Page 69 of Desolation
Flames burst up around us, forming a barrier around our position on the floor, licking our skin but causing no damage. I know Lana holds the power to wield fire as well and I want to pull it out of her so we can play.
“Leo!” Lana gasps, her eyes bugging out of her head.
Be careful playing with fire, Lana. You don’t want to get burned.
My nerve endings tingle with the use of magic as I zone out and let my fire do as it wishes. In the distance, I feel I hear someone calling out to me but nothing matters other than my mate beneath me, her copper hair glowing under the light of my flames.
I stare deep into her eyes, losing all semblance of control over my urges and lean down to claim her soft lips. Before they can touch, she smacks my cheek.
What the fuck?
Her slap crashes me back into reality and the flames die down instantly.Fuck, what was that trance? It’s like the power was whispering seductively to my mind.
A tight grip on my chin draws me back down to looking at Lana, who looks both scared and disappointed. “Leo, you need to be careful with your emotions and intentions now that we have powers. I know that’s rich coming from me of all people but Serenity told me we’re dangerous in the sense that we merely need a thought to use our powers. We don’t need incantations or magical artifacts to wield them.”
My gaze goes to the dark scorch marks burned into the perimeter surrounding our bodies.
Shit. I could have hurt one of the guys or burned down the house.
Climbing to my feet and pulling Lana with me, I struggle to meet the guys’ eyes, who all look varying shades of wary of me.I force myself to look at them and take responsibility. “Guys, I’m so sorry. I’ll make sure I’m more aware of my powers creeping up in the future. I forgot I even had them before the flames burst up and I fell into a daze. I keep forgetting I’m not a regular human anymore.”
A loud whoop from my lounging brother lifts my spirits slightly. “Bro, that was so cool! I tried to summon water to put them out but couldn’t manage anything more than a puddle in my hands.”
Indeed, a puddle of water had soaked into the bed in front of him, showing that it had slipped through his hands.
“Soon enough, that will be a puddle from Lana.” He throws a saucy wink at her.
Hale’s deep voice cuts through Luke’s excitement. “This is not a joke. Lana is right. We need to be vigilant and mindful from here on. We have enough on our plate right now—the last thing we need is for one of us to be hurt or for us all to become homeless again.”
Leave it to Hale to make me feel like an admonished child.
A warm embrace at my side eases the tension in my body as I tuck Lana under my arm, appreciating her silent support.I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Ash and Zedd remain quiet, which isn’t out of character, but I had at least expected a look of disappointment at my loss of control.
How odd.
“So, none of you seemed surprised at the soulmate revelation,” Lana pipes up, thankfully drawing the conversation away from my brief fuckup.
Ash chuckles. “Honestly, Lana, I think you’re the one that is the most surprised—or theonlyone who’s surprised.”
She huffs, making me think she was hoping for a bigger reaction from all of us. “Well, yeah! It’s kind of a big fucking deal knowing we’re all stuck together for the rest of our lives and that it was fate!”
My feisty little thing.
“Does this mean I can call you my mate now?” Zedd asks. “Girlfriend just seems so … blasé in light of this new information.”
She waves her hand at him. “I’ll allow it.”
I grin at her. “Lana, are you imitating that gif with the guy wearing that sombrero at a desk?”
She smirks. “Maaaybe.”
I facepalm.
Her obsession with gifs is the only reason any of us ever checked our phones growing up. She thought she was so funny sending mass gifs in the middle of the night to disturb our sleep but she always forgot the convenientdo not disturbfeature of phones.
She moves out from my embrace and stands in the middle of the group. “Guys, I think I mastered this gif while practicing in front of the bathroom mirror today while I was drunk.” She proceeds to wave her arms around while bending her knees and lowering herself to the ground.
