Fire Stones (The Fire Wars #2) (2 page)

            “Ma-ac?” The voice came again, laughing as it did so. A man's voice. Familiar. Arrogant. Cocksure. A voice that made me melt.

            “Chance?” I opened my eyes, leaning up on my elbows. “What happened?”

            Chance was standing relaxed, beside me, his brilliant blue eyes staring into mine. On his lips I could discern a playful, jocular smile. “Really,” he said. “Unbelievable. I tell you to meditate for five seconds and you fall asleep on me.”

            This wasn't the Chance of my dreams – clothed in flame and beauty. But he was as handsome as ever, and a sudden blush sprang to my face. “But...where am I?” The dream had been a heavy one, and I still staggered to make sense of the waking world. Had it really been Chance who had held me so close, who had pressed his skin, his lips, his tongue against my body? Had it really been Chance who had taken those stones, which still glittered like small suns in my memory?

            “You're doing it!” Chance grinned. “Well done, Mac!”

            “Doing what?”

            And then I remembered. My stomach dropped; my mouth fell open. I looked down. I was currently suspended in mid-air – at least five hundred feet above the ocean.
Flying.

            “No...” My heart started to flutter and throb as I began to panic. “No, what the...”

            I was falling, plummeting faster and faster towards the dark, freezing-looking seas below. “What the – help!”

            Instantly Chance's arms were around me, wrapping me tightly. I could smell him again, and he smelled as he had done in my dream – that hot cinnamon smell of desire. I stopped falling, and we remained in the air.

            “Focus, Mac,” Chance cried. “You were doing it – you just lost your confidence, that's all. You were flying. You were in the air. Listen, you can do this, I promise you. You're doing this. Right here, right now. Here.”

            “Because you're holding me up!” I couldn't help crying. “That's why. That's how I'm able to do this.” Terror seized me in a vice-grip. I looked down, and saw the ocean far beneath my feet.
This isn't possible....people can't fly...this is a dream...a trick....

           
“Confidence, Mac!” Chance said, his voice strong and hard. “Don't look down, Mac. Look at me.”

            “I can't!” I started kicking against Chance's grip, my heart pounding with panic. “Let me down!”

            “Look at me!”

            I looked up at him in shock. “Chance, this is...”

            Something in his eyes stopped me from speaking. His brilliant blue eyes, gazing into mine. Enough to send me into a trance. “Think about it, Mac...” His voice was softer, now. “If you can fly – it means that you might be the Goddess. That you might be the one – the one I'm meant to be with. That we can be...together...” He began to pull away slowly, gently, still staring into my eyes. “You have to trust me. I'll be the one to catch you, I promise. But you have to do this for yourself. You have to find the goddess within.”

            “Chance...” I whispered, as his fingers slipped away from mine. I was no longer holding onto him, I noted – but I was floating of my own accord, suspended in mid-air. I kicked my legs, but there was no resistance. I wasn't falling. I was simply letting the sky carry me aloft. “Chance – I'm flying!”

            “You are, my darling!” Chance's face broadened into a smile. “My goddess, my Mac! I always knew you could do it.”

            I wasn't quite ready to let go of my nervousness just yet, but I was able to manage a small smile as I looked around. All of Aeros was laid out at our feet, so small from this great height. So beautiful. The cliffs that had once seemed so large and impenetrable – where Chance had rescued me from the mysterious mountain people – were so tiny from this angle. It had only been a some Saturdays ago, but it felt like an eternity. With school, with work, with life at the Cutter Imperial Hotel, it had been difficult to find time to spend alone with Chance, especially since I'd found out who – or rather
what
 - he was. But at last we were able to spend time together, to feel that electric spark that connected us reignite once again as our bodies touched.

            Chance floated alongside me, his shoulders against mine. He grabbed my hand, pulling me into him, and I could feel sparks of desire in my blood, coursing through me like adrenaline. How I longed for him to pull me closer into him, to press his lips against mine, to kiss me as he had kissed me in my dream, sending me into throes of ecstasy. I could see it in his eyes – he wanted it as much as I did. His eyes had the same burning, passionate gleam I had seen in my dream. He wanted me; he wanted to kiss me. He wanted to touch me.

            But he didn't. Instead he pulled me down with him, flying towards the very top of the cliff where he had rescued me last. Gravity began to catch up with us, and as we approached the cliff our measured floatation became a frenzied fall, and at last we fell onto the soft, sweet grass in a heap, Chance's strong, muscular body on top of mine. I couldn't help but laugh. How extraordinary it was, I thought, to be on safe ground – safe, sound, earth; I laughed with relief. Chance's laugh echoed my own, and on his face I could see pure joy.

            Would I ever have expected this, I wondered? After all, only a few weeks ago, I thought the glowering, brooding Chance was an arrogant pillock, thinking himself too good to lower himself to smile at a friend or lover. He had never smiled, then – only smirked in that cocksure way of his. But now on Chance's face I could see pure, unrestrained happiness, a sincere smile that, I knew, represented the purest part of ecstasy.

            His face grew more serious, but the look of joy on his face remained. “I can't tell you how happy I am, my goddess,” he whispered, holding me tight. “To have you back in my arms at last.” He pulled me into him, his hand behind my neck. He lifted my head towards his, our lips meeting in a passionate kiss. At the touch of his lips I felt a new wave of fire coursing through me, a desire so strong that I felt as if I were shaking. I kissed him back, violently, my arms twining around the back of his neck. His hands were on the buttons of my shirt; I was fumbling with his clothing, my body and soul both frenzied with the desire to feel his naked chest against my hands.

            And then I realized that I was soaked.

            Chance and I looked up and laughed. It had started pouring rain – claps of thunder sounded out from the heights of the sky. The beautiful sunny day we had been experiencing only moments before had vanished; the sky was dark-black with clouds, the rain pouring forth in torrents.

            “We didn't even notice!” Chance laughed, pulling me to my feet. “Come on, I know a place.” He grabbed my hand and ran with me across the side of the cliff, both of us breathless with exhaustion and desire. We stopped, panting, at the mouth of a cave; Chance pulled me inside, pressing me up against its stone walls, kissing me again – even more passionately this time. He encircled my waist with his arms, and I could feel his fingers adapt to the contours of my skin. He brought me in for another kiss, and then another, each kiss more joyous, more ecstatic than the last.

           
I had always wanted it to be like this.
From the first time I had met Chance Cutter, I had wanted this. I might have pretended otherwise – pretended to dislike him, even to despise him – but deep down, I knew, I had wanted nothing more than to feel his hot lips on mine, feel his hands fumbling expertly with the folds of my skirt. He had been afraid – I knew that. Afraid to hurt me as he had hurt Jana. He had held back. But I had convinced him – I had set us both free, free to fall in love at last. Until we couldn't help it any longer. We had no choice but to give in to our desires.

            But something stopped me from going further. Something from my dream. That love I'd experienced in my vision – Mars and Vesta united on their thrones. Was that dream meant for me? I knew Chance was Mars – that much was clear. But did Chance love me the way Mars loved Vesta? Or was there someone else out there, some other girl, who represented his true destiny. How could I risk loving him, knowing that there was a chance that some other girl was meant to be his Queen?

            I stopped suddenly, gazing into his glimmering blue eyes. “Why does it hurt?” I whispered. “When we're so close – why does it hurt to be together?”

            Chance furrowed his brow. “Does it hurt?” he asked, his fingers stroking my neck gently. “For you to be with me?”

            I nodded silently. “Yes,” I said at last, looking down. “I'm afraid. I want so much to be with you – to fully love you – but something stops me. I feel like I can't – no, that I shouldn't.
We
can't...not yet. Not until we're sure that I'm...who you think I am.” I wanted the tears that had sprung at the corners of my eyes to vanish. “If you still have some doubt about me being Vesta...I don't want to...”
Go all the way?
How could I – when we were still so unsure?

            “You're so beautiful,” Chance sighed, tracing my face with his fingers. His eyes were filled with pain – his gaze earnest and heartfelt. This was not the ironic, jocular Chance I had known at school. “It's just that I don't want to lose you. I love you –
you
, Mac – whether or not you're Vesta. Others have died trying to prove that they're her – and I was sure with them, too. How can I let you take that chance, when taking that chance might mean losing you? And I couldn't live with that.”

            “And if I'm not Vesta?” I couldn't resist asking.

            Chance held me tighter still. “I'd rather tear my own heart out than keep up this search – this pain...” There were tears in his eyes, too. “I want to be with you. Vesta – she...you...I don't know. We had this love: an eternal love. And I know my destiny is to find her, to restore the lands in a way that only the united power of Fire can accomplish. But when she...you...I don't know...when Vesta left me, it left a cleft in my heart even centuries have not healed. If you are Vesta – then...how can I get over your leaving me once before? And if you're not...I could start over...”

            “A clean slate,” I said. “Like all the embodiments here on Aeros Island?” I shook my head. “But none of us are clean slates. None of us on this island are new to this earth. Look, Chance – I had this vision. When we were flying. I don't know what happened – when you thought I fell asleep. I saw you, Chance. I saw
us.
We were in this place, this beautiful place, with fire everywhere. And we were in love, and we were happy, and there were these gemstones...”

            Chance's eyes flew wide open. “Gemstones?” He turned to me, his expression serious. “Describe them.”

            “They were shaped like the moon...” I thought back to the vision. “And inside there were these flames....there was an amethyst, and a sapphire, and an emerald...a garnet...and a topaz.”

            “The Fire Stones,” said Chance softly. “She created them. Vesta did. To bring me back to her. Her Embodiment, whoever she is, should be able to find them – that's part of the Embodiment's test, to prove that she is Vesta. If you had that vision, Vesta's memories, surely it must mean...”

            “I don't know, Chance,” I said. “I felt like I was Vesta in that dream – but it could be a mistake. An illusion. Maybe I wanted so badly to be Vesta that I dreamed I was in her place...” I shook my head. “But I can't live with not knowing who I am. I have to figure out my identity – I have to go through with it. Not just for your sake, Chance, but for mine.”

Chapter
2

           
A
nother kiss – and then another. We spent hours kissing in that secluded cave, as the shouts of thunder and the wailing of the wind raged around us. It was cold; the rain poured down in floods. But it didn't matter. Where we were – we were safe. Warm. I could feel Chance's strong arms around me, the rippling of his taut, tanned forearms as they held my waist, pressing my flesh. I could feel the softness of his skin, the roughnness of the stubble on his chin, the combination of tenderness and danger that made him so irresistible to me. How had this one man affected me so much? When I was near him, it was like I was no longer myself, like I no longer had any control over who or what I was. Another identity seemed to be tugging at my heart, at my soul – the identity of Vesta, love of the god Mars. When I was with Chance, everything else seemed to disappear – my old life, my status as Mackenzie Evers, girl-next-door: I felt different. Special. As if I could really be the goddess he thought I was. His lips were so hot on mine; I could feel my blood scorch with the fullness of his passion. I tangled my fingers in his dark, wavy hair, wanting to pull him tighter still closer to me. Our clothes were wet – soaked, even – from the rain, and the moisture from our clothes mingled with the heat and the sweat of our passion, so that we lay together, entangled, our clothes still on but largely rumpled and rearranged, in perfect silence. Chance stroked my hair, his lips against my forehead. I felt so small in his arms, I thought – he could encircle me so easily.

            “When we're like this,” he sighed, “It makes me want to protect you. Normally, when we're together – you don't need any protecting. I've never met a girl as much my match as you are, Mac, my goddess. Equals – twins of fire. But right now, with me, I suddenly want to wrap my arms around you and shield you from the world.”