Page 17 of The Mating Fire
“Hey,” she said aloud. “Hey! Come back here! What happened to my parents?! Answer me!”
A pall of gray smoke filled the air, smelling of immense power, like an electrical line sizzling and crackling. Out of the smoke stepped Caderyn. He regarded her with a solemn look.
“They died. Search your memories long buried deep and there you will find the answers. You may not like what you remember. The answers you seek are within.”
Enough of this guru New Age crap. She was a woman of science and dealt with facts, not mysticism.
“Level with me. Who were my parents and why did you have this letter from them to give me? How did they die? What is a coldfire pyrokinetic? What powers? Damnit, answer me!”
To her shock, he began to fade away, as if he were a distant dream, or vision. Then he spoke.
“The answers lie in the volcano.”
“Wait, what answers? Where can I find them?”
“You know the way. The volcano calling to you holds the key to your destiny.”
Then he vanished, like mist or fog beneath a hot sun, leaving her wondering if he truly had been there.
The answers she sought lay within the volcano. Harper knew what she must do.
She was going to visit Kawah Ijen. Nothing would stop her.
Chapter 8
“D
o you think she’ll go?” he asked Xavier, who came to visit.
Not that he really, no, not really, cared. Jared paused before an open window of his castle set high in the mountains of Peru. He liked Peru, liked the Andes mountains and seeing snow-capped peaks in the distance, and he liked the history of the bloodthirsty Inca Indians who worshipped gods. Incas had one main god – Virachocha. The Incas sacrificed children aged from four to ten, sometimes burying them alive.
Jared detested such sacrifices, but he did enjoy being left alone and revered from afar.
Here in his hideous beastly form, he could be regarded as a god amongst a certain ancient cult, instead of someone to avoid and fear. An elderly woman in the village below, Jallu, came every week to the castle to cook and clean for him. He paid her well. Not that he required a housekeeper, for magick kept him fed and his quarters shining, but damn he was lonely.
Not that fear wasn’t a good thing. It could be a very good thing. But when you were trying to break a curse and find true love, it didn’t help to have women run away screaming in fright instead of moaning in pleasure.
Mountains ringed this ancient stone temple. When he was cursed more than 100 years ago, he discovered the temple, only beginning to be explored as an historical site. Jared scared away the historians and claimed the temple for his own.
Xavier lounged on the crimson throne chair Jared used to watch Netflix and cable shows. One leg dangled over an armrest.
“I cannot foretell her future, the same as I cannot foretell with you. It is murky.”
“Get a goddamned crystal ball then, wizard. I don’t want to waste any time I have left in human form, chasing down someone who can never break the curse.”
Xavier turned his attention away from the video game he played, a wizard’s version of a popular one amongst human gamers. “You’ll never find what you need with that attitude, Jared. You may find what you want, but not what you need.”
Growling, he turned. “And what the hell do I need?”
Xavier pressed two fingers to his head as if divining the future and then snapped his fingers, his tablet vanishing. “You must look within for answers.”
“I’m not a fucking magic 8 ball, wizard.”
Infuriated, he whirled and sent a bolt of pure dark energy hurling toward Xavier. Not even blinking, the Crystal Wizard caught it with his right hand. It instantly turned into glittering crystal shards.
Xavier threw the crystals back at Jared. He braced himself as they hit.
“Ow,” he said mildly.
