Page 34 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

The fire was too tall, too hot and powerful. Lea’s heart beat rapidly and sweat trickled down her spine. She tried to pull it back inside her, but the white-hot heat of the flames seemed to scorch her insides, the pain so severe it nearly made her vomit. She held her hands out in front of her, her skin blistering as she worked to call the fire back into her chest.

Before she could even blink, Gray was at her side. "Help her, Erik," he commanded, a vein bulging in his forehead as he bared his teeth at his friend. Erik was standing in front of him in an instant, blocking his path to her. Gray’s hands were trembling, shadows bursting toward the fire, and yet they didn’t smother it, the black wisps appearing to bounce off her own magic.

"There’s only one way for her to learn how to control her power, Gray, and that is to practice when there ispressure. She is safe with us, right here. She’ll be fine. You insult my queen when you imply that she needs us to rescue her from her own power."

Lea let his words fill her, his conviction that she could do it. She pulled and pulled the warmth into her veins, and yet the flames only seemed to grow taller. She winced against the intensity of the heat, her blood near boiling.

"Fucking help her! Now!" Gray roared, inches from Erik’s face, his shadows still attempting to smother the flames.

"Let her helpherself!" Erik took another step closer to him, pressing his chest against Gray's in a show of determination. He would not be backing down.

"Be quiet!" Lea snapped at both of them. Her hair stuck to her forehead as heat consumed her entire body. She took several calming breaths, focusing on the hole in her chest where her day magic had been hiding. Her mother’s voice floated through her mind, a saying Lea had heard her entire life.Fear is a thief, my flower. We don’t let it steal our strength.Right now, it was fear that was paralyzing her, making her sloppy and her magic harder to control. But as Gray had told her, she was the master of her power. She couldn’t let it rule her. Shewouldn’t.

Pressing her lips together, Lea commanded the heat back inside her chest as the words circled her mind, urging it home. Slowly, the flames died down, enough to stop the scorching burns that had blistered the skin on her hands and arms. She focused on her shadows, finding her darkness and pushing it outward, only allowing a tiny amount to leave her chest. Cold energy left her fingertips, her own shadows floating past Gray’s and penetrating the shield surrounding her impossibly hot fire. They absorbed the heat, sucking the warmth away until a fire less than a foot tall crackled in front of her. Lea called the shadows back to her and they obeyed without hesitation, bent to her will far easier than the flames had. Once she was confident she’d tucked every bit of magic back inside her, she lowered her hands.

The skin on her palms was blistered, and it surprised her that her own magic had been able to hurt her.

Even though her skin burned, the pain so severe it brought tears to her eyes, Lea felt grateful. Erik had been right. She’d needed to calm the fire herself, needed some sort of proof that she had it inside her to control the magic she still couldn’t seem to make sense of. She had needed some confidence that she could protect herself if she needed to.

Gray attempted to push past Erik, but he created a shield of flames between them. Gray pulled his sword, holding it toward Erik.

"Heal yourself," Erik ordered Lea without turning away from Gray, pulling his own sword.

"Get out of my way, or I send these shadows up your ass, Erik!" Gray threatened, his shadows now attempting to smother the flames that Erik had built.

"She has to do it herself," Erik said, his hands out in front of him and his sword pointed back at Gray. "Do you want her to be able to heal herself? Or do you want her to have to rely on you any time she is injured?"

"I want her to not be injured to begin with! She’s too weak for this! She almost died, Erik. Less than twenty-four hours ago. Let me through or Iwillgut you!" Gray seethed, stepping forward and pressing the tip of his sword to Erik’s heart.

Lea was exhausted, but she focused on her magic, on healing herself. It wasn’t that she thought Gray would actually hurt his best friend, but the way his shadows exploded around them, nearly filling the whole clearing… it wasn’t something she was willing to risk. She dove within herself, blocking out Gray's thunderous rage and Erik’s arguments, and sent cooling magic down her arms and into her fingers, imagining submerging her hands in a snow-chilled stream, soothing away the burns. Focusing on that cooling energy, Lea pushed away the heat and expelled it from her skin as she took slow, deep breaths. Light filled her veins and the pain faded, slowly, and then all at once. When she opened her eyes, her skin was smooth and unblemished, and even the scars that had remained from the Lonely Death were absent from her body. Her body seemed to glow faintly, the slightest silver-blue radiating from her skin.

Gray and Erik stood in silence, staring at her as they lowered their swords.

"I’m okay," Lea whispered to Gray, utterly drained. "I need to learn to protect myself. Erik did the right thing."

Lightning cracked directly above their head, a flash of light boasting a storm full of rage and fury that threatened to unleash itself at any moment. "Are you in pain?" Gray demanded as he clenched his jaw and his fists. His voice was tight, filled with far more agony than what she'd experienced from the burns on her hands.

"No. I promise you Gray, I’m okay." Lea watched some of the emerald creep back into her mate's eyes, chasing out a bit of the darkness. He stared at her for a long moment before breaking eye contact and raising his sword to Erik’s throat.

Shadows wrapped around his neck, holding him in place as Gray lowered his voice. "I do not care if you think she needs to learn to heal herself or not. Maybe she does, but if you keep me from helping my mate again, I will wound you so deeply that it will be impossible for anyone to heal you. Do you understand me?"

Erik returned Gray’s furious stare. "She needs to continue to practice, Gray."

"Nottonight,she doesn’t," Gray spat before shoving his sword into the ground at Erik’s feet and stalking off into the forest, thunder and lightning crashing around them as he disappeared into the darkness.

Chapter 19

Lea

Thesunrisewasbeautiful,bursting with pinks, oranges, and golds, reminding Lea of the gladiolus growing near her front porch back home. Lea knew she should be feeling dread as they began their journey into the Wicked Wood, but she couldn’t help but feel hopeful. So much had changed in her life over the past few weeks. She was hardly the same girl who had walked into the castle after finding out the man she’d spent so much time with was actually the Night Prince of Desiaandthe Eclipsed King, leader of the rebellion against the Nestruir family.

Of course, her stomach clenched at the feeling of danger stalking just behind her, a reminder that she was leading them into a savage, terrible place, but beyond those menacing woods wereanswers. Just on the other side of the terrifying forest was the chance to learn who she was and where her magic had come from.

It was unmistakable where the dangerous part of the forest began—where the wickedness had poisoned the roots and air to allow evil to thrive on its soil. Only feet from where they sat on top of their horses, the ground turned darker and softer, almost as if the dirt itself was rotting. The dark, leafless tree branches seemed to sway as one, left to right, left to right, an inhale and exhale of choreographed evil.

"There’s still time to turn back," Gray said as he wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned close to speak in her ear, his breath tickling the back of her neck. "We don’t have to go this way."

Despite his soothing touch, Lea could feel his unease even without reaching down the bond. It radiated off him the way a sunburn radiates heat.

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