Even though I felt stupid for it, I decided to humor the idea for a moment. I stood up straight and positioned my hands downward.
So, fire, where art thou?
After standing still for a minute, flexing my fingers and feeling like a fool, I flipped my palms over and stared at them.
It must just be that my father’s powers aren’t inheritable. Cora endowed him with those powers, and him alone.
“Hello, Rose.”
I jumped. My first thought was that someone from within the mountains had found me hiding up here, but as I spun around toward the source of the voice I found myself face to face with a beautiful blonde woman. I recognized her instantly. She was the witch who’d hidden in the yacht Caleb, Micah and I had travelled in. Hermia Adrius.
I’d been so wrapped up in my own thoughts, I hadn’t even heard her approach.
“You need to come with me,” she said.
To my horror, she lunged toward me and motioned to grab my arm.
I didn’t know how my reflexes were so fast—perhaps it was just the allergy I’d developed to being kidnapped—but before she could touch me, I lifted my knee and thrust it into her groin.
“Not again,” I growled.
She staggered back, cursing beneath her breath.
I lost no time in racing back to the hole. Lowering myself into it, I’d almost lost sight of her when her hand reached down and closed around my forearm.
“No!” I shouted.
I jerked my arm downward, but as it turned out, there was really no need. The moment her palm touched my skin, she yelped and leapt backward as though I’d just… burned her.
I stared down at my palms, hardly daring to believe my eyes. My fingertips were glowing orange.
This isn’t real.
Almost as soon as the thought entered my head, heat erupted between my shoulder blades. My forehead broke out in a sweat as the warmth flowed down my arms toward my hands. Pulse upon pulse of heat began pumping through my body until sweat was drying on my skin before it had a chance to form in drops. My fingertips were now a bright red.
I was an oven.
The tunnel was suddenly horribly claustrophobic. I could barely breathe. I needed the wind, the fresh air that only climbing back out onto the cliff would bring. Even though Hermia was still up there, in that moment of madness, facing off with a witch actually seemed more desirable than remaining inside.
Climbing back out of the hole, I looked up at the witch, who was frozen to the spot, staring at me in astonishment as she nursed a nasty-looking burn on her right palm.
My arms began to shake, the heat rising beneath my skin until I could no longer contain it. A giant blaze of fire burst from my fingertips. My eyes watered as I stood before the fire, my throat drying out as I breathed in the heat.
Whoa.
As the fire subsided, the heat began to build again. I gazed at Hermia, who was now looking beyond nervous.
Although I felt crazy for doing it, I moved closer to her. “Why don’t you touch me again, Hermia?”
She stepped backward as I approached her until she reached the point where one more step would send her off the cliff.
“Hm? What’s wrong?” I raised my eyebrows, feigning confusion. “Come on, let’s go. I thought you were in a hurry.”
As I lunged forward to grab her arm, she disappeared from the spot. I couldn’t help but grin as I stared at the blank space where she’d been standing.
Well, that takes care of her.
I was so used to being taken advantage of by supernatural beings more powerful than myself, I couldn’t describe how exhilarating it was to see the fear in that white witch’s eyes as she looked at me.
I turned back to look out at the beach, where the struggle was still going on in full strength.
Perhaps now I had an excuse to go down and help. If I could wield this fire on a whim, I would no longer be a hindrance.
But that was a big if.
I glanced down at my palms. What had suddenly made this heat build up in me?
Several theories whirred through my brain, but I was sure of none of them. For now, I had to leave that question and focus on discovering whether I could control this power and call upon it on demand. If either of these two things weren’t possible, it would be a huge risk leaving the mountains.
The second wave of heat was still building up in my palms. I spread my legs out, steeling myself against the blaze as it shot out from my palms and licked the darkness. As it died down, I balled up my palms and placed them at my sides.
The first thing I had to accomplish was controlling when the blaze came. If I couldn’t, it would be too dangerous to expose myself to those I cared about.
I tried to turn my thoughts to other things for the next minute or so and not think about the fire, but to my disappointment, it didn’t make any difference. A third wave of heat took over my body and I had no choice but to expel it.
I could really do with some fatherly advice right now.
I decided that if I’d made no progress after an hour, I’d leave the mountains and try to seek out my father. I had no doubt that I’d be able to control these newfound powers much faster under his tutelage. In the meantime, I’d keep trying to figure it out by myself.
I tried everything I could think of to suppress the flames—from burying my hands in a pool of water I found among the rocks, to sitting on my palms. Nothing made a difference. When the fire wanted to escape, it escaped.
After half an hour had passed, I realized that I probably wouldn’t have made any more substantial progress in another half hour. I’d just have to try to travel as inconspicuously as possible through the forest in search of him.