Page 20 of The Mating Fire
“The crater lake gives off toxic fumes, including hydrogen sulfide. We should be wearing gas masks.” Harper looked at Xavier.
In the light of her head beam, his face took on an eerie appearance.
“Do you need one?” he asked. “Can you breathe?”
Harper started to say she felt suffocated, and then took a long breath. Strange. The sulphur didn’t make her cough or gag as it should.
It didn’t make sense, nor did the odd desire to draw closer to the heat, see the blue flames closer. Clouds of steam waxed and waned, showing peeks of blue fire in the distance like a curtain jerking back and then dropping again.
“I wish there wasn’t as much steam, so the flames were more apparent,” she murmured.
Xavier rubbed his bearded cheek. Suddenly the smoke cleared, leaving a splendid view of nearly iridescent blue flames running down the mountain. Harper craned her neck, fascinated by the sight.
They climbed downward. Light from their headlamps beamed the way.
Thirty minutes later, they reached the bottom of the crater. Harper frowned as they neared a mining area. No miners were around, though from her research, she discovered they usually went to work late at night to mine the rich deposits of sulphur.
Entranced, she watched the bright light spill down the hill, flames flickering in the night.
She squinted, wondering why the flames attracted her. Harper thought back to her research. The fumes didn’t burn her face or make her eyes water. The otherworldly atmosphere enchanted her. It was a geological phenomenon she had longed to see, and now she witnessed it. Yet it wasn’t enough. She wanted to get closer.
“The miners get the sulphur by pouring water over the emissions and it hardens and solidifies,” she explained, staringat the flames. “The smoke should be irritating, even with a gas mask and we’re not wearing any.”
Another odd thing – they were alone. No miners, no other tour groups.
Harper walked over to the flat ground where the miners worked, where piles of yellow sulphur sat, along with baskets the men used to cart the crystals up the mountain. Flames flickered near the area. Blue fire…it held power, more than ordinary mortals knew.
Harper tossed aside her hardhat with its headlamp.
Unable to resist, she walked closer, crouching down to the flickering blue flames. Her logical mind screamed she was getting too close, it was dangerous, she’d get a severe burn and the pain would lash at her…
Reaching out her hand, she touched the fire.
It danced in her hand, swirling in a tornado and then she unfurled her palm. Blue flames shot out of her palm in a vortex, rising into the sky several inches…
Oh dear heavens! Harper clenched her fist and the fire vanished from her palm.
Heart racing, unable to grasp what the hell had just happened, she looked at her palm. It made no sense. She should be screaming in agony.
“Do not fear, for you are not burned,” Xavier said quietly. “You were meant for this, Harper Ashley.”
Crouching down, against common sense begging her to get a grip on reality, she touched the blue flames once more. A fireball leapt into her hand. Sensations pummeled her, an intoxicating feeling of power, so much power she fell back onto the ground. Harper felt the power race along her veins, invade her pores, her vital organs.
Blue flames shot out of her fingertips, her toes. She opened her mouth and blue flames shot out.
Fighting terror, she wrestled with the power threatening to overwhelm her, made her faint. Harper reached down deep inside, thought of her parents and thought of slamming the power down, as one would stomp out a campfire.
The flames ceased, but she felt the power humming inside her, a low but stable current of … what?
Magick.
“This isn’t real. I’m dreaming.” Her gaze whipped around, searching for Xavier, for Ciara and Gideon.
They had vanished.
Harper put her trembling palms to her face. Her warm face that seemed alight with power and magick.
“I’m a scientist,” she screamed aloud. “This can’t be happening to me!”
