Page 11 of The Rebel and the Rose
No, no, no.
Sparks danced around her like fireflies, and her eyes began to burn.
Maker, came that whisper again.Choose me. Use me.
Frustration needled Sera, her stomach twisting at the heat rising inside her. She was struck by the frightening realization that she was losing control. It was too much, this fire licking at her ribcage, this ring of embers in her throat. She didn’t know how to shove it down. How to put it out.
She didn’t know what it wanted.
The reins started to sizzle.
Cursing, she dropped them. The strap, now sheared in two, tumbled to the ground before she could snatch it.
Pitching forward, she reached for the bridle. ‘Whoa there!’
Trapper jolted, his strides growing unsteady.
‘EASY, TRAPPER!’ Sera shouted but when she fisted her hands in his mane, the horse’s coarse dark hair began to sizzle. Panic shot through her as she snapped her hands away.
Oh no. No, no, no, no.
Hunching forward, she curled her hands into fists, trying to keep her balance. Fear stoked her magic, the force of it overriding all logical thought. The heat of it filled her mouth, made her nose run.
Trapper tossed his head about, his brown eyes wide and frightened.
‘Slow down! Please!’ She was desperately trying not to hurthim. Not to hurt herself. But she was a living flame, and she couldn’t put herself out.
Trapper bucked.
Sera screamed as she was thrown backwards. The world reeled, the sky giving way to solid grass, then the painful thud of the earth.
She woke to the screeching of a hawk. Planting her hands in the dirt, she tried to hoist herself up, but she was too winded. She sucked down a laboured breath. And another. Like a cat slinking away, the heat inside her vanished. The force of her landing must have knocked her magic back into submission.
Good.
Less good: her left shoulder was throbbing awfully, and there was grass between her teeth. ‘Ugh.’
The distant rattle of hoofbeats told her that Trapper was still bolting. The poor creature must be terrified of her. Sera didn’t blame him. She was terrified of herself.
Andsore.
Hurried footsteps sounded nearby. ‘Hell’s teeth, Sera. Are you all right?’
She managed to lift her head. Theo was jogging towards her. His loose white shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, showing his tanned arms, and there was a streak of gunpowder on his cheek. His silver hair was tied into a knot on the crown of his head, which meant she could perfectly see the horror in his turquoise eyes.
‘Been better,’ she managed to eke out. ‘I fell.’ She spat out a blade of grass. ‘Spectacularly.’
‘Uh-huh. I saw. And heard.’ He hunkered down beside her. ‘You told me you could ride a horse upside down with your eyes closed.’
‘That was before I got stuffed full of this stupid magic.’ She managed to sit up. Her head was spinning and her shoulder was definitely dislocated. ‘I was having too much fun, so it decided to bubble up and ruin my day. Poor Trapper.’
Theo was frowning, his eyes on the grass where she had been lying.
She followed his gaze to the handprint she had burned into the dirt. The grass around it was white, the earth completely scoured. Dead. For a heartbeat, she was seized by the memory of the same print on Lark’s bare chest, right before she killed him.
What if this time it had been Trapper? Or Theo?
Scrabbling backwards, she said, ‘It’s getting worse, Theo. I don’t know how to control it. I don’t know what it wants from me.’
