Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,51

me, shocked. A strange joy crossed over his face. “Why? I don’t understand.”

“Just do it!” I shouted. “I don’t care how – or what it takes – just help me unlock those powers.”

“Are you sure? It will affect your Fire…”

“I don’t care!” I yelled. “You and Mom – you need me right now. And in about five seconds Abzu’s Kraken will get here and then we’ll both be dead. So you’d better get started.”

Varun looked unsure. But then his expression set. He turned to me, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Don’t slap me,” he said. And then he leaned in and kissed me – not just an oxygen-transfer but a real, deep kiss, full of passion and longing. He pulled me deep beneath the waters, blowing oxygen into my lungs – but more than oxygen. He was giving me air, life. He was giving me power. He was giving me himself.

“Breathe into me, Mac.” He held my hand tight. “And take away my breath. Before, the Unification was temporary – but this will make it permanent. You need to kiss me, Mac. Embrace whatever it is you’re feeling. That’s the only way it will work.”

I gasped as he kissed me once again, his tongue lightly tracing the outline of my lips. His kiss was so gentle, so full of love, that I felt at once weak and strong – frail and yet powerful. I could feel my body glowing with a blue shimmer. The power of Water was entering me – I could feel my Fire abilities ebbing away. My eyes opened wide and suddenly I could see underwater – not as I had done before, but rather with crystal clarity, every fish and reef and plant suddenly visible to me in brilliant color. I had never felt so close to Varun before – our two spirits mingling into one, my love for him leaving me overwhelmed. Yet, for all my desire, what I was conscious of most of all was the beauty of the moment, the tenderness. I had never felt so close to anyone before, not even Chance.

Varun let go, and to my surprise I found that I was breathing on my own. Not haltingly, as I had done in Abzu’s palace, but as if I were born to live here. Born to be part of the waves. Born to wander among the beauty of coral and the rainbow lights of the ocean. I felt joy coursing through me as I swam towards the Kraken, alive with the sense of my new power. I broke the surface, tossing my soaked hair out of my face. Varun’s face was full of joy – my mother, too, was looking on proudly, beaming as she swam over to me.

“I knew you could do it, my darling,” she said. “I knew you could.”

And then I caught sight of Chance. He was standing on top of the building, a look of agony on his face. I had never seen anyone so utterly shocked and betrayed, as despairing, as he did now. He shot me a look that pierced through my heart more than any Kraken spike could have done. I had betrayed him. Whatever I had done with Varun – I could not deny it any longer. It wasn’t just a Unification – it was a kiss, plain and simple. And Chance had seen it.

My heart broke along with Chance’s. I had to take on water qualities, unify with Varun to help save my mother, Varun, and all of Aeros from the tsunami. To Chance, though, it appeared as though Vesta had chosen Poseidon. I had chosen Varun. I have chosen Fire over Water. And it hit me all at once what that meant. I was no longer Mars’s twin. I was of Water now. What about the Erosion? What about my destiny to stop Water from taking over the few remaining lands on earth?

I couldn’t answer those questions now. The Kraken had raised its ugly head from the depths of the waves, and its beady eyes fixed straight on me, hunger in its gaze.

It was time to fight.

********

The Fire Wars continues in

Book 3 of Fire Wars

Fire Dance

Fall 2012

Sneak Preview from

FADE

Book 1 of the FADE Series™

By Kailin Gow

ONE

My name is Celestra Caine. I am seventeen years old, which makes me a senior at Richmond High. I never thought this would happen to me, but it has… I’m one of those people you see every day, go to school with, remember seeing