by Ashley Meira
Smoke and Magic
Touched By Magic: Dragon Book 2
Ashley Meira
Contents
Story Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Thank you!
Author’s Note
Also by Ashley Meira
Copyright © 2016 by Ashley Meira
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously or are entirely fictional.
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Cover design by Rebecca Frank (http://bookcovers.rebeccafrank.design)
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Created with Vellum
To my lovely readers, you made this book possible, and I will be forever grateful.
And thank you to my wonderful beta readers, who polished this book into what it is now.
Story Summary
Sophia's life is about to take a hard left off a high cliff. Again.
After spending a lifetime hiding her magic, Sophia is now practicing her arts with the most dangerous person she could possibly be involved with. Adam Pierce is a man with pretty eyes and heartwarming words... who just happens to be closely associated with the very people who cry for Fireborns like Sophia to be executed.
Adam doesn't know the truth about Sophia's past. Come to think of it, neither does she. Being public enemy number one used to be her biggest problem. Now, the monster who took her as a child is back in play, and hiding in plain sight is the least of her worries.
When two women are murdered, both connected to someone important to her, Sophia learns that the upheaval of her world is just beginning. And if she continues to keep everyone she cares for at arm's length, her friends may not be the only ones paying the price.
Chapter One
“I can’t believe I’m going to die over a pair of shoes!” I shouted to Adam as we sprinted down a corridor, the Greek temple’s broken walls letting sunlight filter through. The roars of angry tigers chased after us, drowning out the slurs of the dead.
Sorry, semi-dead. The only thing worse than running into dangerous wildlife on the job was encountering the reanimated dead tasked with guarding long-destroyed temples.
“Maybe those guys will offer you a job in the afterlife,” Adam said from slightly behind me. “No one outruns you.”
I smirked, loving how I was faster than him. That didn’t make him useless, though. Having Adam tag along seemed like a pain in my ass at first, but he’d proven himself to be a great partner.
Hermes’ damned sandals were dangling from my half-opened bag. I shoved them back in and zipped it up. I had expected some kind of booby trap when I took the shoes from their ruined display, but the hungry tigers wandering around were a surprise. Sometimes jobs for Symeon didn’t feel worth the money.
“I think they’re gaining on us,” I panted, looking over my shoulder. Adam’s muscular frame blocked my view. Normally, I wouldn’t mind the sight, but being chased by zombies and giant cats took precedence. “Zombies are supposed to shamble, not sprint!”
“Do they normally shamble when they chase you?”
“No, but giant tigers don’t usually join the fun. Thought I’d bank on everything being weird today.”
“Those tigers are average sized.” I could feel his grin against my back.
“In case you forgot, I don’t need to outrun those things — I just need to outrun you.”
Not that I’d enjoy wandering around this jungle by myself. Thinking back, it was pretty lucky we hadn’t encountered any tigers on our way here. Roars thundered behind us, louder than before. Luck always had a price.
The giant temple was a shadow of what it once was. Walls that had stood tall and proud hundreds of years ago were now more hole than marble, the broken blocks littering the floor beneath us. I leapt over one, my eyes fixed firmly on the entrance. We were close.
The guardians would vanish once we left the temple’s boundaries, leaving us only the tigers to deal with. However, as one of the most powerful mages in the world, Adam was more than capable of clearing all our enemies away with a flick of his wrist.
His voice barely registered through the tigers’ cries. “I’d rather you out-magic me.”
Of course. He wasn’t fighting them because he wanted me to fight them. With magic. That’s all we’d been doing this past month: magic, magic, magic. I enjoyed using my powers, but I hated being told what to do. Call it a deep-seated resentment from being a slave my entire childhood. Or what I assumed was my entire childhood. Aside from one terrifying nightmare, I couldn’t remember anything before the age of sixteen, when I’d woken beaten and alone in a prison cell.
“Not afraid this tiny girl could become powerful enough to kick your ass?”
“I’d prefer it.” His voice had taken on a husky, indecent tenor that made my steps falter.
I looked over my shoulder and saw his expression matched his tone. Before I could reply, something flew toward us. I shoved him aside as a sharp spear slammed above the entrance’s decrepit doors. Holding back a curse, I watched as the cracks grew deeper until they crumbled, the rubble blocking our way to freedom.
“You could easily destroy that,” he told me as we looked for another way out. Greenery devoured the marble remains of the temple. Jungle surrounded us from every corner, but we couldn’t escape that way. The temple was built on elevated terrain, and the only safe way down was the stairway past the entrance.
“Or you could shift and fly us down,” I said.
Adam was a hybrid, which meant he was a badass mage who could use a variety of magic, including shifting. Hybrids were rare, but not impossible to find. Though Adam was the only one in existence who could shift into a phoenix.
“Never again.” He sounded like my suggestion of riding a giant bird composed entirely of sharp claws and magical fire was a bad idea. “It’s been a month. Your control has increased, but you still need to learn to rely on your magic.”
“It’s a habit.” My control had increased, but not enough to dispel my wariness of casting anything. I didn’t want to cause too much damage. Plus, I was scared someone would pick up on my magic’s signatu
re and learn what I was — that Adam would figure it out and hate me.
An orange blur leapt over my head and landed before us. The tiger growled, his teeth longer than my fingers and his fur standing on end. His two brothers joined him a moment later, followed by the temple guardians.
Embalmed here to serve as protectors in the afterlife, the guardians looked like dried out corpses. Their faces were sucked in, leaving darkened holes where their features should have been. Ancient Grecian armor adorned their bodies, the once glorious armaments now little more than rusted metal and ripped leather. The spears they carried were still sharp, however — though not as sharp as the tigers’ teeth.
Adam cracked his neck. “Showtime.”
“No,” I said, reaching for my sword anyway. My fingers grasped air, and I growled. Adam confiscated my weapon whenever we trained together. It was enchanted to appear in my hand if I summoned it back with the ring I wore, but only within a certain range. “Clear the entrance and let’s get out of here.”
“Sophia—”
“Tigers are endangered. We shouldn’t be killing them.”
“Right now, we’re endangered,” he said, shooting me a firm look. “If you really care, just knock them out.”
How would he feel if I knocked him out? Wind swirled around my fingertips, making my pulse race. Usually my magic came out in destructive bursts — giant waves of fire or wild tornados — but thanks to Adam, I’d learned to keep things small. Unfortunately, I wasn’t good at finding a middle ground. My attacks were usually either pure destruction or love taps.
I eyed the feeble structure sheltering us. Most of the temple had succumbed to the jungle, but there was still a good chunk of ceiling. If I hit too hard, the shockwaves could cause it to collapse on us.
The tigers were tired of waiting, their bodies dipping into a pounce. Without a second thought, I shot a burst of wind at them. The concentrated air hit one of the tigers, and it flew back, crashing into the guardian behind it. A moment later, they both got up and shook themselves off.
“Not enough power,” Adam said, his fingers reaching out to brush against mine.
I fought the urge to hold his hand. “It’s either not enough or too much.”
“You’re scared.”
“Obviously.”
“Don’t be.”
“Thanks,” I ground out. “All better.”
“You’re too in your head.” His eyes were trained on the giant beasts growling at us. “Magic is a part of you. It’s natural. Let it flow according to—”
“Your will,” I finished. “You’ve been saying that all month.”
“Yes, but we haven’t been in danger all month. I notice you work better under pressure.”
“Yeah, I think I made that clear whenever you kicked my ass.”
Adam had been training me at his home, a private estate in France where no one could walk in on us. We did a lot of sparring. I’d improved quickly under the threat of deadly ice spears and fireballs being hurled at my face, but my fear of hurting him hindered more progress, so he’d always come out on top. I gulped as images of Adam being “on top” entered my mind.
“Should I run toward the tigers?”
My head snapped toward him. “What? No!”
“You saved me before, you can do it again.”
“Are you insane?” I cried. “In case you forgot, I summoned a tornado last time. That’ll bring this place down.”
He shrugged and took a step forward. “Then don’t summon a tornado.”
The tigers bristled further at Adam’s movement. Before I could stop him, he ran toward their snapping teeth. I screamed and reached for him, a tunnel of concentrated wind shooting from my outstretched palm. All three tigers flew over the guardians’ heads and hit the ground behind them. This time, they didn’t get up.
“Better.” Adam grinned at me over his shoulder before lighting a charging guardian on fire. “Now do it again.”
My jaw dropped. “You are insane.”
“No, I just trust you.”
My heart throbbed. He did. I could see it in his eyes. “Same thing.”
He walked back to me, ignoring the angry dead people with sharp weapons behind him. Their stances had changed. They were going to charge.
I threw a fireball, unable to ignore how much more control I had when it came to protecting Adam. Flames consumed one of the guardians, his dry flesh muting the smell of burnt skin. I’d killed the rest by the time Adam reached me, fire flying from my fingertips at a breakneck pace.
He smiled as he stepped behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder and surveying my handiwork. His body was hunched over mine, the heat better than slipping into a soothing bath.
“Perfect.” His breath ghosted over my cheek, hot and wet. “I knew you could do it.”
My body sagged, and I melted against him for a second before catching myself. I whipped around and punched his arm, wincing at the impact. “You could’ve died!”
“Calm down.”
“Damn it—”
His hands cupped my face. “I was perfectly capable of taking out those tigers if you failed. But I knew you wouldn’t,” he added, his lips still curved into that devastating smile I both loved and hated. “You’re a lot more skilled than you give yourself credit for.”
It was true. I’d gone eight years without using my magic, but the actions felt practiced. My kidnapper had been training me, and other children, to be killing machines. It made me sick to admit it, but there was a good chance all my skills came from him. I could summon tornados, kill a man with my bare hands, or fight off a herd of vampires with my sword, all because of lessons I’d received from a man so evil his magic tainted the very ground he walked on.
I pulled Adam’s hands off my face. “If you pull another dumb stunt like that, I’ll never speak to you again.”
His grinned widened, and I blushed at how childish I sounded. “When you put it that way….”
“Tempting, I know.”
“Not even a little bit.”
The playful look in his eyes vanished, and he shoved me to the ground. A bright red light filled my vision before crashing into the wall behind us. Excitement coursed through me at the smell of magic. Definitely the magic. I refused to accept it had anything to do with Adam’s firm body covering mine, sending electricity across my skin. Or his hot breath against my cheek, conjuring all sorts of distracting thoughts.
He let out a groan that should’ve been illegal. “Your magic is running over me in the most delicious way.”
“Is not,” I said immediately. Denial, denial, denial — I’d stay in that river until I drowned.
He pecked my cheek, his pine-fresh magic rubbing back against mine, before standing and helping me up. “We can argue about that after we take care of these mages.”
I frowned at the magic-wielding guardians stalking toward us, their rusted armor dull underneath the midday sun. Fighting mages wasn’t an issue for me when I was alone, but Adam’s presence meant I needed to be extra careful not to get hit.
Another fireball pushed us back. From the looks of it, these guardians were all fire mages. Most mages could only use one element. Elemental mages, who could use as many elements as they could master, also existed, but they weren’t common. There were also hybrids, like Adam, who could use any mix of magic — like elemental, shifting, healing — as long as they had an affinity for it.
Since I had the ability to sense magic, I used to think I was a hybrid — an elemental and tracker mage. But those talents ended up being part of my Fireborn heritage. Now, I wasn’t sure what I was. Story of my life, really.
A jet of water spewed from Adam’s hand, dousing the incoming barrage of fireballs. Water magic wasn’t really my forte, but I knew Adam wouldn’t cut me any slack. Jerk would probably set himself on fire just to prove I could put him out. Honestly, that had motivated me to practice water magic more. It was tempting to picture myself soaking him when he was in phoenix form as payba
ck for being a pain in my ass.
A large hand brushed my hair away as piercing gray eyes looked me over. “You okay?”
A gorgeous, caring pain in my ass. “Yeah.”
Jets of fire rushed toward us. We split up, dancing reds and oranges obscuring us from the other. I threw a stream of water at the guardians, wincing as the force crushed one of them against the wall. Marble crumbled around him, further ruining this place. The wildlife may have taken over most of the temple, but that was part of nature. Me smashing things up felt crude and disrespectful. My magic would destroy everything because I couldn’t control it.
Shaking my head, I reminded myself why I was doing this. The man who’d held me captive was back. I didn’t know his name, but I’d run into one of his employees.
Last month, Adam hired me to find the Heart of Gaia. The case led me to Snow, a woman who, for some reason, made me want to cry when I thought of her. I failed to stop her from finishing an evil ritual that caused the deaths of thousands of people. She’d been working under my kidnapper’s orders, though I had no idea what his end game was. She recognized me, however, so there was a good chance he knew I was out there.
Even if he didn’t, I knew our paths would cross. I was tired of living in fear, and a man who would kill so many innocent people, even by proxy, needed to be stopped.
That’s why I asked Adam to teach me. I wasn’t an unstoppable force of nature, I just lacked practice — and I needed to get better. My kidnapper’s plans were going to kill even more people. I refused to let that happen. But he was powerful, enough that even Adam wasn’t sure he could beat him. He thought I could, though. His faith and my desire to defeat that man motivated me into action.
I shot a burst of water at one of the guardians. He went down, twitching a few times before crumbling to dust. The temple’s magic would reanimate him after some time, so we had to hurry. My fingers still itched for a sword. I could conjure one made of ice. It wasn’t technically cheating, but the glare Adam gave me the last time I did it was stuck in my mind. Mostly because of how cute and petulant it had been. But I knew better than to provoke him to see it again. He might do something I’d regret, like kiss me.
