Winter Fire (#3, Witchling Series)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Summer.

Her eyes flew open at the soft summons. Summer rose quickly and quietly, careful not to disturb her roommate, Biji. She pulled on a heavy jacket over her pajamas, swept her long hair into a loose ponytail and tiptoed down the hallway to the stairwell that led from the girls’ dorm area of the schoolhouse to the main floor and common areas. The large, log structure was silent, its occupants sleeping. No smells came from the kitchen yet, indicating it was sometime in the middle of the night before four, when the cooks began preparing breakfast.

Outside, it was freezing and the night sky clear. Her breath floated upwards, and air magick greeted her. It zipped through her body while the quiet earth magick warmed her feet.

Halfway down the driveway leading to the school, he was waiting for her. Summer’s heart quickened the way it did every time she saw him. At night, the magick of the Master of Dark was more powerful, unfurling around him in a black fog that settled at his feet. He waited with his hands crossed before him and his stance wide. He wasn’t allowed closer to the school, now that it was common knowledge that Dark students were causing the Light source beneath the school to shrink.

Sometimes, he still scared her. Sometimes, she remembered when she’d looked into his soul and saw the Darkness looking back at her.

Summer shook her head to clear the thought and ran down the driveway to her boyfriend, best friend – her world. She stopped in front of him and gazed up at him, searching his face for signs of the Darkness.

It wasn’t there, but there was blood on his jeans, a dark splash in the moonlight.

“Rough night,” he said in a gruff voice.

“It’s okay, Decker,” she whispered. “You’re here now.” Summer instinctively took his face in her hands.

He shuddered, his arms circling her to pull her into his body. He was strong and athletic, his body honed by the hundreds of laps a week he swam. A triple element – fire, water, spirit – his magick kept him from feeling the cold of winter the way she did. It swirled through her, a combination of warm and cool, before his fire magick pushed away her chill. His fire magick was capable of more than warmth; it lit the desire already swirling in her blood.

“Behave,” she said with a smile.

“Fine.”

His fire retreated, warming her without arousing her. She sensed his distress and hugged him closer, aware that only she was able to still the voices in his head and keep the Darkness from consuming him.

“Are you okay?” she asked, lifting her head.

Decker met her gaze. His eyes were brown, his chiseled cheekbones and dark complexion marking his mixed background. The tightness around his eyes and mouth softened.

“I am now,” he replied. “You know, if we were together every night …”

“We will be,” she promised. “But not yet.”

“I know.” He nuzzled her neck.

Summer giggled. It was a deal they made when they’d reunited three weeks before: to take things slow. She was still trying to recover from the three month trial she’d gone through to return to the Light from the Dark, and it was something of a shock to learn what the Master of Fire and Night had done in that short time span. The girls, the dead witchlings.

The Darkness.

Summer traced his face with her fingers, marveling at Decker’s stunning features. There was a part of her that wasn’t ready yet to take their relationship to where it had been, before she went Dark and spent three months recovering her soul.