Page 80 of Firedrake Betrayal
“Don’t you feel it?” I ask.
“It tickles a little,” he admits. “First, I thought it was your hair. I nearly dove out of bed when I realized it was your blue ribbon friend.”
“Aren’t you afraid of it?”
“That thing is there to protect you. That’s not something to fear, it’s something to be relieved about.”
We both study it. Then he blurts out. “Test your control on me.”
I lift my brow. “What?”
“Take my shorts off.”
My brow rises even higher. “You want me to test my abilities by getting you naked?”
He shoves the comforter down. “The ties on these shorts are fiddly. If you can get these suckers off, there’s nothing you can’t do with that gift of yours.”
I walk my fingers down his hard, muscled chest, halting before I reach the fiddly drawstring. “You’re not concerned I might hurt you?”
His eyes go half-lidded. “Well, if there was something else you wanted to try with that gift of yours while you’re hanging out down there, go wild.”
I grin at him. “Isaiah was right. You do like to live dangerously.”
He frames my face with one hand. “You’ve got a soft and squishy heart, beautiful.”
“I do?”
“You do. So don’t let people shit all over it or harden it. Let me protect it.”
He said like was too tame of a word, and I think he was right. The way Patten makes me feel is so far beyond like it’s hilarious.
He pulls me closer, kisses me, and drags the comforter up over the both of us.
“What happened to me testing my abilities?” I ask.
“Maybe when your blue ribbon friend returns.”
I look down and I sigh. “You say it’s a friend, but this is a friend who likes to ghost me.Often. Spirit does what it wants.”
“My first experiences with fire were similar.” Patten reaches over to the bedside table and flicks off the light.. “The more you try to hold on to some things, the more they squirm to get away. Or ignore you. Try easing your grip. Spirit might be as playful as fire.”
“Fire is playful?” I slide my arm around Patten, settling down for the night.
“It is. Could be that powers are learning and growing with you. Start small.” He yawns.
Start small.
“But if you decide you want to slam Dominik into the next century, well…”
22
JADE
Istand beside a pool of deep blue, almost black water, wearing a long white dress that brushes my ankles.
Something about that water makes me nervous and I’m not sure why. I can swim, so it isn’t a fear of drowning. Dad taught me years ago. Not at a local pool where other kids learn—that wasn’t safe, he said. In a small river in a forest.
Feet away from the water, I stop and I can’t make myself move any closer.
