The Fire Prophecy

by Megan Linski

  “You never really answered me about the boyfriend thing.” By the ancestors, why was I being so nosy?

  “You first,” she said. “Have you had any girlfriends?”

  My stomach churned just thinking about it. “A couple, but there was one girl I really liked. She was a Toaqua girl named Mia. We got together because it was expected of us. Our parents basically hooked us up from the moment we were born. I was supposed to be chief, so I had my bride hand-picked for me.”

  “What happened?” Sophia asked.

  My throat got kind of tight. “It just didn’t work out, I guess.”

  “Liam,” Sophia said, in a tone that suggested she wasn’t buying my crap.

  I sighed and said, “The truth is, I was into her way more than she was into me. She wanted to marry a chief, someone who could give her a good life, and I promised that. But then Nashoma died, and she told me she didn’t want to be with me anymore. My dad let her out of the marriage contract, you know, because I didn’t have a Familiar and I wasn’t considered fit to marry.”

  “That’s awful.” She gave me a sad face. “Does that mean you can’t marry ever?”

  This was a tough conversation to talk about. It made my chest feel like there was a giant weight on it I couldn’t lift off. “Not ever, but you’d have a hard time convincing a girl to marry someone like me.”

  I wasn’t sure if I meant the Familiar-less part of me, the sick part, or both. Sophia didn’t say anything, but looked thoughtful.

  “I still see Mia around school from time to time, but we don’t talk anymore,” I said. “She’s got another boyfriend now.”

  We really didn’t talk, either. Mia always turned away whenever she saw me. I didn’t blame her for breaking up with me, because it was what everyone thought she was going to do after Nashoma died, but I didn’t think she would abandon me completely and act like I didn’t even exist. At first, it really stung.

  The funny thing was, I’d ceased to have any sort of feelings for Mia at all now that Sophia was around.

  “That sucks. I’m sorry that happened to you,” Sophia said kindly.

  “Yeah, well. That’s what you get for being stupid and wasting your virginity on someone who doesn’t love you,” I said, and I leaned back against the tree trunk.

  “You had sex with her?” Sophia seemed shocked.

  “Yeah. I guess I thought it would make her love me more. Or love me at all, really.” I put an arm behind my head and looked up. “The shitty thing was, I found out she’d been screwing the guy she got with after me while we were still together.”

  “That really is terrible. I can see why you didn’t want to talk about it,” Sophia said.

  “It’s over with now,” I said quickly. “Nashoma never really liked her. He always had a face whenever she came around.”

  Sophia laughed loudly. “I hope Nashoma would’ve liked me.”

  “I think he would’ve liked you very much.” In fact, I didn’t have to think about it. Deep down in my core, I just knew he would’ve loved her.

  Sophia shivered, but I don’t think it was because of the cold. “Okay. You told me yours, so I can tell you mine. I was friends with this guy in high school, and I really liked him, you know?”

  I could see where this was going. “So, he turned you down, or…”

  “It was prom night,” she started. “I felt like I was so in love, and I wanted to try going all the way. We went together as friends, and I tried hitting on him, and he started flirting back. He was a complete gentleman until we got in the limo together. We started making out. We got to second base, but halfway through, I changed my mind.”

  This story was taking a way worse turn than I thought. The bones in my hands cracked. “And?”

  “He reached up under my dress. I told him to stop but he got really mad. He told me I needed to finish what I started. He wouldn’t stop groping me,” she said. “I yelled for the driver to stop, then I got out of the car and walked the rest of the way home. When I got back to school the next week, he’d told everyone in my class I was a tease.”

  I was really far away from the pool, but the water down there was churning furiously. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. It kind of sucked.” Her voice was choked up, but she cleared her throat. “It’s over now. I’m over it.”

  She wasn’t. I could tell by her voice. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I would’ve beat that guy’s ass.”

  She laughed again, and her expression cleared. “I bet you would’ve.”

  “I’m not kidding.” If I could figure out who this guy was, I’d go looking for him and hunt his ass down.

  Sophia seemed to notice I was serious. She turned around and touched my face. “Hey. It’s all right.”

  I calmed down a little bit, but the possessiveness raging through me wasn’t helping. Who the fuck did this guy think he was, assaulting Sophia like that? What gave him the right?

  “Anyway, looks like we’ve both had really bad luck when it comes to love,” she said, and her tone seemed lighter. “Hopefully the future will be better.”

  “Hopefully,” I responded, though the answer came out more like a growl. I didn’t like the thought of Sophia being with anyone who treated her like that. She was mine. Mine. My saucy little virgin.

  Aw, fuck. I needed to take things down a notch. Fast.

  There was a crackling noise by my ear, like little twigs snapping. I turned my head and saw that Esis had reappeared, dangling down from the trees. Sophia hadn’t noticed him there. He had a small flower in his hands with a thin, twisty stem, and was holding it out to me.

  He literally wanted me to give it to Sophia. This little shit was trying to play matchmaker! It was bad enough even the tree was trying to hook us up. That was not taking things down a notch.

  “No,” I told him softly. “That’s not allowed.”

  His ears went back, and he hissed at me. Esis shoved the flower at me more insistently, this time poking me in the eye.

  “Ow! All right!” I took the flower from him and he went scampering upward again. He was probably watching the whole thing from above, like it was his own personal daytime soap opera.

  I was so nervous, but I handed the flower to her. My hand almost shook. “For you.”

  “Really? Thank you.” She took it graciously. “Where’d you get it?”

  “I don’t know,” I told her flatly. “It appeared like magic.”

  I heard humored chattering from the trees. If I got my hands on that little guy, he was going into the pool.

  “That’s so sweet.” Sophia took the flower and wrapped it around one of the fingers on her left hand, tying a knot. She held it out happily. “It looks adorable. Thank you.”

  I felt a little more cheery. Okay, so the little guy had some moves. Maybe he was big with the kurble ladies.

  Without warning, rain started pouring down from the sky. And I mean pouring. It was coming down in buckets. Sophia yelped and slid downward, off my lap and shimmying down the tree. I followed her, though not as fast.

  “Hold on, I got it,” I said when I reached the ground. I raised my hand. The raindrops falling down suspended in mid-air, frozen all around us. I thought of my intention, and the raindrops turned to crystal ice, resembling diamonds. I turned my wrist in a circular motion. The diamonds floated toward Sophia, nestling in her hair and giving her a shining headpiece, an ornate necklace and a shimmering dress.

  Sophia’s mouth opened wide and she gave a delighted sound of joy. Right then, she looked so beautiful, like a crystal princess. Nobody on earth had any idea how badly I wanted to kiss her. I hadn’t kissed anyone in months, but Sophia made me want to again. I took a step toward her, because I wasn’t a coward and I was going to do it.

  But I was a coward, because I noticed some of the diamonds were sizzling against her skin. And I was reminded she was Koigni.

  Almost as soon as the downpour started, it stopped. When I let the diamonds drop off of her and fall onto the g
rass, melting into the earth, the spell was broken, and it was like she woke up.

  “Weird, huh?” Sophia said, looking skyward. “I’ve never seen a storm come and go so quickly before.”

  I said nothing. She didn’t need to know it wasn’t a storm at all, but how I felt.

  “Do you…?” She started, then she waited a moment. “Do you think we could spend the night out here, just talking? I like being with you, Liam. It makes me feel better.”

  Talking with her was so easy. And it made me feel better, too. “Sure. Whatever you want, pawee.”

  We sat next to each other in the grass. Sophia talked about a lot of things— her old friends, her parents, Amelia, and especially Esis. He was up in the trees somewhere, cooing a song. Me, I just listened.

  It was too late. There was no turning back now. I’d made my feelings for Sophia clear.

  I just hoped that she felt the same.

  I woke up the next morning curled against someone in the grass. At first, I thought it was Nashoma, and I was so happy that he was back. But then I realized my hand was tangled up in hair, not fur, and that Nashoma didn’t have boobs.

  I jolted awake with a start and skidded backward. Sophia had been curled up against me for ancestors knew how long. She was still asleep, breathing lightly with a smile on her face.

  My body was pretty warm instead of the cool, usual Toaqua temperature it rested at, which meant I’d had my arms around her for quite some time now— possibly hours.

  We’d literally picked opposite ends of the clearing to sleep on! How did we end up spooning randomly in our sleep? I looked around and saw Esis bathing in the pool, washing his fur with the water. He gave me a devious smile as he cleaned his fat cheeks.

  He probably rolled us together in our sleep or something. He didn’t look strong enough to do that, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

  I skirted away from her before she woke up. My movements didn’t wake her, and I didn’t want to touch her again to shake her awake, so I threw a twig, and when that still didn’t wake her up, a small rock.

  It bounced against her leg, and her eyes flew open. “Ow!” She sat up and rubbed her calf. “Did you really have to do that?”

  “Yes. Now get up,” I snapped. “We haven’t got all day.”

  “Great. Mean Liam is back,” she grumbled, pushing her hair out of her face. It’d fallen out of her ponytail and gotten all wild, which wasn’t helping my morning situation.

  “Mean Liam never left. Hurry up. I want breakfast,” I told her.

  “Breakfast is probably over.” She yawned, and pointed at the sun. “It’s almost noon.”

  Dammit. She was right. We’d way overslept. Hopefully nobody noticed that both of us had been gone from our dorms last night. “We need to get back,” I told her, and I got to my feet. “Come on.”

  I went to head out of the clearing, but before I could, Sophia cried, “Wait!”

  I turned around. She ran to the tree we’d climbed on last night and raised her hand. A small bit of fire appeared in her palm, and she moved it slowly over the tree trunk, burning an inscription into the wood.

  “There.” She stepped back, proud of her work. I looked at it. With her magic, she’d carved our initials into the tree: S and L.

  “This is our place now,” she said. “We’ve claimed it.”

  I couldn’t decide if that was really cute or really annoying. “Come on, dork. Let’s go.”

  Esis ran after Sophia, trilling and hopping on her back. We headed back to town, but this time, we didn’t hold hands. We were acting like friends again now, instead of… whatever we’d been last night.

  We were passing by Professor Baine’s house. Baine lived closer to castle in Kinpago, instead of within the Water tribe’s borders underwater, because it was a quicker walk to the school. He had a house on the beach, which I’m guessing he liked to be at whenever he wasn’t bothering me.

  I hoped Baine wasn’t around, because he’d probably talk to us about the tournament and I wanted to keep thinking about Sophia’s perfect everything. But whatever romantic daydreams I had for Sophia were completely smacked out of me by the sight that was waiting around the corner.

  The air left my lungs, and Sophia gasped. It was November and chilly as fuck, but Baine was outside his damn house in a tight yellow Speedo, spread out on a lawn chair and sunbathing like it was the middle of July. As if anyone living wanted to see that much of him.

  Today confirmed it. I had seen too much in my short life.

  We tried to run away, but Baine heard our footsteps and lifted his head, waving. “Ah, Liam. Sophia! How are you this morning?”

  He was talking to us and acting like this was completely normal. Ancestors have mercy. Even Esis was covering his eyes. He made no attempt to be shy about it.

  “Um… we’re good, thanks!” Sophia called back. “You?”

  Of course Sophia would play along. Baine shrugged and said, “I have nothing to complain about. You all right, Liam?”

  I grimaced and nodded, because I knew the minute I opened my mouth I’d be yelling at Baine to put some pants on.

  “You have another training session tomorrow, by the way, seven o'clock in the evening,” he told us. “Don’t be late.”

  “We’ll be there!” Sophia shouted back, and she grabbed on my arm to tug me away. I felt like screaming my head off, until Baine’s house was out of sight and we were safely within the village limits.

  Sophia was laughing. I’m pretty sure my skin had turned a nauseated green.

  “I’m going to be scarred for life,” I moaned, rubbing my face. Why did our tournament instructor, and my head of House, have to be so weird? Even worse, I had to claim him.

  “Does Baine have a Familiar? I’ve never seen one,” Sophia said.

  “He does,” I said. “She lives in the ocean.”

  “What is she?”

  I smiled. “That would spoil the surprise, wouldn't it? I'm sure you'll see her during one of our sessions. She’s incredible. It’s bizarre something as beautiful and powerful as her would pick Baine to be her Elementai.”

  We passed by a little food cart selling one of my favorite things. My stomach rumbled and I pulled Sophia to a stop.

  “What is it?” she asked as the vendor handed me three fluffy, fried pieces of heaven, round in shape and flat.

  “Fry bread,” I told her. “It’s amazing. You'll love it.”

  I put venison, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa on top of mine. I made a replica for Sophia before we started walking around again and eating. Esis had already sucked down his and was patting his stomach happily.

  “Hey, Liam!” I heard Jonah cry out. He was walking ahead of us, Imogen by his side. Jonah was wearing a heavy flannel jacket, while Imogen was wearing overalls with bright pink galoshes and a magenta fuzzy jacket that looked like it’d once been a carpet. Her hair was up in pigtails, bows tying them together, and she was carrying a wicker basket. Sassy had an equally large bow tied into her tail. She rode on Squeaks’ rear, who was making loud squeaking noises. Esis peeped as he saw them coming and jumped off Sophia’s shoulder, chattering at Squeaks’ hooves. The hippogriff lowered her head and clacked her beak at Esis like they were having a conversation.

  “Hey, Imogen,” Sophia said in a teasing way as they joined us. “How was your date with Cade?”

  Imogen turned pink and said, “It wasn’t a date.”

  I rolled my eyes. I don’t know who Imogen was trying to fool. She was totally into Cade, and vice versa. They needed to stop avoiding their feelings and just get on with it.

  That’s the pot calling the kettle black.

  “Anyway, how was your date with Liam?” Imogen jabbed, and she put her hand on her hip. She gave a smirk as she and Jonah made eye contact.

  Sophia gaped like a fish, unsure of what to say. She’d told Imogen we were hanging out last night, before I even knew she was looking for me?

  Sophia went to answer, but I subbed in for h
er, “It went great, thanks. What are you guys doing here?”

  Sophia glanced at me. She was surprised I hadn’t denied that we’d been on an actual date— even though, really, that wasn’t what it was. It wasn’t what it had started as, anyway.

  “I met up with Imogen coming out of the gym. Somebody’s gotta take care of these babies.” Jonah flexed his muscles, kissing his biceps. Behind him, Squeaks did a similar pose, sticking out her butt and trying to show off. Esis flexed his tiny arms and copied her.

  “And I met up with Jonah while Sassy and I were looking for treats to catch burlangers,” Imogen said cheerfully. “We decided to do some grocery shopping together.” She lifted her basket.

  “Yeah. Needed protein shakes. Gotta keep the machine well oiled,” Jonah said in a very obnoxious way. “What were you guys doing? You look like you spent a night in the woods.”

  “We were, um…” How did I tell them we’d done just that?

  “We just got lunch,” Sophia finished. “We were heading back to school. We’re going to hang out in the Commons and just chill.”

  The Commons was the only place in Orenda Academy where students from all Houses could hang out. Sophia had just read my mind.

  “We’ll come with you,” Jonah offered. “We should probably get to talking about strategies for the tournament.”

  My stomach sank. Right. The tournament. I’d forgotten all about that.

  We headed up the long pathway back to school, avoiding the crowds and maneuvering around the carts. The sun was starting to come out from behind the clouds, and Imogen sighed happily. “Oh, I’ve had such a nice morning.”

  “Lucky you. We just saw Baine in nothing but spandex,” I mumbled.

  “What?” Jonah laughed loudly. “How’d you manage that?”

  “He was tanning outside his house in his swimsuit.” Sophia giggled. “I thought Liam was going to have a heart attack when he saw.”

  “I wish. It would’ve ended my suffering.” Now she had me thinking about it again, dammit.

  “There are a lot of girls who think Baine is super hot, not just me,” Imogen quipped. “People gossip about how sexy he is all the time.”