Page 35 of Sold Rejected Mate
And I panicked.
Branches whip past me as I push my body harder, faster toward my place. I have to get to her in time. This time, I won’t come back to an empty space. This time, I’ll find her exactly where I left her.
I’ll save her from the fire, and this time, I won’t let her go.
If she’ll still have me.
Chapter 17 - Valerie
The fire descends upon Lachlan’s beautiful, modern house much faster than I could have ever anticipated. I still remember that first awful fire from high school, but somehow, it feels like this one is hotter, more intense, moreviolentthan that first one.
Like the fire has been growing stronger in the decade since the incident.
When it comes over the ridge, the three of us feel the heat and turn, watching it blow down the hill and burst into the lawn, jumping over the fountains like they mean nothing.
Because waterdoesmean nothing to a daemonic fire. I remember vividly the way that first fire burned and burned, our firefighters trying and failing to put it out using any of the normal methods.
Now, Phina leaps to her feet, using her magic to push Nora and me to the ground just as the first round of windows burst out, sending glass flying through the living room. I reach out and put my arms over Nora’s face, crying out when a piece of glass slices clean through my bicep, drawing out a thick line of blood.
Weirdly, I don’t feel it at all—it’s just the shock of seeing the blood that makes me scream.
“Get up!” Phina yells, reaching down and drawing us to our feet. “Nora—you know what to do.”
I watch as Nora gets to her feet, following her mother outside.
Not knowing what else to do, or maybe just moving on autopilot, I get shakily to my feet and follow them, stumbling around the shards of glass and broken furniture.
When I get to the doorway, I watch in astonishment as Phina and Nora stand in front of the flames, engulfed in what looks like a protective bubble, raising their hands up, holding the wall off.
Down below, in the valley, Silverville sits. From here, I can see people panicking, pointing up at the wall of flames around this house. They honk and swerve, trying to flee the town center.
It’s a wonder anyone still lives here at all.
“Valerie!” Phina calls, glancing over at me but not moving. “Get in this!”
Thismust be the bubble, which is smoke-free and feels like a different world when I run across the yard and step inside it, standing just behind Phina and Nora, close enough that they can probably feel my breath on their necks.
They’re both shaking, seeming to hold the fire off with nothing but their magic. I’m frozen for a moment, astounded at their abilities. At Nora, specifically, so young and yet casting like a natural.
“Valerie,” Phina grits out, throwing a glance at me over her shoulder. “Come on, you can help us!”
Fear and dissent shoot through me, “No, I can’t—”
“We can’t hold it!” Nora cries, a sob ripping out of her as the fire surges forward, looking more like water than flame, one of its fingers racing up the tall, skinny tree in the front yard, twirling around it like it’s a light show before igniting each of the pines. They blaze like something from a hellish Christmas show.
I’m not good enough with my magic. Every other time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve caused more damage. Hurt someone.
Panicking, my hands shaking, I lift my hands and place them on the girls—one on Phina, and one on Nora’s much smaller shoulder.
Then, I open myself up, letting out little, panicked breaths as the fire edges closer to us, opening up like a hungry maw, ready to swallow the house and our souls in one fell swoop.
When nothing happens, I suck in a single, uncertain breath and do something I’ve never done before—Ipush. Take my magic and shove it toward Phina and Nora.
Instantly, as though connected to the main power frame, Phina and Nora spread their fingers, standing up taller, and the fire is pushed, contained, shrinking back like a beast meeting a whip for the first time.
“Oh my gods,” Phina hisses. “What are you doing?”
“I have—no—idea,” I breathe, or try to—I can’t really get air into my lungs, like that feeling of trying to take a breath with the wind in your face. I’m suffocated by the thing I want, my magic stepping on my chest. Like the push of it into them is sucking everything out of me.
