River of Shadows (Underworld Gods 1)

“Watch,” he says and grabs my arm. “And stay still.”

One part of the fire starts to reach higher in the sky right above us and I want to step back, but Rasmus holds me in place. It slowly starts to curve over us, creating an arc of fire that has me both terrified and mesmerized, the flames so close to our heads. Then the reaching tip of the flame makes contact with one of the fern-stuffed cairns and it lights itself on fire, creating another arc of fire that connects each cairn to each other until all the ferns around us are lit.

The flames then retreat back to a manageable size, the show over.

“Flame ferns,” Rasmus says, clapping his hands together. “One of my favorite things about this place. I’ve brought them back to our world, but they aren’t flammable at all. Here they only burn if they’ve been cut or taken up from the ground, and the fire it creates will only ignite other flame ferns. Watch.”

He suddenly puts his hand straight into the fire and I gasp as he removes it completely unharmed, his sleeve untouched. “It’s hot enough but it’s no danger. You try it.”

“I don’t know…” I muse. Rasmus made it look safe, but every human instinct tells you not to put yourself in a fire.

“Chicken?” Rasmus goads.

I exhale shakily and square my shoulders. “Fine.”

I stick my hand out, palm down, and slowly move it into the flames. It’s hot at first, tickling the undersides of my fingers like burning feathers, but it doesn’t hurt at all.

“Oh man, this can’t be good for you,” I tell him, unable to take my eyes off my entire hand now fully engulfed by the flames.

“See,” he says. “Now take it out.”

I remove my hand.

Except the flames are now growing from my fingertips, as if I was made of a flame fern.

“Um!” I yelp, waving my hand around, the flames not going out. “What the fuck?”

Rasmus just stares at me, dumbfounded, the flames reflected in his eyes.

“How are you doing that?” he whispers harshly. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Well it is! A little help? What the hell should I do!?”

He just shakes his head. If anything, he looks a little pissed off.

I grumble at him and go over to a cedar, trying to wipe it off on the rough strips of bark, but the flames don’t go out, and they stay lit when I try smothering it on the moss and in the dirt. The fire isn’t hurting me, and from the looks of it my skin isn’t burned, but still, I don’t want to be a walking flamethrower.

Finally I just inhale deeply and blow on my hand.

And as if they’re a bunch of birthday candles, all the flames go out at once.

“Holy shit,” I say breathlessly, examining my hand up close. It looks the same as always. If anything it looks smoother, like my skin just got exfoliated.

“Is your nail polish flammable?” Rasmus asks.

“I’m not wearing any,” I say, wiggling my fingers at him.

“I don’t understand,” he says, turning his back to me and going through his bag. “It’s never done that with me.”

“Well maybe I’m just that special,” I say jokingly. “Or maybe I just have the feminine touch.”

He grunts in response and brings out a tiny teapot and two wood carved cups from his backpack. I’m not sure why he’s grumpy again, you’d think getting a blow job from a mermaid would cure all your woes for a long time.

But as Rasmus starts preparing dinner, or lunch, whatever time it is, he seems to get in a better mood. I suppose the idea of having actual food when you’re starving will do that to you.

Since it’s not as cold anymore, I take our coats and boots and lay them out around the fire and between the cairns so that they’ll dry, then I scooch myself onto the moss right beside the fire. Too bad the whole lighting my hand on fire can’t be a party trick I can try back home.

Dinner is as mundane and practical as it comes—cans of corned beef, a packet of chicken-flavored potato chips, a few oranges, and a Cliff bar for dessert, but nothing has ever tasted so good. I know reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when I was young made me think fantasy worlds were full of Turkish Delight, but the reality is oatmeal cookie energy bars taste just as heavenly.

After dinner, Rasmus disappears into the forest for a few minutes and when he returns he has a handful of cedar needles and some gooey white substance which he places in the diffuser in the teapot.

“Cedar sap,” he explains. “It will help your body and mind heal. It might make you a bit sleepy though, and your sleep will be deep and restorative.”