Sember (Forestfolk, Book 2)

Chapter 1b

When I reached the lake, I picked up speed. People didn't appreciate me crashing into them on the forest trails, but the clearing around the lake was usually safe.

I leapt over fallen branches and dodged mudholes as I ran. Sometimes during my runs, I'd see Siena lying out in the grass with her eyes closed or staring up at the sky. She had this serene stillness about her that I could never grasp. I was too full of frenetic energy. Running put me in the zone. Siena taught me that too.

Sometimes I wondered if she realized how big an impact she's had on my life. Goben was always there for me, sure, but he never knew the right thing to say to me. He was actually kind of terrible around girls in general.

I pounded a full circle around the lake, and stopped to catch my breath. Then I started to practice. Creating roaring flames willy-nilly was easy. It was the controlled, even burns that were hard. I brought one hand to a warm glow again, and upped the heat in my other hand until a flame engulfed it. Then, in a gradual shift of energy, I'd make the glowing hand flame and the flaming hand glow. Back and forth. It was an exercise in control that took me a lot longer to master than one would expect. Slow breathing was the trick.

Siena's suggestion, of course.

I exhaled forcefully and dropped my hands. People thought I was obsessed with Siena. Sure, I used to follow her everywhere when I was little. I even wanted to be her. But it didn't take me long to figure out that, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I could never even be like her. She was a kind, talented healer who took me under her wing. Me? I was the dangerous, directionless child whose only claim to fame was nearly killing her parents and burning Foresthome with them. Even after ten years, people tended to remember stuff like that.

Heat welled up inside me. I took a quick look around for bystanders, then gave in to it. I let my head drop back and turned my closed eyes to the sky. My hands formed fists and the energy swelled within like the inflating vocal sac of a bullfrog. Then, when it became almost unbearable, my hands flew open and a concussive blast emanated from me in all directions with a thundering boom.

Behind me, something crashed with a grunt. I whirled around to find a boy my age sprawled in the dirt, fishing pole still in one hand and a bucket upturned next to him. My heart sank.

I rushed to his side and knelt by him. "I'm so sorry. I thought no one was around! Are you hurt?" Please, please don't be hurt. Siena's not here to fix my mess!

He groaned and sat up, fixing his brown eyes on me. "What was that?"

"Oh, um . . . " Only new visitors had no idea who I was. "I was . . . practicing."

He raised his eyebrows at me, then understanding dawned on him. "Ohh, you're one of those Gifted people, right?"

I flinched a little. "Yes, one of those people."

He shook his head, and his curly brown hair shimmered in the sun. "That was pretty powerful. And hot."

I looked at him curiously. "Hot?"

"Yeah, I thought I was going to be burned alive. Do I still have eyebrows?" He touched them with his fingers and blew out a breath of relief.

Right. Of course. That kind of hot. I berated myself for hoping he might have meant sexy-hot. I sighed. "Don't worry about it. It was just a quick flash of heat. Not enough to burn anything."

"So . . . you make explosions?" he asked, scooting back a little.

"Not usually," I said, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. "It's more about fire."

"Oh, I see," he said in a tone that indicated he actually didn't. His eyes strayed to my hair, which was probably frizzing out of control.

"Here, let me help you up." I stood before he could make any inane comments about my red hair. I yanked him with more force than I intended, probably out of irritation.

"You're strong," he said as he steadied himself.

I shrugged, mentally adding a point to my growing pile of Things That Don't Attract Boys.

"You're tall too."

I was maybe a hand-width taller than him. I was taller than most of the Forestfolk, a fact I was painfully aware of anytime I spoke to them. Another point added to the pile.

"I'm Dozan," he said as he rested the butt of the fishing pole on the ground.

"Sember."

"Oh, you're Sember! I should have guessed."

Great, so he had heard of me. If someone had already told him about me, how could he not have gathered I was that girl? Was he slow?

I gave him a wan smile. "Yup, that would be me. I'll let you get back to your fishing."

"Nah, all the fish have probably been scared away."

I added another point to the pile.

"Sorry about that." I cast my eyes down to my shoes.

"So . . . where do the girls hang out around here?"

My head popped up to shoot him an incredulous glare. "The girls?"

"Yeah. At the tribe compound I came from, most of the girls would gather at a river to wash laundry, fetch water, wash themselves . . . " His eyes gleamed at that last part. "I was hoping to find something like that here."

A wave of disgust blew away any interest I might have had for this Dozan creep. "There's nothing like that here. We don't sit around and gossip like a flock of chittering sparrows. But hey, it's a big lake. Maybe you can find some other unsuspecting damsel and sneak up on her."

"I wasn't sneaking—"

"Just go!" I snarled, my fists glowing orange.

Not needing any further prompting, he scooped up his bucket and hurried back into the forest.

A loud growl escaped my throat, and I spun around to stalk along the shore. I snatched a large piece of driftwood out of the water and gripped it with both hands. Its dripping surface was cool against my palms, but not for long. Steam began to hiss and rise from it as my anger seethed into it.

That dress-chasing bastard.

More hissing and steaming.

Pretending to be a nice fisherman when he was just hoping to get lucky.

Steam turned into smoke.

Hoping to find other girls because obviously I didn't count.

The driftwood burst into flames so violently that I felt the blast against my face. Within seconds, it was ash in my hands. I stared down at it, trying to ignore the hollow ache that once again gnawed at me.

Ashes.

My destiny was in ashes.

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