Ollie Vance - Book Two: Ashes and Smoke

Chapter Ten

Bright, hot, yellow-gold light bloomed from behind my closed lids.

With every second that passed, I became acutely aware of what seemed to be every nerve ending in my body that was crackling with energy.

Heat wrapped me from my toes all the way up to the tips of my hair that for a second, I thought I’d catch fire.

That familiar warmth that spread all throughout me sank into my bones that now felt like they were hot rods.

I screamed at the sudden flash of pain and the momentum rolled me forward.

My eyes snapped open and everything around me looked perfectly vivid and crisp—even though I was in the bottom of the lake in the middle of the night.

I realized I was illuminating the darkness.

I wasn’t glowing anymore—I was ablaze.

My feet kicked at the bottom of the lake and I surged upwards, propelled by not just the force of the kick but of something that pushed down from around me. I looked around me and saw the arches of fiery energy that followed the shape of my arms —like wings of fire.

I then noticed I wasn’t having any difficulty breathing as I pushed through the water heading for the surface—I wasn’t breathing at all.

Then I could hear voices, footsteps of people running and then some shouting.

I gulped down as much air as I could as I broke through the surface of the lake and kept going, unaware of how fast and high up I was going.

The fresh summer night air filled my lungs and I stopped whatever I was doing to extend my arms and lift my face to the sky.

Eyes closed, I could hear so much around me—the grass and trees rustling, the crickets and frogs going about their business, the sound of a boat motor in the distance and the idle grunts and chirps of the animals at a nearby barn.

Finally, it registered that the only unnatural sound in this perfect summer night out in the country was Tristan yelling my name.

I looked around and saw that like earlier tonight, I was several feet above ground. Well, in this case, above water. I looked down at my reflection on surface of the lake and my jaw dropped.

I was hovering above, gloriously ablaze, like a fire bird.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Tristan spring forward from the beach where he stood with Irina and a very soaked Arabella and I gasped as he lifted off his feet, his large, ethereal wings as black as night with a shimmer of gold all along the edges, spread behind him and flap wildly.

“Ollie, are you alright?” he asked the moment he reached me. 

What a sight we must be.

I glanced down at the reflective surface of the lake and saw the blurry image of us—winged creatures, a man and a woman, one with angel wings the color of night that glinted with stars and another with golden wings of fire.

“Something’s different,” I told him, taking care not to touch him in case I scorched him. “I feel different. Like there’s this strange pulse in my blood stream—in a good way. Like I can feel the energy of the world and I could yank it like I would grab a fabric with my hands. I’ve never felt like this before. What the hell is going on with me?”

“Come down and I’ll explain!”

We glanced down and saw Arabella beckoning at us just as Cage and Stigger came sprinting from the house towards the lake. 

Then it dawned on me.

“Argh. That witch tried to drown me!” I muttered angrily, leaning forward and suddenly finding myself swooping down gracefully but quickly.