The Fire Wars

by Kailin Gow

  But then why did he stare at me in that way, so full of desire, of longing? Why did he speak to me of danger, tempt me with that kiss up on the mountain. Surely he could have found another way to save me from those men – whoever they were – if he was that intent on pushing me away. He didn't have to kiss me – and he certainly didn't have to kiss me that hard. He was leading me on; I knew it now. He was doing his best to drive me crazy on purpose. Because it was fun? Because he was cocky enough to think he could get away with it?

  I sighed as I pushed my way out of the locker room and into the hall. I was flushed from the exertion and the exercise, but also from the embarrassment. Had anyone seen the way Chance had treated me, I wondered? Did the other boys in my class know how I felt about him? I put my hands to my face, as if imagining that I could feel signs of my shame there.

  No, I decided – no more. It was clear that, whether Chance liked me or not, he certainly wasn't interested in having anything to do with me. And I wasn't going to go out and embarrass myself by running after him or trying to kiss him again. In any case, I had Varun, didn't I? A kind, sweet, handsome boy who seemed interested in me. Someone who had been polite and unfailingly gentle to me since I had known him. How could I be stupid enough to chase the flames of my passion with Chance, when I had the potential for a great relationship already?

  Enough, I thought. Maybe Chance liked to play these games, but I sure didn't. I wanted someone who wanted me just as badly – and right now that person was Varun. I closed my eyes as I thought once more of our kiss in the garden. His lips were so light, so tender – like the landing of a hummingbird. His arms made me feel protected, calm and safe. His blue eyes were wide and full of kindness. He was – in every respect so far – the perfect guy. And was I really about to jeopardize all that for an opportunity to score a commitment-phobic cheater like Chance?

  I scoffed. Certainly not! I just had to force myself to forget the imprint Chance had left on my body when we danced, when we kissed. I had to forget the way my blood burned, the way my eyes saw flames dancing around him, the way the heat prickled and overwhelmed my skin. I had to forget it all. I had to be strong.

  Never mind that the feeling of his lips on mine, involuntarily remembered, sent me reeling. Never mind all that.

  I was interrupted from my reverie by the calling of my name.

  “Mac!” Varun appeared from around the corner, his book bag slung over one shoulder. I smiled to see him. He looked as handsome and as happy as ever, his normally-soaked hair uncharacteristically dry. “I'm so sorry I didn't call you, Mac,” Varun flushed. “You see – I'm an idiot. I forgot to get your number. I came over to your house on Saturday afternoon, but nobody was there, and then Uncle Tony wanted me to work all day Sunday so...” He looked down. “Sorry, you must think I'm a real jerk for not calling you.”

  You – a jerk?

  That settled it. I'd rather be with someone who apologized when he wasn't being a jerk than someone who refused to apologize when he was one.

  “No problem,” I said. “I figured I hadn't given you my number of anything, so I wasn't hurt. And I had a lot of homework to do. Aeros history is hard when you've only been living here a couple of days. I feel so behind.”

  “Nah, don't worry,” he said. “You'll catch up. But – um – hopefully – do you think maybe you'd catch up enough in time to take a couple of hours off tonight?”

  “I doubt it! I've got so much...” Then I realized what he was saying. “Unless you have a suggestion for how I could better spend my time.”

  Varun brightened immediately. “There's so much to do here on Aeros,” he said. “And so little time!” He smiled shyly at me. “You know, Mac,” he said. “I had a really great time with you the other night. Only you could make a twelve-year-old kid's party so much fun! Well, that and pizza, at any rate.”

  “I'm really glad I came,” I said. “It was a good start to the year.”

  “So maybe we could do it again, sometime?” Varun looked up at me hopefully. “Maybe without all the kids running around?”

  “Again sometime?”

  “Well, I was thinking more of again tonight,” said Varun. “Maybe I could take you out on Uncle Tony's boat. We could go to a cove I know about five miles east of here. You can't get to it by walking; the path's too steep. Maybe I could bring a picnic – a bottle of coconut cider, some fruit and cheese, maybe I can even steal us a meal from the hotel buffet.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That sounds nice. I'd like that a lot.” A romantic moonlit picnic certainly sounded a lot more fun than getting chased by bulls and threatened by warrior men on a mountaintop. And I would be going with someone who seemed to actually want me around.

  “Wow,” Varun said. “It sounds like I managed to get a date with a pretty girl. No idea how that happened. You can back out now, you know. If you're not sure.” He grinned at me.

  “I don't know,” I said, flirting back. “I feel like I got a pretty good deal, too.”

  As I spoke, Varun put his arm around my shoulder. He smiled as he leaned in, his lips lightly brushing mine. Then he pulled me close, his kiss soft and romantic, his hand lightly cupped behind my head, stroking my hair with infinite tenderness.

  “No, definitely me,” said Varun. “I got the better deal! You'll just have to settle for me, I guess.” I loved the way I looked in his eyes – he made me feel beautiful. Desirable. Wanted – from my hair to my toes. Someone that a guy would be proud, would be happy to want. Not someone to be insulted, to be turned away. I wanted to feel this way all the time: like there was somebody out there who made me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. Somebody out there I could rely on.

  “I'm happy to settle,” I said.

  “How about I pick you up at eight?”

  I couldn't believe it – I was actually blushing. Giddy, even. Varun's charm and gentlemanly flirtations were going to my head.

  “Eight sounds good,” I said. “Gives me time to finish my homework first.”

  “And you'll bring a bathing suit, this time?”

  “I've got loads,” I said.

  “And I'll bring the food,” he said. “Expect to have the best night of your life.”

  He leaned in and kissed me again, leaning me gently against the lockers and running his fingers through my hair. I sighed with delight as Varun lightly touched my tongue with his.

  “Bye, Mac,” he said, kissing me one more time as he left.

  To my surprise, I spotted Chance out of the corner of my eye. He was standing at the end of the hallway, his face angrier than ever as his eyes followed Varun down the corridor, glaring so furiously that his eyes seemed to turn red with anger. His gaze fixed on me, and immediately I felt as if I could not breathe – as if all his anger, his wild lust, his desire, were flooding through me, as if our minds had connected and I was feeling not only my own desire, but also his.

  He turned on his heel and stalked off, leaving me alone and still breathless.

  “Mackenz-ee!” A familiar female voice made me turn around and catch my breath. Haven was staring me down, flanked by her friends. “Mackenzy, how've you been? I haven't seen you all day!”

  “I've been around.” I looked Haven up and down warily. “Trying to get used to Aeros. What have you been doing?”

  “I've been at a meet all weekend,” said Haven. “We all have. The public school across the island has a pretty tough team to beat.”

  “Did you do okay?”

  “We lost,” Haven scowled. “By a hair. But most of our good swimmers have graduated. And that's what I wanted to ask you about. When you said you were a good swimmer, how good did you mean?”

  I looked at her with surprise. I'd expected more of her subtle insults, but Haven seemed genuine. Her initial standoffishness seemed replaced by a mercenary interest in my swimming skills.

  “You see, Mackenzy – I really want to win this year. Going to Nationals is my best bet for a college scholarship – that's what I tell
all my girls. It's not just about the muscle. It's about the money.”

  I remembered what Varun had said about Haven – she'd lost her best friend when Varun lost his old girlfriend. I couldn't imagine going through something like that, and I felt ashamed for how harshly I'd judged her earlier. Maybe she wasn't jealous of seeing me with Varun on her own behalf – maybe she was just protective of Jana.

  Jana whom Chance had supposedly killed.

  “Well, I'd certainly not say no to a college scholarship,” I said. Although, from the looks of things, Haven certainly didn't need one.

  “So you'll try out?” Haven nodded brightly.

  “Sure,” I said, after a pause. Just because these girls were overly made-up and too-expensively dressed didn't mean, I thought hopefully, that they were as bad as the popular crowd back home. Maybe I'd even manage to make a few friends – and with all the romantic chaos going on in my life right now, I figured that I needed a few shoulders to cry on, girlfriend-style. And I probably needed something to distract me from the sense of foreboding that grew worse each passing day – the curiosity about the mysteries of this island.

  “I'm so glad!” Haven's new implied peace treaty didn't seem to have mitigated the squeals in her voice. “Bye Macken-zee!”

  She skipped off, her coterie in tow.

  Maybe she wasn't so bad, I thought, as I headed off to my next class.

  Chapter 12

  My first official date with Varun was everything I imagined it would be. Varun picked me up at eight o'clock sharp, brought flowers for my mother, introduced himself with a handshake and perfectly chosen questions about how my mother was settling into life at the Cutter Imperial, and then whisked me away after a polite interval. The boat was waiting on the beach lawn in front of the hotel, drenched in moonlight. The seas were dark and cool, and he held my hand as he expertly guided the boat over the waters. He had brought enough food for twenty people, apparently unsure as to what my favorite type of food was, and so by the time we arrived at the cove, which was as secluded as Varun had promised, we spread out what seemed like ten different dinners on the rocks. We drank pineapple juice and coconut cider, the island's specialty, a fizzy drink made from coconut water. We ate fresh fruits – the taste of ripe bananas and oranges sweet on my tongue – and Varun presented to me an enormous picnic basket filled with different dishes he had stolen from the hotel's buffet dinner.

  We watched the moon rise high in the sky. I leaned into him, letting him stroke my hair and wrap his arms around me. He kissed me gently, but despite our seclusion I never felt unsafe – even my mother, I thought, would approve of his brand of romantic approaches. Although I saw the hot desire in Varun's eyes, it was nevertheless clear that he thought of this as a first date, and indeed was almost reluctant to get too physically close to me, lest it make me uncomfortable in this remote spot. Every time he touched me or kissed me, it was slightly hesitant, as if he were waiting for my approval.

  Oh, Varun, I thought with a smile. You don't even have to ask.

  He had me home by midnight, as he had promised my mother to do. He walked me once more to the door and kissed me quickly before heading back to his boat. My head was spinning.

  It had been the kindest, most respectful, most romantic, most thoughtful date I had ever been on. He had brought food and drink, planned a romantic seaside cruise, showed me a secret cove – he'd even impressed my mother.

  So why was I still thinking about Chance?

  I sighed as I tiptoed upstairs to bed – evidently my mother trusted me enough not to wait up for me. As much as I liked Varun, as much as I wanted to throw myself wholeheartedly into the relationship, into his arms, I just couldn't bring myself to forget about that feeling of connection, that white flame-hot force of desire, that came over me whenever Chance was in the room. Was I being one of those typical teenage girls I read about, I wondered sadly – ignoring the nice guys in favor of the jerk? Hung up on a bad boy? But it felt different with Chance, somehow. I had seen jerks before in California, but none of them had sparked such an electric connection with me as Chance did.

  Luckily, the next day at school, Chance was conspicuously absent from class. His presence did me good – I was able to concentrate better, take better notes, and even last a full half a minute against Alice before she inevitably pinned me down. Misty was just as friendly to me as she had ever been – that is to say, she acted as if I didn't exist, a quality I apparently shared with the rest of the school. But there was nothing personal in Misty's snubs, it seemed – or at least nothing that suggested she had any jealous feelings about me and Chance. I was simply one of her classmates, and hence I lived outside the dreamworld she had evidently built up in her head.

  That afternoon, Varun headed for swim team practice, and I decided to give the hiking another try. I had told Varun about getting lost – leaving out everything that had happened after I killed the wild boar – and he encouraged me to try walking again, drawing me a more detailed map of the area. “I totally understand that you don't want to go on the tourist routes,” he said. “But don't go getting lost.” He smiled. “You'll be able to collect plenty of stones if that's what you’re after.”

  So I decided to follow Varun's trail. As time had passed, the encounter I had with the Veteri seemed more and more surreal – had it even happened at all, or had I imagined it? Or was I really never in any danger – had Chance been playing up the threat in order to make himself look like he was saving me? After all, it made little sense – even if Veteri still lived in the mountains, why would they care whether or not a random hiker came across them? Chance was probably just trying to make himself look like the big hero. At this point, I wouldn't have put it past him.

  Thus armed with my bravado, I set off in search of the stones. Yet no sooner had I made my way into the forest than I felt that same calling again – a force striking me so deeply that it took my breath away. The stones are this way, Mac. You need to find them.

  They are yours.

  Oh, no, I told myself. I wasn't falling for that again. If my mind was playing tricks on me – which for all intents and purposes it seemed to be doing – I wasn't going to let it win. I was going to be in control.

  Mackenzy, your stones...

  The calling was clearer this time – so clear that it sounded as if someone had spoken the words out loud. I looked up, but nobody was there; the leaves and vines remained unrustled.

  Fine, I thought. I'd veer just a little bit off the trail Varun had drawn out for me – but I'd mark my way back. I reached into my backpack, taking out my gym towel and a pair of nail scissors. I snipped a small piece off the towel and threw it to the ground – then another, and another, leaving the purple pieces of fabric on the ground to mark my trail. If I was going to go into the woods, I'd sure as heck be sure that I had a way to get out again. I felt a twinge of environmentalist guilt, but determined that I'd be sure to pick up every piece on the way out again.

  I followed the source of the voice, hearing its call again – whether it was in my head or not I did not know. Mackenzy, your stones...

  At last I found myself at the mouth of a cave, well-hidden beneath a curtain of vines. The feeling of beckoning grew even stronger, and I ducked as I entered the cavern. I gasped in surprise as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Smeared across the cave were simple paint drawings – drawings of a group of stick-figures sitting around a hearth, of a bonfire, of the Sun. I turned on my flashlight to see more and continued walking along the walls of the cage, making out three separate frescoes of flame.

  My flashlight flickered and immediately died out. I silently cursed my battery life as I looked around. Suddenly, a light seemed to glint on the floor in the distance. Had someone else left a flashlight here? I staggered towards the light, keeping myself steady on the rock walls, only to trip and fall over a loose rock, muddying my knees in the process.

  “Get it together, Mac,” I mumbled. But as I shook off the dust, I noticed that the source o
f the light was at my feet. A large orange stone – perhaps the size of a fist – stood before me. I picked it up, feeling its perfect round smoothness in my hand.

  Yet as I touched the rock, it started to gleam and glow, turning an iridescent white like an opal.

  “What the...”

  I had always imagined that the stones I found had grown hot to the touch, but this was different. I had never seen a stone glow like that before. As if by magic.

  I smiled in delight as I put the stone in my pocket and made my way out of the cave, eager to examine the stone more closely in the light.

  “How did you find this cave?”

  I whirled around in shock to bump into a large, broad-shoulder man, sporting the distinctive face paint of the Veteri. His face was furious.

  Damn it, I thought. Not again. I knew for a fact I wasn't that far into the mountains – I couldn't have been more than a half hour off the trail. And if the Veteri wanted to keep their existence safe, they really had to stop hanging out so close to tourist attractions.

  I looked more closely at the man. With a sigh of relief I noted that he wasn't one of the men I had seen on Saturday. Maybe he wasn't as keen on secrecy as the others were.

  “I just found it,” I said. “I was taking a walk.”

  “Tourists never find this cave..” He looked almost as surprised as angry.

  “Well, I'm not a tourist,” I said. “I live here.”

  He stepped forward, and instinctively I took a step back. “You must return what you have taken from the cave, tourist. Or you must suffer the curse.”

  How did he know about the stone?

  “Curse?” I gaped at him. “Look, I'm sorry – I'll put it back...I didn't know. I was just collecting stones.”

  “Well, collect your stones far from here!” he bellowed.

  “No need to scare the girl, Victorinus!” Before I could response, Chance bounded into view. “No weapons – she's not a tourist. She's safe.” He turned to me. “You'd think you'd have learned your lesson by now, Evers.”