Page 44 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

“I’ll totally do it, Gabs. I’ll kick a damn puppy if you die.”

Josie grabbed the back of his collar to keep him from tripping over a rock. But he just kept walking backward, staring at Gabby. Finally, she nodded at him. It must have been what he was waiting for because he blew her a kiss and then turned back around.

When they reached the river,Liam and Josie jumped downontothe murky water. Their feet rested on top, as if they were standing on solid ground. Then Liam flicked his wrist up, and the water rose and moved swiftly forward, carrying him and Josie away. He looked at Gabby, and she watched him until he was out of sight.

Gabby wanted to call him back. How was she going to know he was okay if she was at the top of the mountain and he was at the bottom? How would he know not to kick a damn puppy if she didn’t show up right away? What was the time frame on not kicking a puppy? Why didn’t he specify that shit? “Do-over,” she said suddenly. “I want a goodbye do-over.”

She heard Frost's laughter and turned her head to see the professor shaking with laughter and trying to keep from doubling over.

“Can I just say that you look like a bleeding idiot with your hands in the air, on a volatile volcano, laughing your head off,” Gabby snapped. The words were out before she could process the fact that she’d just spat them at a freaking teacher.

“Worrying about your man makes you mean,” Frost said, the smile still on her face.

“Uh, yeaaah, sorry about that,” Gabby said slowly. “Don't really know what got into me.”

“You’ll see him again, Gabby. And Josie won’t let him kick any puppies until then.”

Gabby let out a deep breath and nodded. “Got it.”

“Excellent. Now, let’s blow this mother.” Frost’s smile widened. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

“Really? That phrase exactly?” Gabby asked.

Frost nodded and then motioned with her head to the mouth of the volcano, which was a good hundred yards above them. “Incoming! Brace yourself.”

Gabby bent her knees a little to help steady her feet just as the mountain gave a hard shake. Suddenly, fire erupted into the sky.

“Focus your power on the lava,” Frost yelled. “Just like you wield fire, Gabby, take it to the river Liam made.”

Gabby reached out for the lava shooting high into the air above the mountain and focused her power on it. She felt the moment she was in control of it. She began directing it, pulling it down toward the mountain and to the waiting river.

“I’ll focus on the lava at the mouth of the volcano,” Frost told her. “You focus on what’s in the air and keep bringing it down, just like that. Good job.”

Gabby saw the lava had turned in a high arc and was now coming smoothly down like an airborne waterfall. She continued lowering her hands, bringing the lava closer to the mountain. As it closed in on the riverbed, treetops began to catch fire, then the trunks, and then the foliage below it. Everything the lava got close to went up in flames.

“Everything is going to burn,” Gabby yelled as she realized, even though they were directing the lava, the heat was still strong enough to ignite everything around it. It wouldn’t be long before the forest all around them was a raging inferno.

Gabby heard Frost curse, but she was too scared to take her attention off the lava. She kept one hand focused on the lava, flowing into the river, and then used the other to focus on the fire in the trees and along the sides of the river. Gabby tried to use her power to keep it contained to the trees, to keep it from spreading to those near it. She managed it for a few minutes, but she was getting tired fast. She saw the fire practically leap from one tree to the next and realized there was no way for her to control both the lava coming from the volcano and the fire now burning up the mountainside.

“Dammit,” she whispered. “I really do not want him kicking a puppy.” Gabby began walking forward, thinking perhaps if she got closer to the fire she’d be able to control it better. She looked over her shoulder at Frost and saw the woman also had one hand pointed in the direction of the trees. Her mentor shook her head at Gabby, but she didn’t stop moving forward. She could do this. She knew she could.

She called on her inner fire and let it run up her skin so she looked like a human torch. It would protect her from the surrounding flames.

“This doesn’t look to me like you want me to not kick puppies, baby.”

Gabby jumped at the sound of Liam’s voice.

His arms were suddenly around her waist, and his cheek rested on the back of her head. “In fact, it looks like you’re just begging me to kick all sorts of puppies. You got a thing against puppies I should know about?”

“What are you doing here?” Gabby asked as she focused on the fire, trying to keep it from spreading to trees on the opposite side of the lavariver.

He pressed a kiss to the back of her head and then released her. When he stepped up beside her, Gabby looked him over to ensure he wasn’t hurt. Dude still looked sexy as hell.

“Just call me the fireman, Gabs,” he said with a wink as he raised his arms and began speaking in those words she didn’t know. Clouds began to gather above them. “Because things are about to get wet.”

“That’s what she said,” Gabby said and then snapped her mouth closed.I did not just say that.

“Knew you were perfect for me,” Liam said with a laugh just as the skies opened up and rain poured down over them.

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