Ignite: A Fiery Paranormal Romance (The Bound Ones Book 1)

by Tricia Barr

  As the chanting continued and Sebastian’s groaning grew louder and more pain-filled, the balls of water lost their vitality and burst like water balloons in loud, defeated splashes. Puddles bubbled up in feeble arms, convulsing in unrecognizable shapes as they tried to form into something useful but their attempts were fruitless.

  “It’s no use,” Sebastian shouted to Phoenyx through gritted teeth. “I can’t do it. It has to be you!”

  She couldn’t feel the fear resulting from his words, because she was already terrified of dying and of all the pain she felt. It had to be her.

  “You can do it,” Sebastian wailed. The pain was clear in his voice. Phoenyx couldn’t bear the sound, or to know that he suffered too. “Don’t be afraid!” Sebastian yelled.

  Her father’s voice rang in her head. “You can’t be afraid. Your friends need you.”

  But she was afraid. She couldn’t push away the very real fear of dying, and she couldn’t think around the petrifying pain seizing every fiber of her being. She felt her soul lifting out of her body, responding to the ancient words beckoning it from Dexter’s mouth.

  It wasn’t just her life, her soul. It was Lily, Skylar, and Sebastian too. They were all about to die. Sweet Lily, witty Skylar, wonderful Sebastian. She loved them all more than she ever loved anyone who wasn’t related to her by blood. They were the first real friends she ever had. In this week together she had grown closer to them than she had ever done with anyone.

  Her soul cried out. She saw the very real and bright energy of her essence lifting out of her body. This was it. This was the end. She was going to die.

  A sound more heartbreaking than any she had ever known cut through the air. She knew what it was without having to look. But look she did, in Sebastian’s direction, to see the magnificent and shimmering teal of his soul pulling unwillingly out of his body. A blue tendril lifted from within his bound arm and stretched out in her direction. With her own soul, she reached out to touch him.

  “I love you, Phoenyx,” she heard without hearing.

  A memory, hidden deep within her soul, burst to life, pulling her out of the present and into the far, far past.

  Suddenly, she was sitting in a sunflower-filled meadow. The lazy afternoon sun bathed her in light and warmth with birds chirping all around. She was wearing a simple gown of white fox fur which was itchy and uncomfortable. But she couldn’t scratch. She was not in control of her actions but merely watching through her eyes.

  “Adara,” a voice she knew called from across the meadow.

  She looked up. Sebastian, handsome as ever and adorned in a very primitive tunic of bear skin that was just long enough to cover the important parts, happily waved and approached her.

  “Fin!” she said excitedly, jumping to her feet and running into his arms. He caught her and kissed her.

  “The elders have made their decision,” Fin said, still holding her. “We’ve been chosen for the ritual!”

  “We have?” she exclaimed. “That’s amazing! Oh, this is so wonderful!”

  “I know! We will be the most respected people in the entire village, and we can finally get married—despite what your father says!”

  “Oh, Fin; I love you!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

  “The ritual will take place tonight,” he said. “We have to get back so we can get ready. First, I have something for us.” He held out a golden colored apple.

  “A quince?” she asked.

  “Do you know what is special about this fruit?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  “It is said that, if a couple shares this fruit on their wedding night, their love will be eternal.” He took a crude-looking blade from a strap on his tunic and sliced the fruit in half. “I know we are not yet wed but, in case the ritual goes wrong tonight, I want to make sure I will see you in the afterlife.”

  She smiled and took one half of the quince from him. “As far as I’m concerned, our love is already eternal.”

  They bit into the fruit and did not get up until they had finished both halves. Then they hurried back to the village.

  Everyone was atwitter, bustling about their huts and chatting excitedly about the ritual. When Adara and Fin passed by, all eyes were on them and filled with reverence. What an honor this was! She would be host to one of the great elements.

  She did not understand the elders’ need to contain the elements, though. The elements, in all their power, made the world they live in—through both destruction and creation, death and life. It was a cycle and she understood that. Perhaps by allowing one of the elements to enter her, she could give it a sort of new life and a balance. She hoped she would be able to do justice to whichever element she was bonded with.

  “Adara, come,” an aged but still fair woman beckoned. “We must get you ready for the ritual.”

  “Yes, Mother,” she said obediently, leaving Fin and following her mother back to their hut. There, her mother and sister cleaned her thoroughly by scrubbing every inch of her. Then they clothed her in the finest cloth and covered her with sweet smelling flower wreaths. They brushed and braided her hair and stuck flowers all through it. She had never been so pampered in all her life.

  “You are ready, my daughter,” her mother said, cupping her face.

  “You look beautiful,” her sister said adoringly.

  “I will honor you, Mother—and Father, too,” she said.

  By the time they left their hut it was night and the bright and full moon was making its way up from the horizon. The moon was so very large tonight which was the only reason the ritual would be allowed to work. They met everyone else at the center of the village, where all were gathered in a circle. The crowd spread to allow her to enter the circle where Fin and the two other chosen candidates were being prepared by elders. Fin knelt next to a giant oblong stone that had been hollowed out and filled with water. Skylar’s ancient doppelganger knelt next to a tall structure built out of wood that Phoenyx would now recognize as a gallows, with a noose hanging from it. Lily’s ancient counterpart knelt next to a burial pit about her size.

  All of these things frightened Adara. She didn’t look forward to what awaited her.

  “This way, child,” one of the lady elders said, taking her arm and guiding her to the fourth corner where a pile of kindling sat, begging to be burned.

  Adara understood. Each of the four chosen ones were matched with an element, and it appeared they would have to be harmed by their element in some way during the ritual. The hanging rope made that obvious. The blond boy would be hung and she assumed that he would be bound to Air. When hung, he would be surrounded by only air, and the inability to breath would be air doing harm to him, however inadvertently. The pretty brunette girl would be buried alive, therefore being hurt by Earth. It frightened her terribly that Fin would be held under that water in the hollowed stone and drowned. That left Fire for her. Will I be burned alive? Adara thought. How will any of us survive these horrors?

  The lady elder brought by a torch and lit the kindling before Adara.

  “On this night,” the most powerful of the village sorcerers began, “we will free ourselves from the tyranny of the elements. No longer will earth deny us our crops. No longer will the seas deny us sail. No longer will wind dishevel our homes. No longer will the fire hold sway over our lives.” He gave a nod to the elders standing by each of the four volunteers.

  At the elders’ bequest, Fin climbed into the stone tub, the blond boy fastened the rope around his neck, and the brown haired girl carefully lowered herself into the burial pit with bleeding hands, bringing a cloth with which to cover her pretty face. Then the elder next to Adara handed her a rather blunt blade.

  “When the ritual begins and you hear the chanting, cut your hand and drip the blood into the fire,” the elder woman said.

  Adara took the blade, feeling like she got off easier than everyone else. The other three were actually putting their lives in danger, whereas
all she had to do was bleed a little. That was the catch, wasn’t it. All three of the other elements could harm a person without causing permanent or lethal damage; but fire doesn’t just harm, it destroys completely. This was the only way fire could hurt her without causing her serious damage. She whispered a silent prayer for Fin’s safety before the elder leader started the ritual.

  Doing as she was told, Adara sliced the dull blade deep into her open palm, biting her lip against the throbbing pain of it, then held it out over the burning fire in front of her. All around them, the village chanted words she had not yet learned, the language of the ancient runes. As she held out her bleeding hand, she watched in anxious fear as the blond boy’s face turned red while the rope pulled him upwards off his feet by the neck. The elder to her right piled dirt into the burial pit on top of the brown haired girl. Her beloved Fin struggled against the arms that held him under the water, drowning him.

  She made to go to him but the elder woman at her side stopped her. “You mustn’t, child. The ritual is not complete. Concentrate on your hand, concentrate on the fire. Let it fill you.”

  Taking one last stricken and longing look at Fin’s flailing hands, she put all her focus on her hand and the fire and prayed that this would end soon.

  The chanting around her caused a stir in the air. The earth rumbled. She heard the distant shores clashing with waves. The fire in front of her spun in an unusual fashion. It mesmerized her, drowning out all other sounds and sights, and she watched the flames dance and flicker and reach up to lick at her dripping blood. The chanting grew louder and faster, and the fire grew taller and brighter. She quivered and felt as though the fire tugged at her soul.

  Then suddenly, in the loudest silence, the chanting came to a rude halt. The air went still, the water hushed, the earth calmed, and the fire drew itself up into her hand before snuffing itself out and stealing all the light with it.

  Drawing in a deep breath as if fighting suffocation, she felt the heat of the fire enter the cut in her hand and burn up her arm and into her chest and all through her body. However, it wasn’t a sweltering, blistering, or even uncomfortable heat—just merely warm and relaxing, the way the heat of the sun soaks into your muscles on a hot summer day. She felt triumphant but also deeply sad. She felt reborn.

  Something sparked inside of Phoenyx suddenly as the memory faded and she snapped back to the present—something that stabbed through the pain and the fear. It started as an ember in her stomach and grew and grew. Anger. Rage. Hatred. These people think they can do whatever they want because of their heritage. They had the arrogance, the hubris centuries ago to trap the elements so that they could control them and become masters of the world they lived in and depended on. Because of them, Phoenyx’s element, Fire, had to live time and time again, never allowed to rest, never allowed to be free. Life after life, death after death, forced to repeat over and over again. It wasn’t just her anger and hatred for what these people had done to her and her friends that she was feeling, it was Fire’s anger and hatred for what these people had done to it and the other elements long ago and what they were trying to do yet again.

  In that moment, she and Fire were of one mind. Fire refused to be ripped from the body it made its home. It refused to belong to its enslavers. It would not stand for this any longer. After all this time, Fire was going to have its revenge.

  In an eruption of hatred and retaliation, Phoenyx screamed at the top of her lungs, letting Fire take over. She felt the heat inside her body reach out like magma spewing from the mouth of a volcano and scorching all her enemies. Even with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, she saw all the hooded figures being lit aflame from within, burning rapidly as they screamed short-lived screams, blackening and charring, and then falling to the floor in ashes.

  She opened her eyes and looked at the straps that bound her. Without even having to voice the thought in her head, flames sparked and ate away at them, freeing her arms to remove the wretched electrifying helmet.

  Dexter was the only figure left still standing and he was gawking at Phoenyx in horror like a deer in the headlights. She stepped over to the altar and pulled the lever back up, cutting off the electricity, and Dexter ran for the nearest door. Phoenyx brought up tall flames to block the door, then the others that Dexter ran for, and so on until the entire room was encircled by a wall of fire. Dexter had nowhere to go.

  She waved her hand at the stretchers in an order for the others’ straps to singe away. As soon as Sebastian was free, Phoenyx heard him kick his stretcher angrily and go to the aide of Skylar and Lily.

  Phoenyx approached Dexter and grabbed his arm, digging in her nails into his flesh.

  “Please, Fire, kill me quickly,” he begged, closing his eyes in preparation of death.

  “No,” she said. “You don’t get off that easy. You don’t deserve a quick death. You deserve to suffer.” She let her will flow through her hand and into him, and said, “You will never speak again. You will never move again. You will see nothing and you will hear nothing for the rest of your life. You will be a shell of your despicable self and you will have to suffer for the rest of your days with the shame and guilt of what a terrible person you are until it eats you alive.”

  She let go and his eyes did not follow her. He was a statue, just as the guard had been when she’d frozen him by accident, only Dexter was going to stay this way forever. With a flick of her wrist, she pushed her index and middle fingers against his chest, and he fell straight backward till he slammed harshly to the floor, stiff as a board.

  “Come on buddy, wake up,” she heard Sebastian urging Skylar, followed by the sound of slaps on cheeks.

  Phoenyx took a moment to let her anger fade and to remember herself, letting Fire return to its den deep within her soul to savor its vengeance. Then she turned and joined Sebastian in recuperating their friends.

  “Honey, wake up,” she said, shaking Lily’s shoulders lightly. “Oh, duh,” she said to herself, remembering that she could make Lily wake up. “Wake up,” Phoenyx said, compelling Lily.

  Lily’s pretty green eyes opened. Her face brightened when she saw Phoenyx’s face hanging over hers.

  “You came back,” she said to Phoenyx.

  “Of course, I did,” Phoenyx said.

  “Hey, Phoenyx, could you work your magic on Skylar, too?” Sebastian asked.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, going to awaken Skylar.

  “Oh, my God, what happened?” Lily gasped as she looked around at all the ash covered robes and the wall of flames around them.

  “You don’t remember anything?” Phoenyx asked as Skylar stirred.

  “I don’t either,” Skylar grumbled. “All I know is I have the biggest headache of my—holy hell!” He cut himself off when he opened his eyes.

  “Long story short, they caught us all, nearly electrocuted us to death. Phoenyx scorched all their asses,” Sebastian said. “If I hadn’t been seizuring at the time and my spirit wasn’t being torn from my body, it would have been the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. See, Phoenyx, I knew you could do it. You saved us.”

  Phoenyx felt Skylar reading her mind. Odd, she

  was never aware of it before. He was looking for scenes of what happened.

  “Whoa, you’re one scary bitch, you know that,” he said to Phoenyx. “Don’t ever change.”

  She smiled, then took note of how weak her body was despite how strong she felt. Her knees were weak, her legs were shaky, and her stomach felt like she’d be throwing up right now if she had anything to throw up.

  “So…it’s over?” Lily asked. “We’re free?”

  “Yes, we’re free,” Sebastian said, helping Lily to her feet.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Phoenyx said.

  “First things first, we all need a shower,” Sebastian said. “Some of us more than others.” He pointed at Skylar. It was amazing that he could resort right back to humor after being almost killed.

  As the boys argued, Phoe
nyx let the flame wall die down. They all headed slowly out of the room and to the stairs. Her first thought was that they needed to go to the hospital but her stomach demanded priority, and a giant meal sounded way too good right now.

  They walked out of the empty lodge, hand in hand, and into a fresh and beautiful late morning. This felt like the first day of a new life, and the possibilities were endless.

  “Do I really have to get in there?” Phoenyx complained.

  “Yes, you do,” Sebastian said. “You promised. Although, I have to admit, I’m loving just looking at you in that bikini.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. Then she sucked in a breath and held it as she dipped her toe into the bubbling hot water. It actually felt not totally horrible, so she let her foot fall farther and farther until it was flat against the first step of the hot tub.

  “Come on, Phoenyx, just take the leap and get all the way in,” Skylar encouraged, sitting across from Sebastian with his arms resting back on either side of the top of the tub.

  Sebastian grabbed her hand and pulled her in, gracefully and easily spinning her to catch her on his lap. The splash of the warm water on her legs and stomach sent goose bumps all over but the fact that she was on Sebastian’s lap made up for the felinic discomfort of being partially submerged.

  “You are such a brat!” she whined.

  “Aha, but admit it, this isn’t as bad as you thought it would be,” he said.

  She shrugged.

  “Well then, let me make you more comfortable,” he said. He held one side of her face and kissed her.

  Oh, those lips could dissolve all the tension in the world. She gave in eagerly, instantly wanting more. They had not had any alone time together since escaping yesterday morning, and the one thing she still wanted more than anything had yet to be attained.

  After they left the lodge, they first went to a diner and ate until they were all sick. Then they decided it would be best to go to the hospital and get themselves checked out. There was no way they could tell anyone what actually happened to them—“we were kidnapped and tortured by a secret society that tried to steal our powers from us because we are the four elements in living form.” No, they’d all get thrown in a loony bin, and it would just call a bunch of unnecessary attention. No reason to get the cops involved in a threat that was already eradicated. So they came up with a story encompassing all the bad things they’d gone through so the doctors would know what to look for, but that wouldn’t cause any trouble: they all went to some party, got drunk, had something slipped into their drinks—to give an explanation for the tranquilizers and chloroform they’d all been given. Then, while they were in a pool, someone accidentally kicked a radio in and they got shocked—to give an explanation for them all having been partially electrocuted. The effort of making up the lie and going to the hospital had been wasted because they all turned out to be fine, save for being abnormally malnourished, and the doctors lectured them about drinking less and eating more.