Page 79 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

“What about you?” she asked Ra. “You actually have magic, real magic. What can you do?”

Ra dropped his hand from her face and held it out, palm up. A small spark suddenly appeared. It flickered like a candle flame. After a few seconds, it began to move to a rhythm.

Shelly gasped. “Are you making your fire do the cha-cha?”

Ra grinned. “Not the cha-cha. I’m just willing it to dance. It chooses the dance it wants to do. I’m partial to the cabbage patch myself.”

She giggled. “So you can make fire dance? That’s way cooler than conjuring holes.”

He flicked his hand up, and the flame leaped into the air. Ra moved his hand, and the flame followed it, floating and lengthening. She realized he was writing in the air with fire. Soon, she recognized the letters of her name burning in front of her. “Wow,” she said breathlessly. “That’s amazing. I didn’t know there was more to fire magic than just throwing fireballs.”

“I can also heat up food,” he said and smirked. “Though frozen burritos get a little tricky. I can never get the middle warm without the rest becoming scorched.”

She shoved his shoulder. “Now, you’re just showing off.” Their laughter died down, and they sat in companionable silence. She couldn’t help but wonder what would happen once they were no longer in the underworld. They would, sort of, beforcedto be together. Would Ra still want her?

“I notice you’re in a dress,” Ra said, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yeah, Tara and I were at our prom when things went to hell in a handbasket with the whole dark elementals and whatnot.”

“Did you go with a date?”

She shook her head and pointed to herself. “Never been on a date, remember?”

“Did you get to dance at least?”

“With a group. I didn’t get asked to the dance by any of the guys.” Why did admitting that feel as if she’d just held a sign over her head with an arrow that read Loser for Life?

Ra suddenly stood and held out his hand to her. “I’d like to dance with you.”

Shelly’s eyes widened, and she slowly placed her hand in his. He pulled her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her tightly against him. Ra moved effortlessly, as if he’d danced a million times before.

“You’re good at this,” she said.

He shrugged one shoulder. “It was sort of a requirement. Even though there aren’t royals in Egypt any longer, my family was very important. We attended a lot of functions where I was expected to dance,” he explained.

Shelly let him lead her around the room and laid her head on his chest. She sighed as he pulled her even closer. She was dancing with a Pharaoh in hell. Well, he wasn’t a Pharaoh, exactly, but a thousand years ago, or something, he would have been. Her life was so strange. Strange and wondrous, and she didn’t want this moment to end.

“I like holding you,” Ra murmured. “It feels right, like you belong in my arms always.”

She bit her lip to keep from saying something that would embarrass herself. Not that she could get any more embarrassed than her whole ‘I know magic that makes holes’ bit.

“I like being in your arms,” Shelly finally said, not wanting him to think she didn’t feel the same way, because she totally did. She had read so many romance novels where the main character described all the feels, and finally, it was her turn.Shewas getting all the feels, and she wanted more. Was she getting greedy? Damn right she was.

“What are you thinking?” Ra asked, looking down at her.

“All the feels,” she said with a sigh as she looked into his handsome face.

“Should that make sense to me?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. But it’s a good thing.”

He continued to stare at her as his hand moved to her hair. Ra wrapped it tightly around the strands and tugged just a little. They’d stopped moving, and Shelly’s breathing picked up as the intensity between them grew.

“I’m going to kiss you,Mery.”

There was that “beloved” name again that made the drunk butterflies in her stomach also high on speed.

“Are you okay with that?” Ra asked.

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