I whirled around and hazarded a glance at Nolan as we walked away, ducking through the tent flap and heading toward the encampment.
“I can’t believe it,” he said when we reached my tent.
A smile turned up the corner of my mouth. “We did it,” I whispered.
He turned to face me and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “You did it.”
I bit my lip and glanced down at the ground. An extinguished phoenixfly was walking toward me on its six tiny legs. I reached down to touch it, and it blazed to life in red flames as soon as my hand brushed its wings. “Everything’s going to be different now, isn’t it?” I stood back up, and my eyes searched Nolan’s.
“Aye,” he said. “In the best of ways.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Breanna?” I called as I approached her small white tent. The grass under my feet felt cold—most things had felt cold since the flames took up residence inside my veins. Like I’d become warmer than the rest of the world. I wondered if I’d get used to it in time, or if it would feel that way until my last breath.
“Come in!” Darick called from inside the tent.
I ducked through the thin fabric and nodded at Darick.
He wore an apologetic expression on his face. “I told her about the . . . dragon business,” he said. “I shouldn’t have. It’s your story. But she was asking questions and—”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve had to tell the story twenty times today, it feels like.” I took in my sister lying on the sleeping mat on the far side of the one-room tent, and tears welled in my eyes.
“Breanna!” I swept to her side and knelt beside her.
Her eyelashes fluttered open. “Hey, there,” she said. Her voice sounded dry and cracked, but that didn’t stop the sparkle in her eyes.
“Are you feeling better?” I asked.
She started to speak, and then a fit of coughs overtook her body. A moment later, Darick appeared at my side, a cup of water in his hand. He offered it to Breanna, and she took a long sip.
When she was able to breathe again, she said, “I felt the baby move.”
This time, the tears spilled down my cheeks. The baby was okay. New life had indeed arisen out of the ashes. And I was alive to see it. Gratitude overwhelmed me.
I swallowed back the swell of emotion. “You know, she’ll be the most spoiled child in Fintan history if her Auntie Kyla has anything to do with it.”
“So you’ve said.” She chuckled, a wry smile on her chapped lips. Then her expression grew serious. “There’s no one else I’d rather she look up to.”
I shifted, reaching out to clasp her hand. “I learned it all from you.”
“Then you learned it better than I ever did.”
Shaking my head, I said, “Nay, Breanna. You love fiercely. Way better than I do. I’m ambitious and proud and self-centered so much of the time. But you? You’ve never been like that.” I looked down at the ground. “You loved me better than you loved yourself, even when we were children. You showed me how to harness the fire’s power.”
A single tear slipped down her cheek, and then the dam broke in my chest. My tears streamed freely.
Breanna cried, too, and when she pushed herself to a seated position, we held each other, our tears mingling in our hair until the emotion faded to embers.
“I’m so proud of you,” Breanna whispered. “But promise me one thing, Kyla.”
“Anything.”
“For now, you need to learn. Learn everything that they wouldn’t let you learn because you were born a girl.” She sat up, her back perfectly straight, and rested a hand on her abdomen. “Because now you wield a power that the rest of us can only guess at.”
I nodded, though I still couldn’t wrap my mind around any of it.
“Promise me that my daughter will have options that you and I weren’t given. From a young age. By the time she’s seven and starting her lessons.”
By the time she’s seven.
I clasped Breanna’s forearm. “I swear it.” This time, it was my voice that was hoarse.
“But”—she pulled away and lay back down on the mat, and her voice grew stronger—“I suspect you’ll have a lot to do between now and then. Darick said the quellers confirmed that the market fire was arson.”
The hair on my arms stood up. “The arsonist left signs this time?”
“Maybe he was in a hurry,” she said. “The market is so busy. It’d be hard to set a blaze without being seen.”
I mulled that over.
“Darick said you were meeting with the thane?” she asked. “What did he want with you? Did he talk about the arsonist?”
I shook my head. “Nay. It was a brief conversation. Mostly I proved to the whole council that I’m a . . . dragon. And then I made them let Nolan and his siblings into the clan.”
“Wonderful news.” Breanna’s eyes gleamed. “Remember, you’re our greatest weapon now, if half the stories of the dragon-warriors are true. The council has to find the arsonist. They might well need you for that. They’ll need you for so many things. To protect the people. Don’t let them dismiss you or belittle you. Because you know they’ll try.”
I rolled my eyes. “They certainly tried at the council meeting today.”
She sighed. “It will be hard for them to get used to you. But they will. In time.” Her lashes drooped closed again. “I’m sorry. I’m . . . very tired. The healers said I need rest.”
I bent over and kissed her forehead. “Sleep, Breanna. You’ll be on your feet again soon.”
I nodded at Darick as I stood and strode to the tent flap. When I looked back, he was tucking the blankets around Breanna’s feet.
A small smile spread across my face.
I ducked through the opening and out into the encampment. Breanna’s words ran through my mind.
You’re our greatest weapon now. Did the thane want to talk to you about the arsonist?
I scanned the horizon for telltale smoke, but the sun shone in a brilliant blue sky untainted by clouds or any hint of fire.
A swarm of phoenixflies in brilliant flames of amethyst and crimson and every shade of blue swooped out of the sky toward me—they seemed to be attracted to my fire these days—and, all at once, they landed in my hair and on my shoulders. When they touched me, their wings blazed red.
To protect the people, Breanna had said.
I’d been given this gift, this bond with the fire, because I’d surrendered my life to save my sister and everyone else in that barn. Part of me had died in the blaze. Because my life, as I’d always known it, was over. The fire had spared me. And I would not fail it.
I held my head high. Aye, Breanna. I will protect the people, as best I can.
No matter the cost.
Kyla’s story will continue in Fire Mage.
Magic is a volatile power.
Kyla is the first girl in the history of the fire festival to be trained as a mage. But there’s still so much she has to learn. As she continues to explore and refine her incredible power, a simmering threat erupts: the Orivesi arsonist has struck again, and powerful families are aligning themselves against the fire festival.
As Kyla struggles to maintain control over her magic in order to help calm the inferno, heartbreak stalks her every step. For the council is deadly serious about maintaining exclusive control on the practice of fire magic, even if it means a massacre. And the day is coming when everyone must choose a side.
Preorder Fire Mage now!
A Note from the Author
Did you like the book? I’ll be forever grateful if you take the time to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Barnes and Noble. Reviews are the #1 way you can help other people discover the authors you love, and each and every review supports us on our journey to bring you more stories. A review doesn’t have to be long or detailed—just honest! I’m so thankful for each and every one of you.
Burn bright!
Other Books
by Catherine Jones Payne
The Broken Tides Trilogy
Breakwater
Crosscurrent
Maelstrom
The Broken Tides Stories
A Gathering Tempest
Daughter of the Rivers
To Wander the Paths of the Sea
Acknowledgments
Novel writing is a team sport, and I’m so grateful for the people who have gotten me to the finish line on this one.
First and utmost, to Jesus, who sustains me.
Thanks to my production team. This book would have been a mess without each and every one of you:
My editors: Lindsay Franklin, Stephanie Monk Guido, S.D. Grimm. You’re all brilliant.
My cover artist: Jenny Zemanek at Seedlings. You always do such beautiful work, but I gasped aloud when I saw the final version of this cover.
My formatters, Chris Bell at Atthis Arts and Kella Campbell at E-Books Done Right. Your eye for detail is above and beyond.
Thanks to the dancers who critiqued my dance scenes: Sabrina Ramoth, Kelli Dowling, Denica McCall, and Julia Evans.
To my Wonder Women: Avily, Lindsay, Sarah. I love you guys. Thanks for being my people.
To other friends, especially Chris, Stephanie, Jessica, Rainey, and Lizzy.
And finally, to my ever-supportive husband and family. Brendan, always. Mom, you’re my biggest fan and have always modeled strength. Nancy, you’re the best mom-in-law a girl could ask for. Phil, your academic research means the world to me and helped me give voice to the themes of this book. Carly, Claire, Ava, Miriam, Eliana, Annaliese, Madison, and Naomi: you’re the reason I write about girls who pursue life with everything in them and don’t apologize for taking up space. Benjamin, Caleb, Timothy, Nathanael, Jonathan H., Jonathan P., and Ethan: these stories are for you, too, as you grow into men like Kyla’s father. Brittany, you are my Breanna. Ted, I used to think you stole my big sister, but I actually just gained a pretty awesome older brother that day. Jason, I’m glad we talk about life these days. Stacey, our family has never deserved you. Angel, I cherish our heart-to-hearts.
About the Author
Catherine Jones Payne is a Seattle native who loves the written word, international travel, crashing waves, and good coffee. Her earliest memory involves pulling up a rolling chair to her parents’ old DOS computer—while wearing a tiara, naturally—and tapping out a story of kidnapped princesses. By day, she’s the executive editor of Quill Pen Editorial. She lives in Greenville, SC with her historian husband, Brendan, and their cats, Mildred and Minerva.
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