Fire Reborn (Shifting Fire Book 1)

by D. S. O'Neill

  “You can’t stay here, sweetheart. Even if…even if what just happened hadn’t happened, just knowing what you are places you in grave danger with the Coven. There’s this…man that they’ve become entangled with who will do you nothing but harm. But it’s okay. I know someone—someone who can help hide you from the supernatural community, just so long as you never come back here again.”

  Jakob suddenly rose to his feet next to Katra, and she was surprised she hadn’t realized he was sitting next to her earlier. “Marana—we can’t just…I can’t just leave her there. I have to go get her. She needs—”

  “She needs you to take care of her daughter, Jakob. That’s what she needs.”

  Staring at her blankly, Jakob slowly nodded before looking down at his hands absently. “What do we do?”

  “Take this.” She placed a broken smokey quartz crystal in his hand. “Hold onto Katra and smash this on the ground. It will take you to a man—possibly the only man—who can help you.” Stepping back, she took a deep breath before suddenly launching her small form at him, pulling him in for a violent hug. “I hope we see each other again one day, Jakob, but I am simply unsure of what the gods have planned for us all. Thank you for always being so good to my daughter. You and Marana both. You are good, decent people. You never deserved this. None of it.”

  Jakob returned her hug fiercely as tears squeezed out from between his closed eyelids. “You as well, Evie. You refused to cow-tow to Caroline and her idiotic ideals, and for that, I am truly grateful.”

  “Caroline is a moron. She will never understand that we supernaturals are all family, no matter how different our magic is.”

  “And this will make you better than her until the day she dies. But then, we already knew that.”

  Evie’s mouth quirked into a tiny smirk. Wiping away a few errant tears, she took a deep breath and stepped back before focusing her attention on Katra and Addi. “Girls…I’m so sorry, but…you need to say goodbye. I don’t know if you will ever…well. Now is the time. We all need to move before it’s too late.” Turning around, she began grabbing a few books and some scattered papers, shuffling them together. She was clearly packing up what few things she felt she absolutely needed.

  Katra turned to Addi, staring at her beautiful, strong best friend for what felt like the last time, and she could feel tears begin to burn behind her eyes. She couldn’t believe this was happening—Addi was her lifeline, so valiant and brave and confident. With her midnight black hair, thick black lashes and beautiful blue eyes, and her skin as pale as winter snow, she looked like some dark goddess of the night. Katra only hoped to have half her confidence, half her fortitude, and half her strength of will.

  She couldn’t handle this. It was too much loss for one day.

  “Don’t worry, Katty. We’ll see each other again.” Addi smiled at her with complete confidence, as if they were only saying goodbye for a few hours instead of an entire lifetime.

  “I—I guess we can hope for that.” Katra forced out through a tightening throat as tears started streaming down her face.

  “Oh my gosh, Katty, really? Relax. It’ll be a while, but we’ll see each other. There’s a lot that still has to happen, and we have people to meet, but in the end, we have really big things to do.”

  Katra could only stand and stare at her best friend as Addi pulled a bracelet from her wrist, the same one she wore every day, the one that had belonged to her father before he died some two years ago. It was silver with small, twinkling stars dangling around it. Katra remembered the day Addi had insisted they get it adjusted so she could change the length as she grew older. Her father had always been fascinated by the stars, saying they were little gateways to other worlds, and if you paid attention, they could tell you what to expect from the future.

  With a decisive pat on her head, a confident nod, and a quick hug, Addi took a hold of Katra’s arm and clipped the star bracelet on her wrist before turning her back to her father. Katra looked back at Addi over her shoulder as her father pulled her close while lifting the crystal high over his head, preparing to throw it against the floor. There were so many questions Katra had for her best friend but no time with which to ask them as Jakob threw the crystal and it shattered into a whirlwind of swirling color and glimmering magic.

  “That was Evangeline’s crystal.” A deep, ancient voice boomed in Katra’s ear as the world took form again in the shape of a large room decorated in ancient artefacts and odd bits and ends that seemed to have no real form but pulsed with undisguised magic. She absorbed the room with a sense of wary curiosity before her gaze landed on a tall man with mocha skin, dark chocolate hair, and black eyes. He stared at them blankly, not a hint of emotion on his face, and she briefly wondered if perhaps they should have knocked first or something.

  “The only way that would have worked for you was if she transferred over guardianship of the crystal to you. Why would she do that? What sort of trouble have you two brought to my home?” The man cocked his head to the side and regarded them with his dark gaze, like a scientist examining a new species of mammal…or possibly bacteria.

  He was seated in a high-backed, velvet chair that looked as though it had seen better days, and he wore an odd assortment of clothing that appeared to be pulled at random from several different time periods—high heeled shoes from probably the 1700’s, black pin-stripe slacks from the 1920’s, and a Victorian era waistcoat over what could only be described as a billowy white pirate shirt. It was the most bizarre ensemble, and while she wished she could say he pulled it off, the truth of the matter was, he really didn’t.

  “Are you Daromir?” Jakob spoke up then, keeping one arm firmly around Katra’s shoulders in a protective manner as he eyed the stranger up and down, seeming to find the man’s outfit equally alarming, particularly in comparison to his simple blue jeans and plaid button up shirt. Katra didn’t remember any discussion of the man’s name when they were at Evie’s house, but then again, there was a lot she didn’t remember from the last hour.

  The first hour of the rest of her life without her mother.

  The man nodded in affirmation. “Indeed I am. So why has Evangeline sent you to me? I mark every teleportation crystal I hand out, you know. They each have a sort of signature. I know it was her that sent you.” Crossing his legs, he peered at Katra.

  “She said you could help us. She said you were the only one who can.”

  “Well, now, that’s quite the recommendation. But I have to wonder why she thinks I would help you? What benefit could there possibly be for myself?”

  Shifting awkwardly, Jakob seemed to weigh his options before finally making a decision. “We need to hide my daughter. Both physically, and…magically.”

  Daromir’s gaze drifted back down to Katra again with a touch more curiosity. “Oh? And hide from whom, exactly? I can’t imagine who would possibly want to find her.”

  “Everyone. We need to hide her from everyone.”

  This seemed to grab the man’s attention more than anything else, and he stood quickly, staring Jakob straight in the eyes. “Why?”

  “Because…” Her father swallowed as he looked down at her with worry. “She’s a phoenix shifter.”

  Katra thought she felt the temperature in the room drop fractionally, but moments later, it was normal again, and she wrote it off as her imagination.

  “Well. That is…I thought it was impossible. How can you be sure?”

  Releasing her from his hold for the first time since arriving, Jakob took a step back and motioned towards her while keeping his gaze on Daromir. “Can you try to cast a spell on her?”

  Daromir’s eyebrows quirked together in surprised confusion. “You want me to cast at your daughter?”

  “If what I say is true, you know it won’t matter what you do.”

  The man cocked his head to the side as he continued to stare at Jakob, before he finally looked back at Katra. Flicking his hand in her direction, a
gust of powerful air flew at her, strong enough to throw her tiny body against the wall at her back. But instead, the familiar tongues of flame flickered into existence, appearing to eat the air itself as it formed what almost looked like a thin shield of fire in front of her before disappearing.

  Daromir’s eyebrows flew up to disappear under his shaggy, dark bangs, and a low whistle escaped his lips. “I never thought…you aren’t supposed to be possible, love dove. Do you know that?”

  She nodded meekly.

  Shaking his head, he moved to a bookcase against the far wall, scanning the titles as he continued to address her. “You’re going to have to lose that meek attitude quick, child. Your future, if you want it to last for any length, won’t allow for it. You might not have asked for it, but this is the hand the gods have dealt you, and you’re going to have to learn to play it, and play it well.” Finding what he was looking for, he grabbed a dusty tome that looked older than the history of the phoenixes themselves. He brushed it off before cracking it open, and she could hear the sound of old leather creaking as he began to turn the brittle pages. It was a few minutes before he finally stopped on a page, and he skimmed over it with his eyes as he moved to a table beside the bookcase that was covered with strange instruments that looked like they could be torture devices.

  Picking up something that looked like a swirling wooden wand ending in a frighteningly sharp point, he turned back to Jakob and Katra with a look of sympathy. “I can indeed help hide you, but first, a warning—this will be painful. It will only last a few moments, but once it’s done, you must promise me something…what is your name, child?”

  “Katra. But my best friend calls…called me Katty.”

  “Well,” he began as he moved closer to her. “I think I’ll stick with Katra. It sounds as though your friend was very special, and that nickname should be reserved for her alone. I assume you mean Evangeline’s daughter, Addilyn?”

  She nodded.

  “An amazing child in her own right. Now, Katra, you must promise me, no matter what, you will try your hardest to never use your magic. These runes will help to shield you from any supernatural who could sense you, but remember that your magic is made to eat away at other magic, even that of someone as powerful as myself.”

  “What are you?” Katra asked hesitantly.

  The tall, dark man smiled sadly. “I am a sorcerer, child.”

  Her mouth fell open in a startled ‘oh’. There weren’t many sorcerers in existence, and most of them were well hidden from the rest of the supernatural community. She wasn’t fully educated on what the full extent of a sorcerer’s abilities were, but from what she understood, they were nearly limitless. It was said that a sorcerer was just a step or two below the gods themselves.

  He nodded in understanding at her reaction as he held up the sharpened wand. “This is a stylus. I am going to use this to draw a series of runes on your body. It will be reasonably small, about the size of my hand, but we’ll have to make sure it’s somewhere most people won’t see it. Perhaps the center of her back?” He directed the question to her father, who considered for a moment before nodding.

  Turning her around, Daromir handed Jakob a small strip of thick leather before lifting the back of her shirt. “You’ll need to bite down on this, child, and please, if there is any place you can gather strength from, gather it now, because once I start, you cannot move. One line out of place by even a millimeter will destroy the power in the runes.”

  Katra felt her fear and panic rising, and she scrambled desperately to find something—anything—to keep from running out of the room in terror.

  In that moment, Addi’s smiling face flashed in her mind, her strong hands curled into fists as she faced down the witches time and time again, demanding they leave her best friend alone. She never once mentioned herself, never once seemed to realize that she was just as much an outcast as Katra, even as the coven ridiculed her and called her a traitor to her own kind. Through every verbal attack, every stink hex they left at her house, every rot hex they put in her mother’s garden, Addi had remained strong.

  If there were ever anyone Katra wanted to be like, it was her warrior angel Addi.

  Biting her lip harshly, Katra took a deep breath, then stilled her body as she waited.

  The pain was gut-wrenching.

  It bit into her skin, into her very soul, and carved out pieces of herself she didn’t even know she had. She felt the magic work its way into her essence, and she also felt her own magic rising in answer, ready to burn away the offending presence, but she just bit down harder on her lip, tasting blood as she struggled desperately to gain some semblance of control over her newly-discovered power.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped. A dull ache settled in its place in the center of her spine, and she felt something cool and soothing spread over it. Some kind of ointment, she guessed, as Daromir finished and then tugged her shirt back down over it.

  “You did amazing, child. Truly amazing. I don’t know where you found your strength, but wherever it came from, keep a hold of it. Don’t lose that. It will help you survive.”

  Jakob wrapped a gentle arm around her shoulders again, careful not to touch the tender center of her back nor put too much weight on her, as he reached into the pocket of his jeans. “We don’t have much money right now, but I can come back when I’ve been able to—”

  “No.”

  Freezing with his hand in pocket, Jakob looked up at Daromir in surprise. “But…this was no small thing. You’ve saved my daughter’s life. I have to repay you somehow.”

  “You can repay me by keeping her safe. In fact, I have some funds stashed away for emergencies that I will be giving you here before you go to help you find somewhere to hide. I would highly recommend not staying in one place for too long—a year, two at the most, but preferably less. Try to stay away from any supernaturals, stick to the back country as much as possible, and only go into town if absolutely necessary. The runes will hold up so long as you keep your promise to never use your ability.”

  Jakob just stared at him stupidly, his hand still stuffed in his pocket, his mouth hanging open slightly.

  Daromir’s head tilted to the side ever so slightly as he regarded Jakob’s shock. “You really don’t understand the extent of her abilities, do you? There are a number of very bad, very powerful people in this world who would love nothing more than to get a hold of your daughter and use her power to accomplish any number of things.” His eyes grew dark as they seemed to lose focus, as if gazing at some far-off scene that frightened him to his core and left him empty and desolate.

  “Terrible, horrible things.”

  Chapter 1

  11 years later

  Life is what you make it.

  This was something that Katra believed more than anything as she gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror of the log cabin she and her father had lived in for the last 8 months, the light reflecting off the silver charms of Addi’s bracelet on her wrist. She’d had it adjusted a number of times over the years, even though her wrists had always been fairly small, though in relation to her equally small body, they were appropriately sized.

  This time around, Katra and her father had wound up in the outskirts of a small town in southern Alaska, and this time of year, in late autumn, the woods were calm and inviting, and she had every intention of putting them to good use.

  She tilted her head and watched as her reflection mimicked the movement. For possibly the thousandth time in her life, she thanked the gods that she lived in the 21st century, where her naturally ombre flame hair was not considered horribly unusual. People wrote her off as just another weird, artistic millennial who probably listened to Fall Out Boy or something and was committed to keeping her carbon footprint as small as possible. To be fair, she really did enjoy the band Fall Out Boy, but as far as carbon footprints went…well, she really wasn’t even sure what a carbon footprint even was.
>
  Although she suspected it probably had something to do with carbon.

  Maybe a footprint made of carbon?

  No, that didn’t make sense. Carbon was a gaseous element…right?

  Shaking away her fly-away thoughts, she pulled the bright yellow-orange ends of her hair up into a wild, messy bun, and wrinkled her nose at her too pale skin that was sprinkled with the lightest dusting of pale freckles. Why couldn’t she have the beautiful, smooth olive skin that the native Alaskans around her so often had? Sometimes, life seemed so unfair.

  No time for those thoughts. She had stuff to do.

  Exiting the bathroom, she made her way down the short hall of their two-bedroom cabin to the living room where her father was most likely to be found.

  Her father was, as per usual, seated at his desk in the corner of the small, quaint living room, with a historical volume spread open on the desk in front of him. The glasses he wore were barely hanging on the tip of his nose, and he subconsciously pushed them back up with the side of his index finger, never breaking his concentration.

  “I’m gonna run into town for more milk, dad.”

  “You’re lactose intolerant.”

  Rolling her eyes, she shook her head while moved to grab some cash from the black porcelain box sitting on the kitchen counter given to them by Daromir when she was young. It was enchanted, and every week another wad of bills magically appeared in it like clock-work, and if they happened to be in a Canadian town, the money would automatically change to Canadian currency. She always knew what day it was by how much cash was in there. “I know that, dad, but you aren’t, and last I checked, you drink a glass of milk with every meal. You should really drink some water every once in a while.”

  “Probably.” Jakob replied absentmindedly, his attention still focused on whatever piece of history he was studying up on as he once again pushed his falling glasses back up on his nose.