“I’ll focus on the lava at the mouth of the volcano,” Frost told her. “You focus on what’s in the air and keep bringing it down, just like that. Good job.”
Gabby saw the lava had turned in a high arc and was now coming smoothly down like an airborne waterfall. She continued lowering her hands, bringing the lava closer to the mountain. As it closed in on the riverbed, treetops began to catch fire, then the trunks, and then the foliage below it. Everything the lava got close to went up in flames.
“Everything is going to burn,” Gabby yelled as she realized, even though they were directing the lava, the heat was still strong enough to ignite everything around it. It wouldn’t be long before the forest all around them was a raging inferno.
Gabby heard Frost curse, but she was too scared to take her attention off the lava. She kept one hand focused on the lava, flowing into the river, and then used the other to focus on the fire in the trees and along the sides of the river. Gabby tried to use her power to keep it contained to the trees, to keep it from spreading to those near it. She managed it for a few minutes, but she was getting tired fast. She saw the fire practically leap from one tree to the next and realized there was no way for her to control both the lava coming from the volcano and the fire now burning up the mountainside.
“Dammit,” she whispered. “I really do not want him kicking a puppy.” Gabby began walking forward, thinking perhaps if she got closer to the fire she’d be able to control it better. She looked over her shoulder at Frost and saw the woman also had one hand pointed in the direction of the trees. Her mentor shook her head at Gabby, but she didn’t stop moving forward. She could do this. She knew she could.
She called on her inner fire and let it run up her skin so she looked like a human torch. It would protect her from the surrounding flames.
“This doesn’t look to me like you want me to not kick puppies, baby.”
Gabby jumped at the sound of Liam’s voice.
His arms were suddenly around her waist, and his cheek rested on the back of her head. “In fact, it looks like you’re just begging me to kick all sorts of puppies. You got a thing against puppies I should know about?”
“What are you doing here?” Gabby asked as she focused on the fire, trying to keep it from spreading to trees on the opposite side of the lava river.
He pressed a kiss to the back of her head and then released her. When he stepped up beside her, Gabby looked him over to ensure he wasn’t hurt. Dude still looked sexy as hell.
“Just call me the fireman, Gabs,” he said with a wink as he raised his arms and began speaking in those words she didn’t know. Clouds began to gather above them. “Because things are about to get wet.”
“That’s what she said,” Gabby said and then snapped her mouth closed. I did not just say that.
“Knew you were perfect for me,” Liam said with a laugh just as the skies opened up and rain poured down over them.
“Can we pretend I didn’t say that?” She yelled to be heard over the downpour.
“Absolutely not,” he yelled back. “I can’t be the only inappropriate one in this relationship.”
“There is no relationship, Liam,” Gabby said, even as she hoped he’d argue with her.
“I don’t care what you call it, Beautiful, but there is an us. As in, you and me equal a thing.”
“That didn’t make sense,” she said. “Is Frost okay?”
“It made perfect sense, and yes, the good professor is kicking lava ass,” Liam assured her.
Gabby’s arms were tiring, but she had no idea if she could drop them yet. How much lava was going to shoot out of the volcano? Was it endless like saliva?
“Did you just ask me if lava was like saliva?” Liam’s voice interrupted what she thought had been inner thoughts.
“Sometimes, you should just ignore what comes out of my mouth,” Gabby said, considering jumping into the lava river to save herself more embarrassment.
“I’d have to say yes because your saliva is hot. And I know that because I kissed the hell out of you before I rode a river to the base of a volcano.”