The Source (Chronicles of the Elements #1)

Chapter 9

"Aiden! Aiden! Damn it; wake up!"

She opened her eyes and sat up instantly when she saw that the room was covered in flames. Liam was at the door still shouting while trying not to inhale the smoke. How did this happen? she thought frantically as she tried to figure out how to make it stop.

The fire suddenly blinked out with no explanation like a huge vortex had sucked it right out of the room. Aiden's breath was still coming at too rapid a rate though, and sweat was now pouring down her brow as her eyes darted all around until they landed on Liam again. His chest was bare putting every huge, rippling muscle on display along with whirls of black ink across his pectoral muscles and broad shoulders. Her eyes trailed down his washboard abs to......Fuck! she screamed in her head instantly remembering Fire Kingdom and the conversation pit admitting to herself in embarrassment, It was all a fucking dream.

She jumped out of the bed, threw her torn tunic at Liam, and locked herself in the bathing room. Thankfully, he did not follow her.

Aiden was absolutely mortified. Using the wash basin to splash water on her face and chest in an effort to calm herself, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths trying and failing to get it together and deny the fact that she had dreamed about having mind-blowing sex with Liam that set the whole damn room on fire without her even knowing it. She burned for him in that dream. The feeling of him insi...Damn it! she yelled in her head as she felt the fire stirring in her blood at just the thought. She knew she had to get out of there and away from him.

Aiden silently cracked the bathing room door to ensure Liam was nowhere in sight. She then dressed quickly and gathered her weapons desperately needing to train, run, and clear her head. She quickly left the bedchamber, stormed past Liam in the main room, and took off out the door following a path that headed into the trees that she somehow knew would lead to a small, alpine lake.

Aiden stood on the bank going through every warm up exercise and training routine she could think of then tried meditation to clear her mind, but nothing was working. Her blood still felt hot because she could not quit picturing Liam naked. With no other ideas, she stripped off her weapons and leathers and dove head first into the lake.

The clear, frigid water shocked her system as she broke the surface, but she swam farther and deeper until her body felt like it was going to turn into a block of ice finally making the fire extinguish.

Aiden swam back up to the surface, dragged herself onto the bank, rolled over onto her back, closed her eyes, and let the bright sun now rising begin to thaw her bones.

"You want to talk about it?"

She cracked an eye open to see Liam staring down at her. Thank all the realms he is fully clothed and has the expression of a pissed off trainer, she thought. That she could handle. She replied with a simple, "No."

"Too bad. What set you off?"

"I have no idea," she lied for obvious reasons. "Maybe falling asleep reading about Fire Kingdom wasn't such a good idea. You put it out didn't you?"

"I did. No fire, even magical ones, can survive without air. I did not want you to burn my cabin down."

"I'm sorry. What the fuck is wrong with me?" she huffed.

"You have impressively large amounts of power waking inside you that you have no idea how to control. Now, get your ass up, stop whining, and learn how to fix it."

Train. Training was good. Training kept all the lines visible so that there was no crossing them. She hauled herself up relieved that she still felt cooled blood running through her veins.