Chapter 321

But as soon as I begin to pull on my bond with Luca, I feel an immediate…stop. Or a plug, or a…dam or something.

I turn to my mate, frowning up at him. Luca, I say, directly into his mind, making him turn his eyes to me. Can you please open the bond? This is…important to me.

He clenches his teeth a little bit, looking deep into my eyes. This is all freaking me out, Ariel.

I glance around at everyone watching and then look back up at him. Please, Luca, I say, letting him hear my little wolf whine her tiny plea. I think it’s important that we…know.

Luca sighs and looks away from me, but slowly I feel the wall drop, feel our bond open, as it was so much more often at the start of our relationship. I mean, it’s not like it was that night in the woods, but it’s better than a few moments ago. I send Luca a warm pulse of thanks and then turn my eyes back towards the little log, concentrating on it as I connect. As I start to pull, as I do with Jackson.

The heat within me engages, concentrating on the log, but to my utter shock something…else begins to stir as well.

And all through the little clearing, a slight wind begins to blow, warm like a summer breeze.

I gasp a little at the same moment that Luca does, and our eyes flash to each other as we both simultaneously remember the sensation that we used to notice when he touched me – that tingle across my skin, and across his – that tingle that’s still there, but which we just…I don’t know, got used to or something.

That tingle which I never, ever realized feels exactly like a breeze blowing across bare skin.

Feels exactly, precisely like this air moving around us right now.

“Holy shit,” Luca whispers, staring down at me in shock.

My face bursts into a smile and I beam up at him. “Holy shit is right.”

Luca can’t help it then, his own face breaks into a smile and he shakes his head in awe as he stares down at me.

“What?” Jesse asks, standing at his mom’s side with the fire blanket in his hands, at the ready. “What’s happening? I don’t get it.”

“This breeze,” I say, laughing a little as I turn my face towards them. “Um…I think…I think we’re doing that.”

“Really?” mom says, looking around, delight bursting on her face too. “This is you!?”

“Yeah,” I say laughing.

“Experiment,” Cora urges, taking an eager step towards me. “Can you…stop and start it?”

I do as I’m told, biting my lip and concentrating a little, playing with the bond and how much I can push and pull on it. First, I stop all together so that the breeze fades around us. Then I pull hard, and then harder, letting it whip through the air.

My smile returns as I look up at all of the trees, seeing it shake the leaves – a breeze kissed by the summer sun, just like Luca’s warm summer scent – apricots and hot pavement and sea breeze.

“Ah!” Cora squeaks, stepping towards me, her expression thrilled as she looks around too. “Another little weather goddess in the family! Oh, Ariel, this is so great!”

“I’m not a weather goddess,” I say, laughing. “I can just…make a little warm wind.”

“Can you mess with the temperature?” Rafe urges from behind me. I glance over my shoulder at him and then shrug, trying it. But nothing happens – if anything, the wind just gets warmer.

“Okay okay,” Cora says, holding out her hand towards me, laughing. “You can stop – the implications of this are stunning, actually – I think the heat in the air is from Ariel, but the movement – the wind – is from Luca himself, which kind of makes sense –“

“Actually,” Jackson says, stepping forward hesitantly. All of our eyes turn to him as the warm breeze continues to blow. “Um…can we…try something here?”

His eyes turn to me and I stare at him, sensing immediately what he’s thinking. My wolf leaps to her feet, some instinct urging her forward, as it did before when I knew to experiment with passing Jackson’s magic to Rafe and Jesse. She pounces around in my soul like a fox in snow, incredibly excited.

And quite suddenly…I know that this is going to work.

Eagerly, I hold my hand out to him.

Luca hesitates, starting to close down the bond a bit.

“Please,” I beg, shaking my head at him. “Don’t get freaked out – this is…this is part of who I am.”

Luca stares at me for a long moment but then nods, re-opening the bond.

Jackson takes my other hand and I turn my head to him, eager warmth building in me.

“What are you doing?” Cora whispers, confused and fascinated. My mom stands next to her with her hands pressed to her cheeks, thrilled.

“Get goin’, trouble,” Jackson murmurs, leaning forward to press a kiss to my forehead.

I lean towards him a little, not able to help it, a little laugh sputtering from me.

But then I turn my gaze to the pile of wood in front of me – not the little log, the big one.

And I set it ablaze.

A little gasp breaks from the group as everyone turns towards it, watching the fire rage, much more powerfully and higher than it should for just that little pile of wood. And then I call on Luca’s gift as well – on the wind, the breeze, the oxygen he provides.

And I add that to the mix.

The flames roar, reaching higher, and begin to turn, wind sucked in from every direction towards it. A rich, eager joy builds in my chest and with every heartbeat pulses through my entire body as I watch the flames climb higher into the air, carried on the waves of Luca’s wind, powered by the energy that Jackson gives me.

My flames, my heat – my magic.

Mine.

“Whoa,” Rafe whispers behind me, awed and impressed. But I don’t look at him – at anyone. Don’t have time for it or interest in anything else – anything but the firestorm dancing before me.

The whirlwind of flames turns, pulsing in time with my heart. My blood sings as the vortex climbs towards the sky, dancing higher, eager and burning and full of grace. It’s a wild, passionate thing – a song, a dance, an eager she-wolf racing through a forest, along a cliff, desperate to be alive and free and to stretch her legs.

It’s us, my wolf whispers, howlingly pleased and as full of joy as me. Us in our purest form, elemental.

Somewhere I feel and hear Jackson’s wolf howl too, so proud and fierce he could burst.

I nod, tears in my eyes, my face turned up to the brilliant swirl of fire before me, licking at the sky, turning and turning in the wind that brings it oxygen, gobbling up the fuel that feeds it.

But suddenly I feel another wolf approach – one I’ve always known, since I was a little girl – which has never not been part of my life. He pads closer, drawn to the flame in my soul, warming himself by it.

“Um, I…I think I’m supposed to be part of this,” Jesse murmurs, stepping closer to me. I turn my head to him, taking my eyes from the whirlwind of flame for the first time but having no fear that doing so will make me lose control of it. It’s mine, after all. It does as I bid.

“Come on in, Jess,” I say, laughing and tilting my head towards him.

Jesse beams at me but steps closer, reaching a hand out. “This is so weird, Ari,” he murmurs, making me burst out laughing. But then he gently wraps his hand at the base of my neck, and together we turn towards the fire.

I feel his magic added to mine immediately, but when I pull on it – no, I don’t control it, don’t have the power to use it. Instead, I feel Jesse’s magic move through me according to his own whims. Together, we turn our eyes to the fire blazing before us.

And both of us gasp just half a second before everyone else does.

Because the flames – they darken, taking on the shape and the tint of Jesse’s shadows. The flame doesn’t dampen – not at all. Instead, it just loses its bright and shining light. In shock and fascination, I watch as the darkened flames, all shades of grey and black, themselves take different shapes, suddenly containing the animals that Jesse’s own shadows tend towards – lizards climbing through the smoke, fire birds soaring through the air and letting out wild silent screams, mighty horses, their eyes and their manes ablaze.

My breath is immediately stolen because it is…the most incredible sight I’ve ever seen, and by far the most beautiful.