Page 64 of Watch Me Burn

CHAPTER 19

SILVER

My stomach lurches. I feel like I’m going to hurl.

My legs go weak next. I stumble, and Conall’s right there to support me before I drop to the icy snow beneath me.

“Bridget.Bridget. What’s wrong?”

“Was that me? Conall… did it do that?”

“What? Baby, no.No.”

There goes my belly again. Instead of lurching, it flip-flops, and I know it’s because of the way Conall just called me ‘baby’. It’s such a stupid, silly thing. He gave me a nickname almost right after we met. It wasn’t the most creative, granted; though I’m no better with my mocking Mr. Grump. I’ve lost track of how many dudes called me ‘Red’ over the years because of my hair color. But ‘baby’? I’ve never been anyone’s ‘baby’ before.

Mainly because I usually shut that shit down. Even at seventeen, I thought I was too grown for that sort of pet name. I’m thirty next year. I’m a mature fucking woman.

And, yet, because it’s Conall… grumpy, possessive Conall… I don’t mind it.

In fact, it helps calm me down. Well, the name, and how absolutely certain he sounds when he tells me that I couldn’t have caused this wildfire.

“How do you know?

He taps his nose. “Gasoline. I smell it over the burn and the char. It’s an accelerant. Someone made that fire on purpose. And they did it in between the entrance to the caves and the sanctuary on purpose.”

“To cut us off.”

Conall swallows roughly, then nods.

“Do you think the sanctuary is okay?”

How long has this fire been raging? It hadn’t started before

Whostarted it?

I don’t know, but I can’t leave it like this, and though Conall admits he doesn’t know, my wolf shifter is too protective of his territory to let it burn.

We have to do something?—

The fire opal!

I’m a fire witch. That’s definitely a fire. What if… what if the fire opal is all I need to boost my magic? Instead of taking it away from me, it strengthens it?

Expands it?

Gives me the power to control fire instead of it controlling me?

It’s worth a shot.

Turning to Conall, showing him the hunk of crystal he handed me, I tell him, “I can make fire. I can turn it off, too. I think I can get rid of this.”

I know I made the best decision of my life by accepting Conall as my mate because, rather than tell me that I can’t, or I shouldn’t try, he nods his head. “Go, Red. I’ll stay back here so I don’t distract you. But if you need me, shout. I’ll come running.”

I don’t doubt it.

Going up on my tiptoes, I grip his jaw, smack my lips against his, then take off running for the fire.

Conall’s right. The closer I get, the more I can tell that it’s nothing like my own flames. These ones are hungry. Cruel. They’ll eat anything in their path… unless I stop them.

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