Fire

by Helen Scott

  Fire

  Four Worlds Book Two

  Helen Scott

  Contents

  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

  Other Works by Helen Scott

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Fire

  Four Worlds Book Two

  Copyright © 2019 by Helen Scott

  Cover Design © Natasha Snow

  Editing by Ms. Correct Alls

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author, except for the brief use of quotations in a book review.

  This book is intended for adults only. The sexual activities represented in this book are a work of fiction intended for adults. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously by the author. Any resemblance to actual places, events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  1

  Tessa

  I was in Atlantis. The mythical kingdom, sunken island, whatever everyone believed the myth said at the moment on earth, well, it was wrong. Sure, there were rings of land, but that was about where the similarities ended. The temple in the center may have had some Greek influences once upon a time, but they were barely visible any more now that the Atlantean culture had reclaimed everything and all Origin World influences were gone.

  "You coming, Dove?" Griff called from the living space in our suite of rooms.

  "Be right there," I shouted as I slipped on the latest dress the queen had sent over for another dinner. We had been eating dinner with her and her advisors once a month for the last few months. It was as though they were building up to telling us something but couldn't quite decide when they were going to spill the beans. So far it had just been awkward dinner after awkward dinner where they grilled me about what I'd been practicing or learning that month.

  The blue and silver gown was basically a bra and a skirt. Long, dipping sleeves slit open from a cuff around the wrist to a band just above my bicep accentuated the white and silver on top. My stomach was bared, yet again, and the skirt began in the same white color around the waistband before darkening to a deep sapphire blue at the bottom. All along silver embroidery, pearls, and other gemstones decorated the skirt with coral and kelp patterns, making the fabric heavier than it looked. When I emerged from the small bedroom I had claimed as my own, I found Griff waiting for me in his leathers. His eyes raked over me with an appreciative smile. The one thing I was sure of was that Finn and Griff enjoyed the outfits the queen chose for our dinners.

  I strode forward to meet him, and the skirt split around my legs, revealing my skin all the way up to the top of my thigh. I thought Griff's eyes were about to bulge out of his head. His hand automatically raised to his mouth and wiped along the edge of his plush lower lip. A tightness coiled low in my stomach as I watched him move toward me in his formal outfit.

  The thick leather x that went over his chest was enough to draw the eye, but add in the woven leather underneath that flexed with his every movement as though it was painted on, not to mention pants that cupped everything perfectly, and he wasn't the only one wiping the drool away. There was nothing sexier than Finn, Griff, Dres, or Kai in their formal outfits, even if Kai scowled through every dinner.

  "Another stunning choice from Her Majesty," Griff said as he leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek.

  "Thank you," I mumbled.

  Ever since Finn and I had slept together that one time months ago, my relationship with the others had felt strained, or at the very least awkward. I wasn’t sure how to fix it though, at least not without sleeping with all of them, which I knew Kai wouldn’t be on board with. The only thing I was sure of was that some kind of block existed between the three of them and me. Although, there was always a block when it came to Kai.

  For once, when we walked in we were the first ones to arrive. Usually, I was running late and barely made it in before the queen. As everyone else filed in, Dres and Finn both came by and squeezed my shoulder or ran a hand across my lower back, while Kai went to sit opposite me, presumably so he could glare at me the whole time. The queen and her three advisors arrived a few minutes later, and they all looked exhausted.

  Her Majesty was in a simple pale, blue wrap dress with a small tiara instead of her usual full gown and crown. The advisors all wore the same navy suits that were mostly jackets that came down to their knees. We all stood, waiting for the queen to take her seat. She stood for a moment, as though debating something, and then sat, motioning for us to do the same.

  I watched as everyone took their places, unsure what the issue was, but there was definitely something off about today's meal. The first course was served and eaten in silence, as was the second. It was only as the main course was presented that the queen uttered, "How is training going?"

  I waited for one of the guys to respond since I wasn't about to report on my own progress. "Tessa is doing well, Your Majesty. Her training is progressing nicely."

  A flush of pride filled me at Finn's words, and it only increased when he squeezed my hand under the table. From the squint in the queen's eyes, she knew exactly what was going on. She always seemed to be aware of everything. It was part of the reason I had been avoiding physical contact with Finn. I wasn't sure what the seemingly all-knowing queen was aware of and what she wasn't, but I didn't like the idea that she somehow knew about our intimate moments, or rather, moment.

  "We think we have a goal for you to try and achieve." The queen paused and looked at me. "The temple on the outer ring where you arrived used to be full of life, the statues in the main worship area flowed freely with water, but they have been dried up for years. I'm-We," she amended when one of her advisors cleared his throat, pausing just long enough to shoot a glare in his direction. "We are wondering if you and your team can bring water back to the fountains there and maybe that will help activate your magic." She steepled her hands over her barely touched food and pierced me with her gaze.

  "Were the statues you’re talking about the ones that are knights holding swords?" I asked, remembering the fascination I had when I first arrived.

  The queen nodded.

  "They were flowing with water when I got there."

  The advisors all gaped at me while she shot them a look that told them she had expected this. I wasn't sure what was going on between them, but it was enough to make me dislike the advisors. The four of them had stopped paying me any attention, or even speaking to me, basically acting like I didn't exist since the queen had first introduced them to me.

  "All four were flowing?" Mr. Grumpy-beard asked, as though he was trying to catch me in a lie.

  "Yes, all four. There were four statues that looked like knights, with a woman, or queen, in the middle. The knights’ faces were obscured by helmets and each held a sword that pointed to the ground. Each of their hilts was different, but the blade of each sword was the water rushing down, as though the very elements were at their command as they bowed to their queen." I stared at him while I spoke, and he
had the awareness to at least look scolded, which is what I was going for.

  They had doubted my arrival at the temple on the outer ring ever since we had first talked about it. The whole thing had made me reluctant to trust them, so they only knew the basics. I could only imagine what they would say if I told them I had communed with a giant turtle before something scared it. Something like that was best kept to myself. I hadn't even told the guys for fear of them thinking I was crazy.

  "Well if that didn't trigger her connection with Atlantis, I'm not sure what will," one of the other advisors said. This one I liked to think of as Mr. Dickhead, not only because of his attitude but also because of his unfortunately shaped nose. I hadn't bothered remembering their names since they always talked about me like I wasn't there. The one that spoke this time was younger, his beard a dark brown with no gray streaks like the others. He was also the most pessimistic of the bunch, something that I blamed on his age.

  The other advisor, Mr. Strong and Silent, who, shockingly, wasn't a man of many words, turned to Finn and said, "What we've been able to discern over the years is that there is something that she needs to do to trigger her bond with the four worlds. Each action needs to take place within that world."

  "You mean like the paintings?" Kai grunted. No needed to ask which paintings he was talking about. We all knew. The Room of Prophecy was a square room with a mural on each wall that depicted some sort of event or task that needed to be accomplished. None of us knew.

  "Indeed, Earther," Mr. Grumpy-beard said before he stabbed the meat on his plate, raising a bite to his mouth and pulling it off what, essentially was a fork, with his teeth.

  I'd learned over the months not to question the food that was put in front of me and to just try it. It was way too much of a hassle to figure out if it was something I was morally okay eating when there was not only a language barrier but a concept barrier as well. Besides, I had been informed that if I didn't at least try something, then the queen would be insulted. I wasn't sure I believed it since she didn't seem to get upset easily, but I figured better safe than sorry.

  I risked a glance at Kai and found him scowling at his food, not that I should be surprised, but part of me wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him. His dark, amber eyes flashed up to me, and there was something in them that started as contempt. I knew it wasn't for me though, and as it shifted I couldn't quite name the emotion anymore, but it made me think of apprehension.

  "Why don't we all take a trip to the temple tomorrow and we will see if the girl is correct?" Mr. Dickhead said, all but sneering openly at me.

  "You don't believe her?" Dres asked, his head tilting to the side ever so slightly, and I knew he was sensing more than he was letting on. The one thing I'd come to learn about the four men that were with me almost around the clock was some of their more subtle behaviors. Finn and Griff were the most open with me, while Dres was a little more closed off, although that wasn't specific to me, and Kai was little more than a brick wall most of the time.

  "Stay out of my head, fly-boy," Mr. Dickhead muttered angrily before getting a hold of himself. "My contacts in the farming ring who frequent the temple have reported no such changes. All I want is to verify what the Key says."

  "My name is Tessa," I growled. "You can take my word for it or not I don't really care. What I want to know is what the prophecy says. How does it connect with the murals in the Room of Prophecy? And when are you going to give us the information? We are all flying blind here, our whole worlds are slowly collapsing in on one another, and you're not even willing to share the information that might help us prevent that." I huffed when I finished speaking, and I saw startled expressions from the advisors and a smirk on the queen's face, while Kai and Dres openly laughed.

  Kai laughed. I couldn't believe it. That man seemed always to surprise me when I was least expecting it.

  "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I have to insist that your advisors either give me the information we need or let me go. I'll find some way to go home and live the life I originally wanted, and you can figure all this out by yourselves. It's not like the worlds are going to collide in my lifetime anyway." I shrugged before crossing my arms and leaning back in my seat.

  2

  Tessa

  "Well, I think Tessa has a point, gentlemen." The queen smiled, before pushing up from her chair, and though we all quickly moved to stand, she waved us down. "Enough of that for the night. The prophecy isn't as complicated as we made it out to be. Yes, there are parts that are confusing and parts we won't understand until it's too late, but it's fairly straightforward. I needed to be sure you were committed though, as did my advisers, before we revealed it to you. You have demonstrated that not only with your training but with your strength of character, as you just shown us. Not many would stand their ground against my advisers, and even fewer would demand answers from a queen. I am impressed, Tessa." The queen inclined her head as she looked at me, and it was all I could do to swallow the outrage.

  "I'm glad I passed your test, Your Majesty," I said, barely keeping the disdain from my voice.

  "Come, all of you, we will go to the Room of Prophecy and discuss this further." She turned, her skirts swirling out from around her, and strode off without waiting for any of us to join her.

  I knew it was just expected that we follow, but as her advisers rushed to join her, I remained seated. Finn and Dres were already on their feet following the procession, but I stubbornly didn't want to move. Griff and Kai both stared at me expectantly. "Did you know?" I whispered to no one in particular.

  "You really think I'd have put up with this bullshit if I had?" Griff asked, while Kai just shook his head. Those dark eyes of his flashed to mine as anger whipped through me, and what I saw there was enough to startle me. His anger matched my own. His disdain for secret tests and trials was evident by the slight sneer on his face. No one else would notice, but somehow tracking all the minute changes of Kai's face had become a hobby of mine. It was one of the reasons I trusted him completely along with the other guys, even though he barely said a word to me. All those hours we spent training together had shown me that he would never intentionally hurt me. When he landed a hit too hard, I knew his left eye would twitch, or when I landed too hard on the ground his grip around his weapon would tighten. It was these small things that made me feel like he was a placid lake with currents raging under the surface.

  "We should go," Griff said, forcing me to wrench my eyes from Kai's intense gaze.

  "Fine, but I'm not happy with how this went down," I grumbled as I pushed up from my chair. I couldn't help myself and looked over at Kai once more as I started to walk away. His dark eyes were full of hunger as they devoured the sight of my body, which made goosebumps erupt all over my skin. Before he could catch me staring, I turned my attention back to Griff and found him observing me similarly. Heat pooled low in my belly as the thought of the two of them being with me at the same time popped into my head. I couldn't help the wave of need that blasted through my body almost making me stumble as I moved toward Griff.

  "If you keep looking at me like that then I won't be able to face the queen," I said quietly as I approached him.

  Griffin's eyes practically rolled back in his head as my words hit him. "Fuck, you can't say things like that to me, Dove. It makes me want to scoop you up and run away with you just so I can do everything you ever dreamed about." He reached out and ran his knuckles down my cheek, and when they got to the bottom, his thumb swiped across my lower lip, pulling it down ever so slightly so my lips were parted and my hot breath danced over this fingers.

  I kissed the tip of his thumb before pulling out of his reach and striding past him while his audible groan reached my ears. Once I reached the small room and saw everyone packed in there, I felt a wash of guilt come over me at making them wait. I had to stop and remind myself that they had been making me wait for months for this. At that thought anticipation coiled through me, and I was at once both eager and tre
pidatious.

  Finn leveled a knowing look at me as I walked into the room. Of all the guys I'd been the most stubborn with him when it came to training, so he probably had a good idea of what was going through my mind at that point. I wasn't about to let down my guard though, not when I was so close to finding out what this big mystery was all about.

  Once the door shut behind us the queen began speaking, her eyes sparkling with an eagerness that was not unlike my own, making me wonder who exactly had wanted to test me because suddenly I didn't think it was her. "The prophecy is not only in the writing but in the murals as well. Over the years when the people of Hyperborea were especially powerful, when the prophecy first came to light, the four worlds had already been connected for quite some time. It was only after the initial prophecy was told that there were four other instances of it spoken and the murals were painted, each one reflecting the doom of that world." The queen fell silent and moved to stand in front of the mural of Atlantis. The skyline was almost the same as though I was standing outside the temple, but instead of only seeing the inner rings, I could see the outer ocean as well. "We know that the two major signs for our world will be the ocean changing color, and the large beings, the ones that so many of our people worship as though they were gods, dying. Their corpses floating as the tide brings them ever closer to our small island."