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He huffed. “How do you keep warm? Where do you get your light from?”
r /> “We’re kelpies, we’re warm when we’re shifted. And even in my human form I don’t get cold easily. Especially not in water. And for light, we have bioluminescent plants and fish. I used to have a light-up squid as a pet.”
“Didn’t you grow up in a Scottish loch? I didn’t think they had squid in there.”
She smiled. “He was a present from a distant relative. And besides, most people don’t know kelpies live in the lakes around them, so how would they know about a few squid.”
“Point taken. Is it okay for you to come closer to the flame?”
Not wanting to be seen as weak, she approached him, eyeing the fire warily. When she first came to the surface, her brothers had played a prank on her, pretending the lit candle on their table was there to be touched. She couldn’t remember why she believed them, but she could still feel the pain echoing in her hand. Those bastards, why was she trying to rescue them again? If they needed rescuing - she still wasn’t any closer to finding out.
Macey stared into the flame, somehow feeling a pull inside of her, urging her to come closer.
She lifted her hand, passing it closer to the flame than she probably should, but it was so tempting and the urge to touch was too difficult to ignore. She waved her hand over the top of it, feeling the prickle of heat on her palm, along with Flint’s intense gaze.
“Oh,” she said as she watched the flames turn blue slightly.
“That was unexpected,” Flint said softly and she turned to look at him, her eyes locking with his and revealing a combination of curiosity and desire. Good. She was glad he was still feeling it, or the fire simmering in her blood was misplaced. She gave a short laugh. The fire in her blood? How ridiculous was that when she was a water being. Kelpies didn’t want or need fire, there was no reason for her to be feeling it. Well, no reason other than the tall, handsome man who was looking at her like he could devour her.
“What do I do now?” she asked, definitely feeling uneasy about the whole situation.
“Do it again, but move closer this time.”
She frowned. That wasn’t what she expected him to say, nor was it something that particularly appealed. But then again, she didn’t think he’d let any harm become her. Which was another odd thought. She’d been kidnapped and separated from her brothers, and yet here she was thinking about how attractive one of her captors was? Not only that, but how much she trusted him. Macey shrugged it off, remembering a piece of wisdom her Aunt Nessie had told her once; “Always trust your gut.” Of course, being Aunt Nessie, that hadn’t been all there was to her lesson, it had come laden with stories of her own misspent youth, but the point had been driven home. Sometimes, Macey had to trust her own instincts, even if they seemed wrong.
Which meant moving her hand closer to the flame. Taking a deep breath, she did just that, almost touching the top of it this time, and once again, the flames themselves turned blue. But nothing else happened. She didn’t feel the surge she normally did when her magic was close to the surface, making her sure that it hadn’t come.
“Closer?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“I guess so,” Flint said, a worried note in his voice. She studied the flame, which was almost entirely blue now, but the intensity of it didn’t seem to have waned, and she felt the heat of it against her skin still. She took another breath, knowing she just had to get on with it, or she’d chicken out. Before she could put too much thought into it, she thrust her hand into the middle of the flame.
It was hot, but it didn’t burn, which was completely at odds with what she’d discovered after her brothers played their prank on her. Looking back at Flint, she could see the worry on his face as he glanced between her and the flame, seemingly confused about what was happening. Well, that made two of them.
“What did you expect to happen?” she asked carefully, dreading the answer.
“I wasn’t sure...” he hedged, making anger boil up in her.
“You thought it was going to burn me, right? Why would you do that?” Her voice turned into a shout. “I trusted you!”
The door was thrown open and Cam barged in, looking around for the cause of the noise. “Is everything okay?” he asked, his relief obvious at there being no immediate danger.
“He burned me!” Macey hissed and pointed at Flint.
“What the fuck?” Cam growled and strode towards his friend who held up his hands, the flame still flickering dangerously from between his fingers.
“Calm down, she wasn’t hurt,” Flint defended himself, but he did do her the courtesy of looking a little downtrodden. “She’s fine. But I thought if her body assumed it was under attack by the opposite element, her magic might spring into action.”
“So you burned her to test a theory?” A breeze began to roam around the room, making Macey’s hair flutter in the wind. Cam was getting angry, and so was the air around him.
“Look at her hands, she’s fine!” Flint shouted over the wind that was getting louder. “Macey, show him your hands, he needs to see if you want the house to stay intact!”
With a sigh, she showed Cam her unmarked skin. This was for the benefit of structural integrity. But she wasn’t going to let Flint get away with it. He had broken her trust and he was going to pay for it.
The wind died down almost as quickly as it had arrived. Cam took her hands into his, examining them closely. When had he become so protective?
“How are you not burnt?” he asked under his breath, more a statement than a question. It was clear that none of them knew.
“Does that mean that Jared’s magic can hurt you? Even though he’s your opposite?”
