Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

d on his elbow, whimpering a bit because she surely felt the heat in his skin. She was like a wash of cold water, quenching him briefly.

“Tell me what to do.”

Duffy’s hand was suddenly in his. “Damn me, Shim, you’re blazing hot. Come on, we need to get him outside before he blows.”

“Blows?”

He heard Paige’s shout through the chaotic mess of his brain. His world? Bron’s world? It was hard to tell what he was seeing. He held on tightly to the power, but it was growing. Bron’s need was overcoming his will. She was so strong, and she didn’t know what she was doing.

He stumbled, forcing his eyes to focus on his feet.

“What’s happening?”

It was his brother’s voice. Shim could hear feet pounding and voices calling out, but he wasn’t sure where they were coming from.

Bron was so angry. Her rage filled him. Years of impotent anger had been bottled up, and now it would not go away. His anger. Her anger. Their power.

“Damn it all.” He felt his brother’s hands on his shoulders. “Get away! Get away now!”

But his brother was still here. Lach had lost too much. Lach could die if he got caught in the fire, and it would be a big one. Grabbing on to the final vestige of his will, he pushed his brother away and ran.

He knew he was outside now, could feel the air on his skin as his clothes began to burn off.

He stopped, his vision utterly taken over by Bronwyn.

He saw a guard standing in the middle of a large crowd, a brownie child at his feet and his mercy. The guard had none. Bron’s memories assaulted him. It was so much stronger than ever before. Being on the same plane with nothing between them but miles, he could feel her power. She transmitted so strongly, but not only could she transmit, she pulled power from him.

The fire built and Shim gave in to his instincts. He forced the fire into his hands, Bron’s hands, and directed it in a thin line, trying to keep it away from the crowds. Once he let it flow, it immediately became easier to control. Flames shot from his fingertips. His skin was on fire, every inch of his body engulfed in flames, but he could control them.

The guard screamed, but the brownie Bron had been trying to save skittered away. A long breath came out of her body and then he heard a single word.

“Witch.”

Shim fell to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut. The flames went out, and Shim was aware that he was alone again.

His hands shook as he sat up. Something was very wrong. The connection had been brutally severed. Bron was in trouble.

Shim struggled to his feet. His naked damn feet. As his power grew, he’d found his skin could handle the flames that engulfed him, though his clothes never survived.

“Holy crap balls,” Dellacourt said, staring at the ground surrounding Shim. A perfect circle of burned grass had formed when he’d finally let his power go. “You’ve already come into your power.”

Shim’s voice was a little shaky. “I think we mentioned that.”

Dante pointed toward the woods where Shim could clearly see the line of fire he’d made when Bron had seized his power.

“It could have been worse,” Lach said, handing him a blanket. “What the hell happened? I felt something. My power surged.” Lach looked back at the porch where the Harpers stood staring. “I am so sorry. Do you have a lot of bodies buried close by?”

“What?” Rye asked. Then he took a startled step back, pulling his wife toward him.

A partially decomposed dog was trotting out of the woods, a large black dog running beside it.

“Quigley!” Rachel started trying to run toward the black dog. “Get away from that thing!”

One of the younger Harper children, a boy Shim remembered was named Patrick, stepped forward. He couldn’t be more than seven, but he looked at his fathers with outrage. “That’s Queenie! You told us Queenie went to the city.”

His brother rolled his eyes. “Dummy, don’t you know that’s what Da says when one of the animals dies? He’s too chicken to tell you so he pretends he took it to the city. Queenie got into a bad patch of berries and got herself poisoned. Da buried her in the woods.”

“Well, it looks like Da was wrong.” Patrick started to go out, but Rye held him back.