Sheer surprise made her shift back into human form. Rose stumbled, catching herself on her hands. Sharp-edged rocks cut into her knees, but she barely noticed the pain.
The roar of the inferno, the punch of heat against her fragile human skin…it all faded into irrelevance.
He came walking out of the blazing forest, as calmly as if the furnace-hot wind whipping his clothes was just a pleasant springtime breeze. The white-yellow glow backlit his lean, tall form, so that she couldn’t make out his face.
But she could see how the flames bowed before him. They drew aside to let him pass, then leaped up again in his wake, roaring twice as high. Sparks and embers swirled around his head like a crown.
As she watched, dumbstruck, he reached the edge of the firebreak. For a moment he paused. Through the billowing smoke, she saw his head tip down a little, as though considering the barren ground.
He strode out onto the churned earth.
And the fire followed him.
Flames flared up where he stepped, the very rocks burning. Behind him, in the forest, the inferno mounted like a cresting wave, gathering, rising. Waiting to surge forward, down the narrow path that he was making for it across the firebreak.
She could see his face now. He was smiling.
“Stop!” she shouted, surging to her feet. She ran at him, waving her arms. “You can’t—there are people—stop!”
He checked his stride, surprise flashing across his face. He was only two steps away from the edge of the firebreak. Narrow tongues of flame crowded behind him, muttering.
She planted herself square in his path, spreading her arms wide to bar his way. Smoke burned her throat as she fought for breath.
For the first time, she met his eyes.
Fire, nothing but fire. The dark inferno embraced her, burning away everything but him. The mate-call roared in her blood louder than the burning forest. She was dry tinder, and he was her match. One step, one touch, and she would be consumed utterly.
Every part of her yearned to take that step. Let the world burn around them. Nothing mattered, as long as they were together.
She clenched her fists, shaking with the effort of not falling into his arms.
“Stop,” she said again. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but it’s wrong. The fire will hurt people if it goes any farther. You have to stop.”
He blinked. The fire behind him died down, flames falling back into smoldering embers. The black fire in his eyes faded too, revealing a more human color. They were darkest brown, deep and clear. Even with his fires leashed, the power in them stole Rose’s breath away. She’d been in the presence of alpha shifters before, but never one like this.
His eyebrows drew together a little. For all the burning force in his gaze, he had a very human look of puzzlement.
He lifted his right hand, almost but not quite touching her cheek. Intricate tattoos twined around his wrist, running up his bare forearm. They looked like runes, characters in some script she didn’t recognize.
“I know you,” he said.
His deep voice made her toes curl into the dirt. Her cheek burned where he almost touched her. The rest of her felt cold in comparison, cold down to the bone. She yearned to lean into his palm, but something about his raw, uncertain eyes made her hold still. There was a sense of wildness about him; an unpredictable, unstable power.
“I know you,” he said again. “Who—?”
He gasped, suddenly stumbling back as though jerked away by an invisible leash. His left hand shot to his right wrist, gripping tight.
Rose stared, unable to make sense of what she was seeing. A moment ago the tattoo had just been black ink. But now color was blossoming up his arm. Each tiny, precise rune was outlined in crimson.
Then the thin red lines started to drip and run.
Blood. Blood welling up, as though the tattoo was tightening, cutting into his skin.
Her swan hissed in distress at the sight of their mate’s pain. Rose started to reach out to him, but had to jerk back. The air around him was hot. She might as well have tried to put her hand into a furnace.
Behind him, the forest fire surged up with renewed force. The inferno was back in his eyes, black and all-consuming. He strained toward her, every line of his body yearning, but it was like a glass wall had slammed between them.
With a snarl of frustration, he turned away. He tipped his head back, throwing his arms open.