Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,27

you feel now. But when you get down into the depths of the ocean, with its rainbow waters and unplumbed mysteries, perhaps you will feel differently. Perhaps you will feel that you belong there, after all. The burning fires and warm earth of the land will not feel as vital to you as they once did.”

“Never!” I took Chance into my arms, kissing his lips. How could the heat, the beauty of fire ever vanish from my heart. I remembered how it had been that first night on Aeros, when Chance and I had danced beneath the magical flames. I had seen those fires – although nobody else did but us – I had absorbed their power. “I'll always love you, Chance, and everything you represent. Fire. Passion. Mystery.”

“I trust you, Mac,” Chance said, his lips so hot against my own. “I trust you to make the right decision. But the sea is a strange place. It messes with people's minds. It makes them...different. It made you different.”

“I'm not like that,” I insisted. “I'm not like Vesta.”

I spied Varun in the distance. He was waiting further down the beach, his eyes fixed upon me and Chance, watching our goodbyes. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell he was jealous. He wanted it to be him whom I loved, him who I embraced like I would never let go.

My heart was breaking for both of them.

I nodded to Varun and he approached, starring at Chance with daggers in his eyes. “I see you're ready to go,” Varun said to me, looking Chance up and down.

“If anything happens to her, cousin,” Chance's voice was tight with rage. “If you let anything happen to her...”

“Never!” said Varun. “She's safer with me than she is with you, Chance. Remember Jana...”

“How dare you mention her name!”

“How dare you imply that I might be a danger to her?” Varun growled, doing his best to channel his anger into words. I could see Chance's fists clench, and I tried to alleviate the tension.

“It'll be okay, Chance,” I said. “I'll be back soon. And I'll have the stone and I'll be able to save my mother.”

“I told you, Chance,” Varun was getting cocky. “I'll have her back safe and sound. Better than ever, in fact.” He put a possessive arm around my shoulders. “You don't have to worry.”

“I promise,” I squeezed Chance's hand gently. “I'll come back safe – and alive.”

Chance nodded without smiling. Then, swiftly, he took me into his arms, pressing his hands around my cheeks as he brought me in for a kiss as passionate, as full of desperate urgency, as any he had ever given me. All of his love, all of his desire, his fear and his longing were contained in that kiss. Varun looked on, awkwardly, as Chance lightly brushed the tips of my teeth with his tongue, making me shiver in delirious anticipation as he pushed the small of my back into him, so that our hips were touching. I felt the pulsating heat of desire course through me once again. How could I spend so long without him, I asked myself? Surely every minute I spent apart from Chance would be pure, agonizing torture. And to spend it with Varun, who even now looked impossibility beautiful in his swimming-trunks and bare chest, my body wrapped against his – that would be another kind of exquisite torture. I looked up at Chance as he lightly moved his head away from me, my eyes filled with love and want.

“Goodbye, my love,” Chance whispered, pressing his fingers against his lips and then holding them out against mine. “Goodbye, my goddess. I will see you again.”

“I know you will.”

“I love you.”

Varun looked over at Chance angrily.

“I love you too.”

“Ready?” Varun cut into our romantic interlude. “It's getting late. We want to be in the ocean before dark.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I have to touch her,” he said to Chance. “It's the only way the spell will work. I'll be able to transfer some of my water powers to her.” But the way his big arms encircled my shoulders seemed more than just pragmatic.

Chance said nothing, but turned on his heel and walked away. I could see him shaking with rage – at Varun rather than me – but there was nothing I could say to make it better. I'd have to prove to Chance that I was trustworthy – on my own terms.

“Let's go!”

Slowly, gradually, Varun and I