Scorch Song (Firebloods Book 2)

by Casey Hays

  “Why? What did they do?”

  His sigh seems to fill the whole room. He drops his head, rubbing at his hair in agitation.

  “All lot of weird reportings have been happening lately, and the Contingent is looking for people to blame. That couple is part of the Renegade sect, so they’re perfect suspects—especially the guy.” He studies my face. “He’s been caught on tape more than you can count, and she just got pulled in by his charm, I guess. Now, they’ve made a game of it, and they’d been lucky up until that man recorded them a few weeks ago.” He pauses only a second. “They got sloppy enough to leave a trail that the Contingent was able to sniff out.”

  “Wow.”

  “The worst part? The man who took the video has been missing for a few weeks, and evidence points to those Firebloods. After they arrested her, he turned himself in. Mom says their trial was last Friday. Both guilty.”

  I digest this for a minute. If the story weren’t so horrid, his sacrificing himself for her would be kind of beautiful. Under the circumstances, not so much.

  “Do I know them?”

  He stalls a second. “You wouldn’t know him. He lives in Winnemucca. Tangled up with some bad blood over there too.” He hesitates only a breath. “But… she sat behind you in History last year.”

  I’m dazed. A deer in the headlights couldn’t compare. “You’re not serious.”

  Kane simply shrugs.

  “Eve Marin?”

  “Yep.”

  My mind spins with images of Eve sporting silky black wings and fiery eyes. I guess, I can’t be surprised. I mean, what can I say, really? Kane, Rylin, myself. There were bound to be other Firebloods around me.

  “What’s going to happen to them? Will they be… executed?”

  He shrugs. “Depends on how severe the board thinks the crime is. If that man shows up, it will be better for them. The point is, they’re guilty.”

  I shake my head in disbelief.

  “You need to understand this new reality.” Voice soft, eyes cutting into my soul, Kane slides his fingers down my arm, catching hold of my wrist. “Because you’re a part of this world just like your father was. And… your brother.” My throat tightens when he says it. He gathers my hand to his chest. “You need to be prepared. When the Contingent sees him in my head and figures things out, they’ll label your entire family as renegades.”

  “My entire family?” Panic makes my throat clench in on itself even more, and I nearly choke on the rest of my words. “Even my mom?”

  “We’ve taken too many risks.” He drops his eyes from my face. My stomach cramps. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. “And if I’d known what we were going to find in that box—”

  “My mom is not a Fireblood.” I cut him off and pull away, taking a firm stand. “They can’t hurt her.”

  “We have rules. She submitted herself to those rules when she married your dad. It’s a binding contract signed before the regents, and she broke it. At least twice.”

  This can’t be happening. None of this can be happening. I don’t care how cruddy of a job she’s done raising me in the last five years, she doesn’t deserve to be served up like a meal. She’ll be completely blind-sided. And if my brother—

  I swallow hard, still grappling with that reality. If my parents have kept him in hiding all of these years, and I’m the reason the Contingent finds him…

  “This is why you should talk to your mom,” Kane whispers. “Just in case.”

  His eyes land on me, sending a solid chill over my entire body. I slide my hand over the top of his.

  “My plan is the same.” I frame the question with all of my confidence. “I need to go see Jarron. And… this whole idea about hybrid’s having power in their dreams? I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I need to know if my brother dreams the way Rylin’s sister dreamed. If I can just talk to him—find some things out—maybe then I’ll have a fighting chance against the Contingent. Maybe we both will.”

  “Jude, don’t you understand?” Agitated, Kane breaks away and moves across the tiles, pacing the kitchen. “A lot of rules have been broken—all around me. And I’ve broken some myself. I know too much, you know? Hell, half of the damn stuff in my head… it isn’t even my fault that it’s up there. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is.” His tears come next, swarming up to line his lower lids. He leans, pressing the heels of his hands into the edge of the counter, screwing his face into a mask of despair. “My memories are going to sell people out. What they drag out of my head could destroy your family. And mine. And I would be responsible for that, Jude. Me. But that doesn’t make the Contingent the enemy. They maintain order and keep us all safe. You’re a hybrid. The fact that you’re alive is against the rules, and I know you want to think you can persuade them, but—”

  Tears cling to his thick lashes; he bites his trembling lip, and I assess the anguish that absorbs his entire body. It’s really doing a number on his frame of mind, his emotions, and I see a real glimpse into his internal misery. It started the day after our camping trip. He showed up on my porch in the rain, a wet tee-shirt clinging to his chest muscles and a secret just about ready to explode out of his heart.

  “Kane,” I whisper.

  His bicep muscle tenses under my touch, his only response. And so I slip off my ring and toss it into the soap dish. Before he can say a word about it, I lift his arm and slide myself between him and the counter, easing up to sit right next to the toaster oven.

  “Drop my camouflage.”

  The golden flecks in his eyes slowly come to life as my hand slides against his cheek. He grabs at my wrist.

  “Jude—”

  “Don’t argue with me. Just do it.” He hesitates; I take hold of his face, my palms pressed into his jaws, firm and determined. “We need this, Kane. You know it. So don’t fight it. Just… stop fighting me on this.”

  In contrast to my grip, I purposely soften my eyes. I purposely flash him a deceptively innocent smile. Another simultaneous beat of our hearts, and his eyes flare.

  This time, the drop is so intense, it sucks the breath right out of me, and I’m instantly enveloped in burning heat. Hands braced against Kane’s shoulders, I squeeze my eyes shut as fire races over my skin like a scorching inferno. I lose my balance, falling forward into his chest. My breathing accelerates; my heart pounds with stammering thuds. He lugs me upright.

  “Jude, I’m so sorry.” He pushes my hair back from my face. “That was way too fast.”

  He reaches across the sink for the ring; I catch his arm.

  “No.” My voice is tapered. Already the fire passes into a place of tolerable warmth. “It’s fine. I—I just—need a minute.”

  A few more deep breaths, and the heat balances itself out. Still, I slump in Kane’s arms, taking comfort from his presence. Because honestly, that was terrifying.

  My skin tingles with the wonderful sensation I’ve grown to love over the past few days, buzzing with its white glow. My mantra hums loud enough for me to hook it and pull it to the front of my mind. Snug against Kane, eyes closed, I sway to the sound. His body responds, lighting up just enough to perfectly match mine. He holds back from fully decamouflaging himself, but me? I’m completely in the raw. Even if I couldn’t see the veiny, orange markings on my forearms, every fiber in my body tells me so.

  I chisel my way into Kane’s head, finding his mantra and twisting mine into it. Grapevines on a lattice, full of juicy fruit. That’s the image that floods into my head. Sweet and whole and perfectly ripe. Gema demands that I stay camouflaged. How could I ever go without this now? No way.

  I nudge him with my mind.

  “Can you hear me?”

  His eyes flash and burn, golden flecks spiking.

  “Yes.”

  My fingers clutch the back of his neck, working into his hair.

  “Can you feel me?”

  His mind pauses, searching.

  “Yes.” Those beautiful dimples slice right throug
h me. I shiver—inside and out. One easy motion, my leg links itself around his hip. My next words pour out in full-blown Jezik.

  “This is us, Kane. Right here. One heart. One life… One mind. That’s how we beat them.”

  I reach into him, Fireblood to Fireblood, and the fire in his eyes shifts. I literally experience the cloud of apprehension that lifts from his shoulders. It’s heavy and dark and depressing, but it falls away like a scratchy irritating blanket replaced with silk.

  Everything changed today. All of the sudden, I have a lot to fight for, and I need Kane. I need him to be the other half of my cause. A rebel, a renegade, whatever it takes. Because that may be the only way to survive.

  In the middle of that thought, Kane’s lips invade mine, and I forget everything else in a swarm of rapid flames. He leans in, tipping me backwards into the cabinet door behind me. My heart laughs—a kind of joy moving in—and soon, Kane’s catches up to beat in harmony. And neither one of us gives a damn about that tracker as our song explodes. Kane wills the blinds to snap shut, his skin deepening with heat, and the room dims. The orange markings burst through his skin, and his wings surge up in a torrent of air, filling the kitchen. Kane may falter again, but for the moment, we’re single-minded, and it feels good. It feels strong enough to take on the Contingent, the Renegades, hell, even the world.

  My giggle breaks our lips apart. Kane just smiles and folds his wings in around us. It’s all perfect. Until…

  A crash. Pulled apart, we simultaneously turn at the noise. My heart drops to the very tip of my toes.

  Frankie stands in the doorway, a cracked laptop at her feet and shock embedded into every crevice of her face.

  Fourteen

  In a flash, Kane disappears behind his camouflage—a ripple effect that rattles over his flesh like scales collapsing. But it takes him a second longer to camouflage me. Foregoing the ring, I feel it the second his compelling power surges through my necklace. It works instantly to wrap my camouflage around me as fast as it fell off. But it’s too late; Frankie saw us.

  Let me just say, it’s not any easier of a process to go from my complete natural form to full on camouflage in zero to sixty than it is to lose my camouflage all at once. In seconds, I’m drowning in a sea of nausea again, and the effect is almost suffocating. I grip the edge of the counter to keep my balance as my skin tightens like a shroud, drying up around me. The heat cools—too fast— sending a shiver from head to toe and back again. But I don’t miss the stunned look in Frankie’s eyes.

  “The door was open.” She’s planted to her spot, her nearly inaudible voice numb, almost mechanical.

  The door was open?

  Crap!

  “Oh, my gosh.” Her lips barely move, and then, she fully comes to her senses. “Oh. My. Gosh!”

  Her breath spikes rapidly, and for a second, she seems on the verge of hyperventilating. Reacting on pure adrenaline, Kane rounds the bar, easing his palms into the air as he moves closer to her.

  “Frankie—”

  “You!” She cuts him off, her eyes wide. Slow and calculated—and keeping her distance—she circles him. “You were glowing.” He turns with her, matching her step for step, never losing eye contact. “Both of you were glowing!” She slaps a hand to her forehead as the lightbulb flicks on. “I can’t believe it. I can’t—”

  “Calm down, Frankie.” Kane’s voice, low and soothing, does nothing to abate the situation, or to avert all of the possibilities running through Frankie’s head right now. She’s just stumbled over a gold mine in her own backyard, and she knows exactly what she’s found.

  “Calm down? Are you actually recommending that I calm down, Kane O’Reilly? ” Her voice rises with each question, and in the next instant, she’s right up in his face. She takes hold of his entire jaw and shakes it. “You’ve been under my nose for all of these years? I’ve had pancakes with you for crying out loud. You didn’t have the decency to tell me you were Vatra u Krvi?”

  “Wow.” Cheeks squished together by Frankie’s firm grip, he muffles out his response. “You’ve even got the accent down.”

  “I pride myself on proper pronunciation in any language,” she beams before she squeezes his cheeks a little bit harder. “But let’s not veer off course here. Answer the question.”

  “It never came up.”

  “Never came up?” She releases him, taking a step back to scope him out for the tiniest hint of Fireblood. “You truly expect me to believe that?”

  With a shake of his head and a weak smile, he dips his chin with a sideways glance at her. As for me, I’m kind of afraid to move as I wait for her chastisement to turn. Because it will. I’m the one who really kept her in the dark, even if it was with good intentions. I watch her circle him like a lioness on the prowl. Maybe she’ll forget I’m here. He can carry his own, and well, this is his half of the story anyway. Mine can wait until another day. Yeah. We don’t need to overload her.

  “It’s apparent you’ve chosen to reveal yourself to your girlfriend.” Frankie aims her darts at me full force then, completely disgruntled. I keep my mouth shut. “Am I the last one to find out? Do Jonas and Devan know?”

  “No.”

  Kane and I say this together, catching each other’s eyes across the room before we both refocus on Frankie, who is clearly struggling with a number of emotions.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Jude?” Her voice is so full of pain that it actually hurts me to hear it. “We’ve been working on this project for over a week, and you’ve been sitting on this information? Why wouldn’t you trust me with this?”

  “I do trust you, Frankie.” I’ve been sitting like a stone on my perch next to the toaster oven. Now, I swallow once and hop down. “And I did want to tell you. I even talked it over with Kane at the bowling alley last night.”

  “Mm-huh.” She crosses her arms, not convinced.

  “Look it’s just—it wasn’t solely up to me.”

  “That is such a poor excuse.” She aims hurt-filled eyes at Kane. “We’re true friends, aren’t we? All of us. And by nature, friends trust each other. We share our lives with one another. We carry each other’s burdens, and we keep each other’s secrets. And if you don’t believe this is what we have, then we’re not friends at all.”

  Kane takes it all in without moving a muscle, but I’ve seen that expression on his face too many times over the last week. A strong hesitation, sprinkled with specks of regret for being hesitant. He never wanted to hide from his friends; he’s told me as much. But his secret is big—bigger than mine in so many ways—and a lot weighs into every decision he makes concerning the Fireblood portion of his life.

  As for me, I just feel that same old guilt that harasses me every time I look at Frankie.

  The two of them stare each other down in a silent stand-off until Kane relents with a quiet sag of his shoulders. I know what he’s thinking before his expectant eyes shift from her to me. He left it up to me whether to tell her—or not. I kind of hate that. Either way, this was not the plan for doing it. I concentrate on Frankie a minute longer, contemplating how to proceed.

  We have two options. We can come clean, tell her everything about both of us, and let it play out however it will, or Kane can compel her to forget. The second option would wipe her memory, but it would only solve the immediate problem. Where the Contingent is concerned, I’m pretty sure it would make matters worse. I mean, Frankie doesn’t know this, but she’s been compelled and redirected at least three times. I joked about compelling her if we needed to, but Kane can’t go there again. When I look at him, I know instantly we’re about to scoop out another shovelful of that hole we’re digging. He takes the lead.

  “You are a good friend, Frankie. A great one, actually.” He catches her hand, his voice soft and full of sincerity. “I didn’t keep this from you because of that.” He gathers up her other hand and squeezes them both. “If you really want to know the truth, I’ve never told anyone—not in all of these years. It’s not s
omething my people advertise.”

  Frankie looks at me for confirmation. I nod.

  “I’ve only known for a week,” I assure her. “And trust me, I was just as surprised as you.”

  She seems to take my word for it.

  “You have to understand, there’s a lot at stake here,” Kane continues. “For one, my parents are probably going to strap me up for letting you see me.”

  “They don’t have to know,” Frankie insists. “I’m not planning to say a word.”

  “Oh, they’ll know,” he nods.

  Everything in me sinks.

  “I understand you had your reasons for keeping quiet,” Frankie says. “But from me? I would never divulge your secret. You should know that by now.”

  “I do. And now…” He drops her hands and lifts his in resignation. “I’m telling you.”

  With a tilt of her head, she fusses up her lips, not quite ready to forgive. But when his green eyes crinkle in the corners, she softens.

  “I’ll accept that. But I have questions, and you will answer them.”

  He laughs. “You got it.”

  She takes a step.

  “You glow.” A half-laugh escapes her, and she slaps a hand against her forehead. “Of course, you glow. What was I thinking?”

  This draws a smile out of Kane first and then me. She studies him, full of curiosity, and he loosens his camouflage enough to bring the gold flecks to his eyes. And her bewildered smile widens. She steps back to really examine him, full of admiration even though he looks as human as the next guy at the moment.

  “To have seen a Fireblood with my own eyes? I can’t even express my feelings.” She pauses. “You’re not adverse to the term Fireblood, are you?”

  He laughs, taking a seat at one of the barstools. “I am not.”

  “Oh, good. And your wings?” She scans him for any trace of them. “I most definitely will need to see those again. How do you keep them so well hidden? Never mind… inner-compelling.” She glances at me. “Jude and I recently found an article explaining the process. Well, sort of. That is how you camouflage, correct?”