The Fire Within Series: Books 1 - 3

by Ella M. Lee

  Will you come over tonight?

  My breath caught.

  Nicolas said he was free after eight. I managed to make it to 8:07 before rushing to his door. His shield dissolved at my knock, and I slipped inside to find Keisha seated on his couch.

  “I can come back later,” I offered, but Nicolas waved me over.

  “What does Ryan think?” he asked Keisha.

  She smiled at me and rolled her eyes. “You know him—he’s cautious.”

  “Limit it to ten per week for now, six scheduled and four unplanned,” Nicolas said.

  They were talking about Keisha’s portals. I got myself a bottle of tea from the fridge and went to sit near Keisha. She held her wrist out to me, and I studied her gold charm bracelet. It was new, and each of the charms was a different flower. I recognized hibiscus and peony, among other lovely designs.

  “Not twelve?” she asked Nicolas.

  Nicolas shook his head. “Ask Fiona how awful it is to overextend your magic and spend several days unable to do anything other than sleep and throw up everything in your stomach.”

  I grimaced. “It sucks. Don’t risk it.”

  “Anything else?” Nicolas asked Keisha.

  “Nah,” she said, getting up. “See you, Fiona.”

  “Bye,” I said, watching her dance out the door.

  Nicolas sighed. “Teenagers,” he said, shaking his head. “I swear, never again. I’m done taking in kids. They think they are invincible, and I don’t have the time or energy to rein them in constantly.”

  “She means well.”

  “I know,” he said. “I don’t want her to hurt herself. SM is a tricky discipline.”

  “She’ll be fine. Ryan teaches her, and she has you to glower at her and give her stern orders. That will keep her in line.”

  “Do I glower?” he asked.

  “Only when you’re annoyed.”

  He raised a brow at me. “Am I glowering now?”

  “Only a little.”

  He beckoned to me. “Come relax me.”

  I smiled. He was seated on the couch, still dressed for the day in a dark blazer. With the most seductive movements I could manage, I sank down onto his lap, my knees on either side of his thighs, straddling him.

  His eyes smoldered as I tipped his chin up, exposing the perfect line of his jaw. He hadn’t shaved since last night, and his skin was rough against my fingers and even rougher against my lips as I ran them from his neck to his cheek.

  His breath caught, and one of his hands came to rest firmly on my waist.

  My lips found his as I ran my fingers down his chest and stomach to rest on his thighs. He shivered.

  “Fiona,” he said, “you are very tempting.”

  “I’ve had a whole twenty-four hours to uncloud my judgment. I think you’ll be pleased to learn that I still want you very badly.”

  “I am very glad to hear that,” he murmured.

  He closed his eyes in pleasure as I started undoing the buttons of his shirt.

  “You told me that sex with you has been called ‘mind-blowing,’” I said. “Are you really going to leave me in suspense? That’s hardly fair.”

  He smiled, shifting slightly so that he could pull off his blazer and his shirt, leaving him in only a white T-shirt. I put my hands on the fabric for only a moment before slipping my fingers under the hem to feel his hot skin.

  With grace that would have made a dancer envious, he pushed me down onto my back and settled himself on top of me. My entire body was coiled in anticipation. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, his tongue pushing through my lips to meet mine.

  I eagerly dragged his T-shirt over his head, messing up his beautiful hair. I let my lips trail down his neck and shoulders. My fingers sank lower to the hem of his pants, hooking around his belt, lingering there.

  He froze. Carefully, he wrapped a hand around my wrist. The other hand cupped my chin, tilting my head up to look at him.

  We don’t have to do this yet, he said in my head.

  I want you, I thought. Don’t make this difficult, please.

  His eyes were practically glowing in excitement. I do so like it when you beg, he offered, his tone silky and consuming.

  In one swift motion, he lifted me in his arms and carried me into the bedroom. He laid me on the cool linen and covered me with his body, pinning me to the bed.

  My heart raced. My hands explored him as he kissed me again and again. I loved every line and curve of him, wanted every inch of him against me.

  He wanted that, too. He pressed into me, his breathing was ragged, his hands eagerly brushing over me.

  I think I should make you beg, I told him.

  He brought his lips close to my ear. “Gladly,” he whispered, his voice heavy and husky. “Please, lamb.”

  I trembled under him, and he smiled, pleased by the reaction. My hands tightened on him.

  “I want all of you,” I said, unable to breathe as his fingers slipped under my tank top to touch my bare stomach.

  “I am yours,” he said as he slowly peeled me out of my shirt.

  Sex with Nicolas was mind-blowing, and I thought that I could die happy by the time he finished with me. When I finally caught my breath and could form a coherent thought, I asked, “Did you enjoy that?”

  “Enjoy?” he repeated warmly. “I don’t think a word exists in English for how much I enjoyed that. Inouï. Exceptionnel. You are completely perfect.”

  I hummed my agreement, pleased to be wrapped in his arms, not wanting to move a single inch away from him. I relived what he had done to me—his slick skin against mine, his tongue rough in my mouth, the rhythm of him inside me, the spiraling pleasure of him finishing me and then of him finishing, undone in my arms.

  “I can’t wait to do that again,” he said softly, his hands still exploring me.

  “Neither can I,” I said as I drifted into sleep, hope blooming beautifully in my chest at the idea that I could have someone so perfect for a boyfriend.

  Chapter 9

  The next four weeks went by in a blur of information, exhaustion, and an odd feeling of contentment. After the first few days, Daniel allowed me more self-direction. I exercised and trained several times a week in the early morning, and Dan often joined me. He enjoyed sparring with me, and he was a great teacher who improved my form week by week.

  One day, I entered the training room to find not Daniel but Sylvio. Tall and muscled, with sandy hair and piercing brown eyes, he was practicing alternate kicks and strikes on our heaviest punching bag.

  I tensed, about to turn to leave, but he stopped his practice and nodded at me. “Fiona.”

  “Sylvio,” I said, taken aback. He had never spoken to me before, and I was unsure about his exact feelings toward me.

  “Relax,” he said, seeing my wary expression. “I won’t bite. Daniel invited me. He wants you to get experience with someone other than him.”

  “Okay,” I said, dropping my stuff and heading to the barre to do warm-ups.

  I watched Sylvio as he returned to his practice. He didn’t follow any patterns I was familiar with, but he was seamless and fluid in all his motions. I remembered him as a powerful fighter from my raid on Nicolas’s safe house in Vienna. He had initially been my personal target to distract, but the raid had gone poorly from the start. Our plan fell apart, and I fought Andres instead, killing him. Andres had been good, but watching Sylvio, I could tell he was better. There was a certain grace and surety behind every one of his actions that implied decades of practice. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go up against him at all, even in a sparring match. If I had gone up against him in Vienna, I would have probably died.

  Eventually, Sylvio spoke again. “I heard you lost your family to Meteor.”

  It felt like a jolt of electricity had gone through me at his words. I swallowed hard.

  “Yes. My brother and father.”

  “Pricks,” Sylvio said. “That whole fucking clan.”

  Sylvio had
left them for Water. I didn’t know why, but I supposed this told me his feelings toward Meteor. After all my research of them, I couldn’t say my opinion was much different.

  “Daniel should be here soon. Want to get started?” Sylvio asked.

  “Sure,” I said, still wary.

  I followed Sylvio to the center of the room. He was wearing loose clothing and gloves, looking serious and determined.

  “Come at me,” he said, assuming a defensive stance.

  I took my time, feeling him out, not sure what he wanted from me. He blocked each of my testing blows with barely a glance. I chained together several punches and kicks, none of them getting through Sylvio’s defense. He wasn’t even breathing hard.

  I increased my speed, trying to incorporate the new moves Daniel had been teaching me from the form of martial arts he practiced. Sylvio remained defensive and impassive, not making any moves to strike. We continued like this for several minutes while I worked harder and harder to land a successful blow.

  Out of nowhere, he struck back after a particularly slow punch of mine. I barely put an arm up in time to block his strike. He then chained three in a row together, the third landing hard in my solar plexus. I reeled back for half a second before going on the offensive.

  Sylvio was relentless, his eyes fierce. He was rougher than Daniel, not particularly careful about where his blows landed. I could barely keep up, rarely getting the chance to attack instead of defending. A startlingly elegant roundhouse kick sent me flying to the floor after I missed the block.

  “All right, that’s enough.”

  That was Daniel’s voice behind me. He had snuck in while I was focused on the fight. He walked over and offered me a hand up. I took it, my shoulder screaming in protest. I rubbed my arm, glancing between the two men.

  “Syl,” Daniel said.

  “Dan,” Sylvio replied, his voice even.

  Although Daniel and Sylvio were cordial enough with one another, I could tell that they weren’t friends.

  “She’s not your enemy anymore,” Daniel said, his tone admonishing. “It is not your place to punish her for anything she did in the past.”

  I thought Sylvio would bristle at tiny nineteen-year-old Daniel’s authority, but he didn’t even so much as tense. He merely nodded.

  “Of course,” he said, after a breath. He looked at me. “You have decent training, but let’s go over a few things.”

  Apparently, no apology was going to be issued for toying with me or for any of his landed blows, but Sylvio behaved for the rest of the morning. He took the time to patiently assess my stances and moves, giving helpful and attentive advice. Daniel observed, but he didn’t interrupt Sylvio’s instruction.

  Once Sylvio had given me a laundry list of things to work on, he turned to Daniel. “Well? Let’s have a go.”

  Daniel’s smile was excited and vivid as he pulled his shirt over his head and walked to the center of the room. I backed myself against the wall, not wanting to be in their way.

  Watching the two of them was a real treat. It was clear that Sylvio had been letting me off easy, but he did no such thing for Daniel. Dan could take it. His fast style was adequate defense against Sylvio, and neither managed to land a solid blow on the other. Their sparring reminded me how far I had to go before I could hope to rival anyone in Nicolas’s group, but I was happy to have such skillful instructors.

  Although physical training was an important and core part of my work, Nicolas had made it clear that mastering Water magic and working on transmutation was my priority, and Daniel faithfully adhered to that in his plans for me.

  I spent most of my time reading books on arcane aspects of Water magic and poring over report after report of previous data and operations surrounding Shatterfall. It wasn’t uncommon at all for an entire day to go by with me hardly moving from my spot by the windows in Nicolas’s apartment, content to read for hours on end with earphones in, empty bottles of lemon tea piling up next to me. Nicolas himself was usually the one who made sure I was eating properly and taking breaks.

  But it was so hard to tear myself away from my tasks. The research on Shatterfall was interesting and exciting, and I was beginning to see that it would actually be possible. There were paths to everything, precedents for everything.

  It wasn’t crazy at all, and we could succeed.

  We knew most of the theory: crafting a new sanctum both physically and conceptually, transmuting the power, creating an inception point with inverted power, collecting the “flood”—as we called it—of new magic, controlling its egress, and being able to store it stably. We had ideas on the best location to perform the work, possible locations to keep the new sanctum and clan house, and plans for how we would interact with other clans. There was so much to consider, but much of the work was done, and we were now almost at the point where we could begin testing certain aspects of the process.

  My magic had finally settled into my body. With it under control, I worked even harder to understand transmutation. I read books about it, watched Daniel and Chandra do it each in their own ways, and practiced my own form. Ryan was patient and helped me understand the theory behind what I was doing. Daniel came at it from a more visceral angle, explaining to me how transmuting—and lightning specifically—felt to him.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t just focus all my attention on transmutation. That wasn’t how Water magic worked. I needed to strengthen it from all sides before I could do anything complex with finesse. I learned higher-order elemental magic from Teng, healing from Chandra, minor spatial manipulation from Keisha, and manifestation from Ryan. I practiced it over and over again each day until I was physically shaking from magical usage. I had so much to learn, but each step felt like another piece fitting into a puzzle, and I didn’t care how tired it made me.

  So I worked, and studied, and practiced.

  More than three weeks had gone by before I had a real breakthrough: the ability to transmute from Water into the form of fire, and then back into pure Water magic. Ryan watched me do it several times in a row and praised me on my control.

  “You should take a break, let your power rest,” he said, catching my trembling hand in his.

  “I’m good.”

  “No, Fiona,” he said, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Take a rest. I’m telling you this as your teacher. Do I need to bring it up with Nicolas personally?”

  I sighed. “Okay, okay. No heavy magical lifting for a few days. I’ll take it easy. Thanks for looking out for me.”

  Ryan knew me well enough to understand that threatening me with Nicolas’s intervention was an excellent way to get me to pay attention.

  Although I’d spent every night in Nicolas’s arms, I was frequently too exhausted to move, and I knew he was concerned about my well-being. He often turned the topic of discussion away from work when we were together or refused to explain concepts to me. “Not now” was a constant refrain of his when dealing with me, and as my commander, I had to listen to him.

  He reassured me that even though our goals seemed urgent to me, everyone else had been making slow and steady progress for years and didn’t feel rushed. In fact, everyone in the group seemed impressed by my drive. That was a foreign feeling to me. Even though I loved magic, I had previously been quite lazy and unambitious as a member of Flame.

  Nicolas himself worked tirelessly and seemed to have inexhaustible energy. He had eleven people to manage, and he did so flawlessly. I knew he was in contact with every single member daily, orchestrating everyone’s work.

  I finally had a sense of what he did. It was mostly handing out assignments, answering questions, advising on operations, doing group logistics work like budgeting and organization, and being our liaison to the higher-level members of the clan. It was rare to find him without his laptop or tablet, and he could—incredibly—focus on at least several things at once.

  When it came to the general populace of Water magicians, most people avoided Nicolas. For meetings and in
teractions with regular Water Clan members, Nicolas often sent Irina, Athena, or Cameron. They were all well-spoken, friendly, and persuasive, tempering how our group was perceived by others. Daniel was known and liked by almost everyone, and Ryan’s tenure in the clan and his kind nature yielded him invaluable relationships.

  But when it came to pinnacle members, council members, and powerful commanders, Nicolas managed those interactions himself. Not everyone feared Nicolas, and not everyone who did fear him wanted to show that outwardly, so there were still people willing to deal with him. In some sticky cases, certain commanders refused to deal with anyone in our group except him, which I knew annoyed him to no end.

  Nicolas’s mind-reading also made him ideal for interacting with other members of Water, and our group endeavored to send him to meetings whenever we could. He rarely talked about his meetings with me, although sometimes he took Daniel or Ryan or Teng with him. I would occasionally return home at night to discover he’d been in Vancouver or Dublin or Morocco all day, visiting magicians in other clan houses.

  Between the two of us, things simmered comfortably. He took me on dates, spending money like water where I was concerned, dragging us to all corners of Hong Kong just to earn an impressed smile from me. He was truly a romantic at heart, and he loved to surprise me with small kindnesses. He bought me a comfortable heated blanket because I was always cold in his apartment, he took me shopping for a jade necklace once he realized I admired his own, and he always kept my favorite snacks and drinks in his apartment. I didn’t know how he had time to spend with me or space in his brain to remember what I liked, but he did.

  In comparison, I felt like a shabby girlfriend. I was busy all the time, and I didn’t have his resources for planning our time together. But he looked at me like I was a goddess and called me his first muse since Daniel. Musa, he had teased, to fit in with all the Latin-named things in Water Clan and his own title of Auspex.