by Raven Steele
When we walked inside the large theater, I was reminded of my first day here. How my eyes had locked with Hudson’s and even then, in the dark, I’d felt that fire and ice between us, burning my skin, my insides, my soul.
I casually looked around for him but didn’t see him. I pretended not to be disappointed and followed Ireland to a seat near the front. Bennie ticked his head upward at us as we passed. He was sitting in the back next to Becca of all people. I didn’t know he was friends with someone in the Red Letters. It didn’t bother me too much, though. Of all of that elite group, Becca seemed the nicest.
Lowering into a seat, I listened to Ireland and Bonnie talk across me. They were discussing what teachers might’ve known Aurora the best.
“But will they talk to us?” Bonnie asked.
Someone tapped on Ireland’s shoulder. All three of us looked up.
Hudson stood behind her, smiling awkwardly. “Hey, I was wondering if you could move down next to Bonnie so I can sit next to Rose?”
Ireland’s mouth fell open, and her gaze slowly lowered to mine. “If that’s what Rose wants, then sure.”
I gave a slight nod, heat flushing my whole body.
Ireland stood. “Sure, but I warn you, she’s extra hot tonight.”
His eyes met mine, and he subtly licked his lips. “I can see that.”
Ireland scooted past me while Hudson lowered into the seat.
My heart thundered in my chest, a thousand horse hooves threatening to trample my heart. Two times in one day. I didn’t think I could handle it, and yet I yearned to feel his cool touch again.
“Hey,” he said at me and swiped the hair away from his eyes.
“Hey.”
Without missing a beat, he linked his fingers into mine. He sighed as if feeling instant relief from whatever daily torment he endured. I couldn’t help but do the same. My whole body relaxed into the seat.
Ireland and Bonnie stared at me. Hard. The shock on their face was so evident, I wondered if Hudson had ever done this before.
“Later,” I mouthed as the lights dimmed and the movie projector began to play. A haunting melody bled notes of doom and despair, setting the mood for what was about to happen.
Normally, I hated horror films and was extremely jumpy but feeling Hudson’s fingers tighten around mine erased all my fears. His icy touch, as soft and refreshing as new fallen snow, seeped into me, filling my pores with the chilly nip of a Siberian winter, but I welcomed it. Even drew it into me. It extinguished my flames, or maybe my blaze had simply bled into Hudson. His cheeks were tinged pink, his eyes warm like the blue of the Caribbean Sea instead of the Arctic Ocean.
His fingertips began to lightly trace my palm, leaving strips of coolness all along my flesh. The feeling was intense, burning into me, igniting every nerve ending. It went beyond being turned on. It was like being transported to another place where fire didn’t exist, that constant burn that had been with me my whole life. Just gone.
What would it feel like to get even closer to him?
Turning slowly, my eyes slowly found his. I didn’t have to read his mind to know what he was thinking. We wanted the same thing. Each other.
We both stood at the same time, no thinking or speaking required. It was as if my fire had taken over. I was no longer in control.
Hudson pulled me along, but that didn’t feel right either. It was as if his own power, that icy touch, was melting into the flames within me, urging, guiding, wanting more.
I was oblivious to Bonnie calling my name, of the curious stares, the daggers tossed at me from Maisy’s eyes. None of it mattered.
I pressed closer to Hudson as we left the auditorium. Even that contact stole my breath, bloomed a thousand ice butterflies in my stomach at once, and made me feel light-headed. I touched his hip, that soft and tender spot between his strong back muscles and curved hip bone. His body shuddered.
We reached the door. I expected to be stopped but being a Saturday, the only teacher supervising was busy talking to a student to my right. Hudson slipped out first, creating a stream of light in the darkened room. This caught the teacher’s attention. I let go of Hudson’s hand quickly. Flames roared inside of me at the lost contact.
“Where are you going?” the teacher whispered.
She hadn’t seen Hudson go out first. “I’m not feeling well. I’m going back to my room.”
I left holding my stomach. Not to make her think I had a stomachache but because I was literally trying to hold the fire back within me. Sweat broke on my brow, ran down in tiny rivets at the small of my back.
I needed Hudson.
And he was there.
As soon as the door closed, he jerked me to him and nuzzled my neck with his nose. I could practically hear the sizzling of his ice extinguishing my flames. I gasped, my chest heaving into him.
“What is happening?” Hudson murmured, his lips grazing my skin. He had no more control than I did.
My hands slipped under his shirt, and my palms pushed upward, skin on skin, fire on ice. I moaned. “I can’t stop.”
“Let’s get out of here.” He stepped back, but held both of my hands. Neither of us willing to let the other go.
He pulled me forward, his breaths ragged, pulse racing. I could feel the thundering beat through my palms. Or maybe that was mine. Or it was ours together, pulsing, beating, dancing fire and cracking ice.
Deeper and deeper, he pulled me into the empty school halls until we were entirely alone, darkness our only witness to this strange phenomenon.
He spun me into a small alcove and pressed my back into an office door. He groaned, his hands roaming up and down my sides, his lips trailing kisses across my neck. I swore ice crystals formed on my skin, a path of cold temptation, but in a single beat of my heart, my heat melted them.
“I feel you licking my insides,” Hudson breathed into my ear.
I was so caught up in the moment, wrapped in winter’s sweet song, that I barely registered his words.
His mouth trailed up to my cheek, then my lips. He hovered there, and we shared the same breath. Mine hot, his cold. The two elements battled there, and I swore electricity sparked.
My nails dug into his back, urging him closer. I wanted to feel his lips, his tongue, his ice … “Hudson.”
He hitched a breath as if his name on my lips had stung him. I opened my eyes. His brow furrowed over wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
His body trembled. He opened his mouth once, twice, struggling to get the words out. “This isn’t … right.”.
Finally, he stepped back, breaking the connection between us. Fire and heat once again ran rampant inside me, but it felt different this time. Anger, rage, destruction—all those feelings slammed into my organs and my bones so violently, I grimaced in pain.
Hudson did the same, and placed his hand against the wall as if to steady himself.
“This doesn’t feel right.” I barely breathed from the burning agony. “Should we call someone?”
After a long moment heaving for air, he finally straightened. Pain still etched every line on his face. “I’m sorry I did this to you. I don’t know what came over me.”
“This isn’t your fault. I wanted to touch you, too.” I still did. It was taking all my strength not to rush him, press my body and mouth to his. I wanted it so badly, and yet, the want and need came from a different place, the part of me consumed by a raging inferno.
“We should tell someone about this,” he said. “It’s not normal.”
“Who?”
He raked his hands through his ice-blond hair. “Mr. Stenberg. He’ll know what to do.”
“Do you think he’s still awake?” I wanted to go see him right away. My attraction to Hudson scared me because it felt so … foreign, like something else had taken control of me. I barely knew Hudson, so to be acting like this, touching him, grinding against him, wanting to kiss him, was so out of character for me. Not that I didn’t want to do those
things with him, but it would sure be nice to at least know the guy’s favorite color.
“We probably shouldn’t bother him this late, but what do you say we go see him in the morning? He’s usually one of the first people at Sunday brunch.”
I searched Hudson’s eyes, trying very hard not to step towards him. “That sounds good.”
“Until then, we should probably stay away from each other.”
I hated that I agreed with him.
“You can go first.” He motioned his head down the darkened hallway. Soft light beckoned me forward.
I made my legs move, but with each step away from him, the flames inside me raged even more.
“Hey, Rose!” he called.
I turned around, my heart stuttering. “Yes?”
“When we get this all figured out, let’s go on that date, yeah? One where I’m not groping you? Maybe find out where you want to go to college, what kind of music you listen to?”
I smiled and nodded my head. “I’d like that.”
The grin he returned split his face, and his eyes twinkled and flashed colors like the Aurora borealis that stretched the cold nights of the northern hemisphere.
This time when I walked away from him, I didn’t feel so much like a raging volcano ready to blow. The fire had simmered to a dull blaze, still hot but controlled.
I’d see him again.
Chapter 12
I didn’t return to the movie. Instead, I returned to my room and flopped backwards onto my bad, arms splayed wide. Even though my body temperature had returned to its normal inferno levels, I could still feel Hudson’s cool lips against my neck, his icy fingers dragging across my flesh.
My door flew open. I sat up straight, eyes wide as Ireland and Bonnie hurried in. Bonnie closed the door behind her.
“We want to know everything,” Ireland said. She shoved my legs aside so she could join me on the bed.
“How could you just leave with Hudson like that?” Bonnie added. She pulled up the desk chair and sat across from us. “And since when are you and he so touchy-feely? Have you been secretly seeing him?”
I shook my head. “Something weird is going on between us. We both recognized it and stopped it before we went to too far.”
“Too far?” Ireland gasped. “What did you do?”
An uncomfortable laugh escaped me. “We didn’t even kiss.”
Bonnie tilted her head. “What do you mean by weird?”
I told them all about how his cool touch was like a drug to my system, and how Hudson felt the same way about my heat. I also told them how we were going to go see Mr. Stenberg in the morning to figure out what was going on.
“That is strange,” Bonnie said, but there was wistful look in her eye as if this barely controlled addiction to Hudson’s touch was some kind of fairytale.
Ireland opened her mouth to say something, but the door flew open again. Bennie stepped in and closed the door behind him.
“Hey!” Bonnie said. “This is the girl’s dorms. You’re going to get us in trouble.”
“No one saw me.” He walked towards us only to drop into the middle of the floor to sit down. “Movie’s over.”
Ireland frowned. “Good to know. Why are you here?”
“I talked to Becca through most of it.” He leaned back, palming the wood floor.
“And we need to know this why?” Bonnie asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t you remember? Becca’s mother used to work for Solar Academy as their PR Manager, a position that was created after Aurora killed a bunch of people.” He glanced at me and added, “Allegedly.”
“Wasn’t Becca’s mom the one who also put my mother to sleep?”
Ireland nodded. “Along with Becca’s father.”
“I think that’s why they gave her the position,” Bennie said. “She knew the most about it, plus she has a political science degree and could spin the event any way she liked.”
“Interesting.” I reached up and ran my hand across my neck. Where Hudson’s lips had been. “But why talk to Becca?”
“Her mother didn’t just talk to the media. She controlled all the records of that day. Everything even remotely related to it. And guess where all that information is being kept?”
“Where?” all three of us girls answered.
“In the archive room in the basement.”
“Why is it here and not with the ISA?” Ireland wondered out loud.
He shrugged carelessly.
“How do we access it?” I asked, my heart beating erratically.
“We need a code to get in,” Bennie answered. “It’s locked up tight without it.”
Bonnie frowned. “Becca told you all this?”
“She likes me.”
This startled Bonnie. “Do you like her?”
“Maybe. She’s different from the others.”
Ireland cleared her throat to get the conversation back on track. “How do we find out this code?”
Bennie’s gaze shifted to her. “We just need to record someone going in there. I can probably set up a camera.”
“Won’t someone see it?” Bonnie asked.
“Nah. I’ve got lots of cool equipment. I can install it on the ceiling or something. Tonight even.”
Bonnie’s lifted eyebrows almost reached her hairline. “Who are you?”
He snorted. “A bored teenager stuck in a boring school.”
“Do you want some help?” I asked.
“I got it.”
I looked at each of them, gratefulness swelling within me. “Thank you for your help. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
Ireland slapped me on the back, none too gently either. “No, thank you. I was considering a life of crime before you came along and introduced me to all this intrigue.”
A plan was in motion. Bennie had successfully placed the camera the night before which transmitted data to his computer. Now all we had to do was wait for someone to go into the room, thereby revealing the code. Bennie had said by the looks of the old room, no one had been in there for a while. This worried me. What if we had to wait weeks?
Hudson caught my eye as soon as I walked into the dining room. I quickly shifted my gaze to the buffet spread across a long table against the wall. I inhaled too, anything to get my focus off him. The air smelled of cinnamon, baked bread, and a hint of vanilla. My stomach growled.
I loaded up a plate and turned around to scan the room. Ireland and Bonnie had begged to come with me, but it just didn’t feel right having them there while I talked to Mr. Stenberg about me and Hudson. Plus, I didn’t think Hudson would appreciate my friends ogling us.
Hudson had also come alone, for which I was grateful. I was worried he might bring his friend Grant. I didn’t know Grant very well, but he’d always looked at me with such disdain, like Maisy did. I didn’t want him to come within ten feet of the conversation we were about to have.
Just like Hudson had said, Mr. Stenberg sat at a table by himself, a newspaper splayed out in front of him while he cut into a slice of French toast.
I carried my tray of food over to him. Hudson noticed and followed me. We sat down at the circular table at the same time, Mr. Stenberg on my left and Hudson a few seats to my right.
Even though Hudson and I had a couple of feet between us, the draw to touch him was too much for my fire. My foot slid under the table searching for his. I didn’t have to search long. His was already looking for mine. As soon as they touched, my veins cooled, as if someone had poured frigid water into them. It was the best feeling ever.
Mr. Stenberg drew his brows together and looked at each of us. “Can I help you two with something?”
I looked at Hudson, hoping he would speak first.
He cleared his throat. “Um, yes. We have a strange question for you. Something we can’t find out on our own.”
“Oh, well,” Mr. Stenberg folded up his newspaper and set it aside. “I’m always glad to help students. What is your question?”
Hudson volleyed the answer to me. I groaned inwardly, trying to figure out how best to explain what was happening to us without it sounding like we were two horny teenagers who couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
“You know how I have the ability to create fire, right?” I began tentatively.
He nodded.
I rubbed my knuckles along my sternum. “It’s strong, like really strong. I feel constant flames inside me and the slightest thing can set me off. It’s very hard to control.”
“You have been blessed with a powerful gift,” he agreed. “But it does need to be controlled.”
“I would like that very much. I don’t like burning people when I touch them, and I hate that I can’t hug my dad for fear of lighting him on fire.” My throat suddenly constricted, and I attempted to swallow around the fullness. “All my life, I’ve been burning up. An inextinguishable flame that burns so hot I’ve wondered if one day I’ll just burst into a ball of flames.”
My face reddened at the confession, but it was true. I’d often wondered if all that would remain of my life was scattered ashes blowing in the wind until nothing remained at all.
Hudson nudged my foot, a gentle motion that cooled my emotions. He took over. “I also struggle with my ability. I’m always cold, so cold I’m afraid if someone touched me too hard they’d shatter my bones. It’s been an ache I’ve had to endure all my life.”
Our eyes met and understanding passed between us. In that moment, I felt a shared bond forming. His ice and my fire braiding together into a thick cord. I sucked in a quick breath at the strange sensation.
Mr. Stenberg frowned, his gaze darting between me and Hudson almost as if he could feel the strange connection. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? His eyebrows shot up, and he bent over to lift the table cloth.
“It can’t be!” He sat up straight. “You guys are touching.”
Hudson tore his eyes away from mine. “That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We can’t seem to stop touching. It’s like when I’m near her, I feel warm, like she’s giving me some of her heat.”
