WARRIOR OF FIRE
by
Shona Husk
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pub
Date: 6/20/17
Is theirs a love match?
For Leira Venn, her future is a given
foretold by the oracle of the Albah, the ancient people she was born
to. Which is why she knows from the moment she meets Dr. Julian Ryder
that he is fated to be hers. But nothing else about the prophecy
feels right. For the handsome doctor is shrouded by darkness, and
intimately involved with a woman who seems intent on killing Leira …
Or a death wish?
Sorrow has shadowed Julian Ryder for as
long as he can remember. But from the moment he meets lovely Leira,
his heart is filled with hope for the future—a future that is as
combustible as the powerful attraction between them. For Leira is
marked for death by the very forces who killed his mother. The very
darkness that stole everything he held most dear. Only this time,
Julian is stronger, more in control of his powers than ever. But will
it be enough to save Leira from those who would destroy her?
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Leira
sat quietly on the bathroom floor—it was the safest place for
her
to practice, given the abundance of water and the lack of flammable
items.
She’d moved the towels well away as an extra precaution. The tiles
were
cold under her butt. She’d been sitting here for half an hour with the
unlit
candle. She was running out of time if she wanted to get this done
before
she had to get to university. While she could light a candle safely,
if
she saw something that shocked her… Well, she didn’t want a repeat of
the
crisps incident.
Saba
would’ve happily done a reading for her if she’d asked, but Leira
wanted
to do this herself, and she didn’t want anyone else to know. She
didn’t
want Saba to know if everything had gone wrong. And if it had,
how
was she going to fix it?
She
didn’t know that either.
Which
was why she hadn’t lit the candle yet.
Sitting
here wasn’t going to change anything. Maybe nothing had changed
and
it would all be okay, but she didn’t believe that for a heartbeat. Last
night
every time she’d looked at him she could feel the tracks changing
direction,
derailing the future she’d been expecting.
She
shook out her hands. Maybe she was being overly dramatic, after
all,
if it was one of those meant to be things, why hadn’t she felt more
than
a tingle? All she’d gotten—once she’d gotten over the shock—was
the
same tingle she got when seeing any hot guy.
A
smile formed. Julian was hot, and not just because his magic was
fire.
And they had agreed to get together to talk magic. And he’d offered
to
let her read his dead mother’s diaries, which was probably a great way
to
kill any mood.
There’d
been no mood in the car, but there had been an undercurrent
of
something. She didn’t know what it was or how to deal with it, or him.
She’d
expected fireworks and…and something more. She wasn’t sure he’d
felt
anything for her except pity, because she couldn’t control her magic,
and
then embarrassment because it was pretty damn clear that everyone
in
the room thought they needed smooshing together. Saba had promised
not
to interfere, but that had been before, when the vision was still true.
Now
it wasn’t. They had met and she needed to find out what had changed.
She
drew in a breath and then exhaled.
In
her mind she saw a circle form around her, in her next breath it became
real.
She waited another couple of heartbeats before visualizing the flame.
If
she was lighting a candle for the oil burner, she didn’t bother with the
ritual,
but this was about her future. She could’ve used a match and not
worried
about the magic, but she refused to use matches and lighters. She
had
to be able to do this.
Leira
pictured the flame in her mind, then pushed it out of her. The
candle
lit with a spark and a crackle. She leaned forward and rested her
hands
on her chin so she could stare into its blue center. As she did, the
flame
expanded. The blue becoming a ball three inches in diameter.
Her
concentration remained steady. How many exercises had she done
just
on focusing without even using fire? She’d lost count. She could do
this
without burning off her eyebrows now.
The
blue started swirling as though filled with currents.
Show
me the path I am on.
She
expected to see the train, Julian—he had a name now—and herself
giving
lectures. Her future still steady even if she didn’t know how to get
there.
She’d met him; all they had to do was fall in love. When she thought
of
him, that feeling was there even though when she was with him it wasn’t.
Was
she getting herself muddled by constantly checking and imagining?
No,
she knew the difference between the present and the future.
This
time Julian didn’t appear in the flame. The currents grew darker
as
though made of thick oily smoke. No, it was smoke. And flames. Her
future
was nothing but smoke and flames.
No!
She
gasped and dropped the circle, batting the ball of fire away. It
bounced
off the wall and into the two inches of water she’d put in the bath
in
case of emergency, where it then fizzled and went out.
Her
heart beat fast. That didn’t make sense. Just because her initial
meeting
with Julian had gone wrong didn’t mean her whole life was going
to
go up in smoke.
Did
it?
Fire
was her element. What was she going to do, spontaneously combust?
A
nervous laugh slipped past her lips.
She
must have projected her own feelings about the situation. Saba was
better
at this than she was. Saba was better at everything, except school
grades.
That had been the one place she had bested Saba. Leira had worked
hard
to be good at something.
What
if Saba saw exactly what she had seen? What did it mean?
It
couldn’t be death. There were other paths. There were always other
paths.
She knew that. All that she had been shown was the path she
was
currently on.
Right. She could fix this.
She calmed herself. She just had to
find
a new path.
The
trouble was, how would she know if she was on the same path or
changing
direction? She couldn’t check every decision that she made and
sometimes
it was the smallest thing that could create the needed ripple.
Last
night had been more than a ripple.
Shona Husk lives in Western Australia
at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination
she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she
discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. With over forty
published stories, ranging from sensual to scorching, she writes
contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi romance.
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