran my thumb over the long-healed wound. An image of the warped and melted handcuffs on the hospital bed in Detroit raced through my mind. Had she been so desperate to escape that she’d injured herself so badly? The sight of the scar sent my stomach plummeting. How badly had she suffered? Just to escape me. I met her eye, ready to question her about that day and all the days since.
In response, she shook her head as if silently pleading with me to let it slide. I could feel my mouth twist in disagreement but ended up letting go of her arm without any further comment. I could let it go. For now.
“What’s this?” she asked, pointing to the word that Zarita had used in order to describe the indescribable—the love a phoenix ignites in her mate. The Greek word: agape.
While I’d have to explain it to her eventually and tell her about the whole “true love” thing, I didn’t want to scare her away or overwhelm her. Plus, it wasn’t the most pertinent information. The fact that she was close to losing the protection of the sunbird’s fire was the most important thing.
Instead, I sat beside her and explained everything that Zarita and I had uncovered while Evie scanned the notes.
Even as I spoke, my mind turned to Europe, to Zarita, and to Toni in Oxford, the other person who’d assisted in my quest to know more about Evie’s history. Toni had risked her grandfather’s wrath and her own reputation as a Rain elite to get me into a vault. I would never forget what either of those women had done for me.
For Evie.
While I turned over the memories in my mind, I told Evie some more of my discovery. I explained that the true nature of the sunbird was a protector, and how a phoenix passed the sunbird down through the female line. She knew that the sunbird was passed onto the generation by death, but was surprised when I explained it could also be by birth.
“Mom never knew this,” Evie murmured as she leafed through the pages. “She’d told Dad that she couldn’t have kids, not until . . .”
“It’s not surprising. There appears to be a long period where the sunbird passed through many generations without being woken at all. Then the last five generations have all died young. A lot of the verbal history was lost.” I told her about the lore that the Rain had, the lack of information in the books, and why they’d been desperate to capture rather than kill her. “They certainly never had anything that talks about the sunbird being a protector, about them being essentially good.”
“I guess some people will only listen to what they want to hear,” she mused.
Isn’t that the truth.
While she continued to read through the notes, I explained a little more about what my life had been like since the discovery—the days spent trying to assimilate everything I’d learned into encrypted files in the Rain databases.
“But as useful as that information is, it isn’t the reason I had to contact you,” I said when she stopped reading and met my gaze. “If these legends I’ve found are true, and I have no reason to doubt them, it means that all of your defenses will soon disappear. In little more than a year, the sunbird within you will rest.”
“Even if they do disappear, it doesn’t change anything does it?” she asked. She’d leapt to the exact same conclusion I had. She would never be safe. “The Rain won’t stop hunting me, will they?”
As I shook my head, she looked at me with an odd, saddened expression, and I would have given anything at that moment to know what she was thinking.
“What does this mean for us?” she asked after a pause.
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ve just told me that my life is about to become even more dangerous and that I’ll be defenseless.”
“And?” My heart started to pound as one possible outcome of her train of thought crept into my mind. She wanted to leave. Again. Just the thought caused a physical echo of the pain I’d experienced in the months without her to run through me. For so long, I’d survived, but I hadn’t lived. I wouldn’t do that again. There was no way I would let her leave. I couldn’t lose her once more, not when I barely had her back.
“And I don’t want to force that on you.” Her statement confirmed the worst for me.
My arms ached to hold her, to press her so tightly against me. To assure her that I would protect her with my life.
“It’s not forcing if I volunteer,” I said as vehemently as I could. There was no way I’d let her go again without fighting as hard as I could to keep her beside me. I wouldn’t. “I can keep you safe. I will.”
“You can’t be with me every second of every day.”
“Just watch me.” The words were instinct, and the second they were out, I could see that Evie was going to argue against the practicality of it.
It had taken a window less than a few hours long for my twin sister, Louise, to destroy everything Evie and I had shared. Even though Lou had lost her life in the attack, a similar timeframe would be all it would take for another Rain operative to ruin it all again. I sighed at the hopelessness of our love.
Evie opened her mouth to argue, and I pressed my fingers against her lips to stop her.
“But I didn’t mean it like that,” I added. “I meant I can teach you everything that I know about s
elf-defense. You haven’t needed it before, but you will soon enough.”
Instead of pulling away like I expected her to, she climbed into my lap and wrapped her arms around my waist, enveloping me in her warmth. I held her in return, wondering whether I could convince her to stay by holding her tight enough and simply refusing to let her go.
“I don’t want you to risk your life for me,” she murmured.
I held her tighter. “I could never live with myself if I could have saved you and didn’t. Won’t you let me save you?”
“You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?” she asked.
It was obvious she was giving in—if she’d even really had any fight in the first place—and I couldn’t help the grin that stretched my lips or the chuckle that rose from me. Even if Santa Claus himself had walked through the door, I couldn’t think of a single thing I wanted more than for her to say she wanted to stay by my side.
Within minutes, it was agreed that when Evie left the warehouse, I would be going with her, wherever that took us. My biggest worry was whether my cheeks might actually split from smiling so widely.
Once we’d come to that agreement, she told me a little about what she’d been up to in the time we’d been apart. She even explained more about the fear she’d lived with as she’d run from the hospital. We each had a chance to explain the way we felt after Detroit.
I held Evie tightly as I looked at the papers around us. As I did, the word agape leaped off the page at me, a reminder that I still hadn’t told her one of the most important—and hardest to explain—parts of everything I’d learned.
Even though it concerned me that she might have a negative reaction to it, learning that everything we felt was out of our control, I had to tell her. She deserved to know so that she could make her own choices about it all. After some false starts and a game that sent us both toppling to the ground, I was able to find the words to explain that the sunbird only woke due to mortal danger or true love.
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 1