Page 100 of Fire of the Fox

Blurry explosions of light erupted in my head, and the fire in my throat got to be too much. I didn’t want this.

I can’t be weak. I can’t give up and die. I have to survive. For Dallas. For my new group of friends. For Rune.

For myself.

A new, lower sound began to fill my ears. It drowned out Jonah’s laughter and the buzz from lack of air. It started as a hum, gentle and faint. It grew louder as the burning in my chest grew hotter, and I realized vaguely that it was the same odd tune I’d heard when I’d been in that trance at the mall with Blake. Bubbles erupted from my mouth before I unwillingly tried to inhale with a desperate need for release of the pain. Water rushed into my mouth and lungs at the same time the humming reached its crescendo.

Suddenly, I could breathe again. The pain in my cheek and back faded into a distant memory, and strength flooded my limbs. Gripping Jonah’s ankle tightly, I used my newfound strength to shove him back. He stumbled into the water, and I was quick to rise to my feet.

He stared up at me from where he’d landed in the stream, and the color drained from his face. “Y-you! You aren’t supposed to have your powers yet!”

Powers?

I had no idea what he was on about, but then again, I was confused by a lot of shit at the moment, starting with the breathing under water and healed injuries. Not only that, I was practically buzzing from some new energy coursing through my veins. I felt powerful, strong, and ready to take on the world.

Gritting his teeth, Jonah evaporated into a gust of shadows and darted toward me, but I could see him moving with hardly any effort now. Either he’d slowed down a lot, or my eye-sight had suddenly improved. Either way, I braced myself to block his attack.

Throwing my arms up to block him, I felt my hands grow warm and tingly. At the same moment, water rushed up from the creek, forming a moving wall in front of me. Jonah smacked into it and bounced backward, but in utter shock, I gasped and jumped away from the water. It collapsed, crashing back down into the creek bed.

Jonah roared from where he’d appeared back near the tree line. “I’m over this. We’re ending this now.”

I didn’t have time to process what was happening to me. Right now, I had to protect myself, and even though it was crazy, I had a feeling I didn’t need the dagger anymore.

Jonah ran at me, his hands curled into sharp claws. Daring to take a chance, I focused on the water pooled around my calves. I took a deep breath and waited ‘til Jonah was almost to the bank before raising my right arm. A wave of water rose with it, and as I swiped my arm toward Jonah, the water barreled at him faster than he could dodge. It crashed into him, sending him flying sideways.

I wanted to laugh hysterically because, holy shit, I did that! I could feel the water move as if it were a part of me, and it followed my command as if I actually wielded it like a sword.

“What is going on?” I asked myself breathlessly.

Jonah let out another frustrated snarl and erupted into a mass of shadows. With a burst of cold wind, he darted toward me, but I wasn’t letting him get close. Pulling the water again, I sent it rushing forward to meet Jonah’s shadow, and within seconds, his cloudy form was engulfed in a watery trap. Sweat beaded my brow as I held still, encasing him. Slowly, his form solidified until he was thrashing in the water, clutching at his throat.

My stomach churned watching him suffer like that. It was him or me, just like Rune said. I knew that. But this wasn’t me. I wasn’t a killer, and watching another person suffer made me want to be sick.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I slowly lowered my outstretched hands. The rushing water guided Jonah to the ground before releasing him from its watery clutches. As soon as he was free, he rolled to the side, coughing up water.

Taking a deep breath, I held my head high. “Take that as a warning. I’m letting you live, but if you show yourself in front of me again, I won’t be as merciful. Do I make myself clear?”

He heaved ragged breaths, flopping over onto his elbows. Meeting my eyes, he croaked, “How did you get your powers? He said you didn’t have them yet.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Who said what? Who sent you after me?”

His chest continued to rise and fall, slowly getting back to a normal rhythm. Finally, he opened his mouth to answer. A whizzing sound flew past my head, and a scream lodged in my chest when a thin, red line suddenly appeared across Jonah’s throat. His eyes went wide as the color drained from his face, and he fell backward, his severed head rolling across the dirt. I quickly turned to scan the dark tree line to see who was there, who had silenced my one source to the truth, but I found no one. Whoever had killed Jonah was gone, which meant the person who was truly after me was still out there.

Chapter Forty-Two

AFTER WATCHING JONAH get beheaded by something—I still didn’t know what since I found no weapon near his body—I emptied out the contents of my stomach in the grass, but not before watching his body turn into smoke that was carried away on the wind.

If that wasn’t enough, I was immediately reminded of my newfound powers when the water seemed to gather me in a bubble as if to ease my panic and nausea. It responded to my need without me realizing it. The water even brought my dagger back to me when I tried looking for it.

I was a complete wreck.

How could this have happened? This morning, I’d been human Bria, living as normal a life as I could given the circumstances. Now I was … what? Fae? Water Fae?

I had no clue, so I focused on getting back to the dorm and taking the stairs two at a time up to my room, which was far easier than it should’ve been with my short, stubby legs. That was no doubt thanks to the newfound energy racing through what I thought was my human body.

Human. Fae.

How had I become one of them, a Fae? Or had I always been one?

---