Winter Fire (Witchling Series) (2 page)

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Chapter One

Beck Turner, the Master of Light, stretched out on his bed to sleep. He gazed into the darkness of his room. At some point, he assumed he’d be tired enough to fall asleep.

So far, that wasn’t the case. He hadn’t slept in several nights. It was his first night back at the school after three weeks of hell: lawyers, police, grieving parents, and disappearing Light.

The death of the girl he started dating had resulted in an in-depth investigation where he was the primary suspect. After all, he was the one to find her and the one whose fingerprints were on her necklace. The police assumed he was a jealous, angry or abusive boyfriend who went too far.

It was hard to explain how he found her when there was no evidence leading him to her and how he knew who did it. He saw Tanya’s memories in the magick lingering in her amulet. In no court on the planet would the it-was-magick argument hold up.

His phone vibrated. He checked it, expecting the message to be from Dawn, the ex-girlfriend he knocked up. His guess was right, but there were too many curse words for it to be a message worth reading. He locked his phone, smile fading.

On a weekend, there was no calling the legal team his father hired to start a custody battle for their unborn child. Beck rose. He’d never sleep at this rate. Pulling on his clothes, he left the dorm room. The Square – the common area behind the school where students gathered for outdoor classes and bonfires – was silent. Snow glistened under a bright moon. Pine trees were heavy with white frosting while the depths of the forest appeared even darker in contrast with the snow.

He loved the forest. It was the only place he felt peace.

Leaving the Square, Beck walked down a familiar path into the forest. His earth magick swept snow from his path in whichever direction he wanted to go. Usually, he played with the earth, darting in new directions to see if it could keep up with him.

He was too tired to play and too wired to sleep.

“Hey, you want to spar?” he asked a tree.

Its spirit murmured in agreement. Beck dropped into a sparring stance. Decker and their mother had both been teaching him how to fight, claiming he’d need to know in order to protect Light witchlings.

The tree stretched and released a branch. It smashed into Beck, sending him flying into another tree.

The danger of sparring with trees: they were stronger than they looked. Beck lay on the ground for a long minute, gazing up at the night sky visible through the treetops. He folded his arms beneath his head. The ground beneath him warmed while the tree’s gentle spirit murmured an apology.

“It’s okay, really,” Beck assured it. “I needed to have my ass kicked.”

No one disagreed with him. He steadied his breathing and let his mind wander, hoping he’d fall asleep here, since he couldn’t rest in bed.

Where have you been?

He twisted to see the forest creature, Sam, whose auburn hair clashed with the bright snow. The yeti was seated on a log nearby. For those who didn’t understand the language of the yetis, Sam communicated through the mind rather than in verbal exchanges.

“I don’t want to go into it,” Beck replied. “I’m no longer suspected of murder, though.”

This sounds like a good thing.

“Yeah,” Beck agreed. His mind drifted to the night three weeks ago when he found Tanya. He would never forget it or how sad her soul had been. “I’ve got to get better at being me.”

It takes time.

“I don’t have time.”

Be as gentle with yourself as you are with others.

“That might be an issue, too. If I stopped to think before I got involved with Dawn, Tanya would be alive. Summer never would’ve gone Dark. I dunno. Maybe there are other issues caused by me not thinking.”

Does it matter?

Beck raised his head, surprised by the question.

Tanya did die. Summer did go Dark and recovered. Dawn did go Dark. Can you change these things?

“You’re the magickal yeti. You tell me,” Beck said. He sat and draped his arms around his knees. “I know, Sam. I can’t change what’s happened, but I should learn from it. No more girls.” Not even the pretty one he met a few weeks ago with flame red hair and beautiful green eyes. His one interaction with her had been on a different level. She’d been at the back of his mind since.

Beck sighed, exhausted.

You will learn.

“I’m sure I will. Might take a couple more girlfriends being knocked off by my jealous ex,” he said sarcastically. “Wow. That was mean, right?”

Sam chuckled.
Spoken out of frustration.

Beck rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t mean it. As the protector of Light and witchlings, he didn’t want harm to befall anyone. His frustration was born of the knowledge that he really wasn’t certain how to be the great protector the Light needed in a time where the Darkness had grown so much.

“Sam, who was the strongest Master of Light?” he asked. “I know what we’re taught in our history classes about the line of succession, but I think you know the real story.”

The son of Bartholomew-the-Terrible. Tyron-the-Bright. Like you, he was born into a time of great evil.

“What was he like?”

He was a fire witchling. He was always angry
, Sam said.

Beck laughed. “Okay, but what made him so good at what he did?”

He never faltered in his faith in the Light. He never lost his hope.

“Interesting,” Beck murmured. “I’m not sure I can live up to that. What would you say about me, if someone in a hundred years asked you?”

I would say
… Sam was quiet for a minute.
I would say his heart was the purest of any Light Master, but he doubted himself.

“Deep,” Beck said. “Sounds like a train wreck.”

Sam was right. Beck did doubt himself. It started with not realizing Summer’s danger and turned crippling when he discovered that people could die, if he made the wrong choice. Someone did die, because he underestimated the depth of Darkness in the mother of his child. It didn’t help that his predecessor and aunt – Nora, the Mistress of Light – had been dead for twenty years. He had no one to teach him the ins-and-outs of his duties and only the mysterious communications of his earth element and Sam to guide him.

But he tried. Every day, he woke up and swore to do his best. He never in his life thought his best wouldn’t be good enough to save the life of someone innocent, like Tanya.

You are a child of my forest. It pains me to see you distressed.

“It pains me to be distressed,” Beck responded with a small smile. “How does the story end?”

Any way you wish it to.

“Do I get a name? Like Bartholomew-the-Terrible, Nataniel-the-Darkbringer, Alexander-the-Lightbringer, Tyron-the-Bright.”

You will, yes. Right now, you are Beck-the-Sleepless.

“So not funny,” Beck said, though he smiled. “It’s gotta be a strong name.”

You have been the Master of Light for four months. It’s early to name yourself, isn’t it?
The yeti was laughing at him.

“I guess I’m looking for something. Motivation maybe. Clarity. Hope.” Beck flicked away snow from his feet. Sam was right. His confidence was shaken after the events of the past few months. He wanted to believe the best in everyone, but he couldn’t do so and protect witchlings.

Look within.

“I thought that was the problem to start off with. I keep hearing my bad judgment is behind everything,” Beck grumbled.

Young judgment, not bad.

“I keep thinking of Tanya. I had to tell her parents, Sam. I’ve never hurt so much for someone else.”

Sam was quiet, leaving Beck with his thoughts. It wasn’t the crazy text messages preventing him from sleeping. It was the memory of Tanya and her family. Facing them was difficult, knowing his crazy ex had hurt her out of jealousy. He was responsible, because he was blind to the depths of Dawn’s cruelty.

Tanya wasn’t the only one at Dawn’s mercy.

The little girl Dawn carried was also in the middle of a disaster waiting to happen. His daughter would be born stuck between Light and Dark, after her mother went Dark while pregnant. By no fault of her own, his daughter would face a difficult life, one Beck didn’t yet know how to make better.

He expected to feel even more anxious about learning the baby was his, but thus far, the confirmation had settled the uncertainty and given him a firm goal. He was going to do everything he could to raise his daughter with love in the ways of the Light, even if that meant Dawn wasn’t a part of her life.

Before Tanya, he wouldn’t have been so decisive. Maybe that was the only blessing to come from her death. He now knew he had to save his little girl.

Of course, if he stopped to see beyond Dawn’s flawless looks in the first place, he wouldn’t have any of these concerns. He wanted to blame hormones, but Decker had warned him about the beautiful girl. At the time, Beck simply didn’t care.

Beck-the-Darktamer.

“That one’s nice.” He smiled, sensing Sam was trying to cheer him up. “I’ll try to live up to it.”

You have come far. You will learn
, Sam said.
Try to rest.

Beck nodded, doubting he would. He pushed himself to his feet. Sam stayed where he was while a path was cleared by the earth for Beck to return to the dorms. He offered another smile at the ugly, but wise forest creature and left, his thoughts no lighter than when he’d arrived.

Chapter Two

Summer.

Her eyes flew open at the soft summons. Summer rose quickly and quietly, careful not to disturb her roommate, Biji. She pulled on a heavy jacket over her pajamas, swept her long hair into a loose ponytail and tiptoed down the hallway to the stairwell that led from the girls’ dorm area of the schoolhouse to the main floor and common areas. The large, log structure was silent, its occupants sleeping. No smells came from the kitchen yet, indicating it was sometime in the middle of the night before four, when the cooks began preparing breakfast.

Outside, it was freezing and the night sky clear. Her breath floated upwards, and air magick greeted her. It zipped through her body while the quiet earth magick warmed her feet.

Halfway down the driveway leading to the school, he was waiting for her. Summer’s heart quickened the way it did every time she saw him. At night, the magick of the Master of Dark was more powerful, unfurling around him in a black fog that settled at his feet. He waited with his hands crossed before him and his stance wide. He wasn’t allowed closer to the school, now that it was common knowledge that Dark students were causing the Light source beneath the school to shrink.

Sometimes, he still scared her. Sometimes, she remembered when she’d looked into his soul and saw the Darkness looking back at her.

Summer shook her head to clear the thought and ran down the driveway to her boyfriend, best friend – her world. She stopped in front of him and gazed up at him, searching his face for signs of the Darkness.

It wasn’t there, but there was blood on his jeans, a dark splash in the moonlight.

“Rough night,” he said in a gruff voice.

“It’s okay, Decker,” she whispered. “You’re here now.” Summer instinctively took his face in her hands.

He shuddered, his arms circling her to pull her into his body. He was strong and athletic, his body honed by the hundreds of laps a week he swam. A triple element – fire, water, spirit – his magick kept him from feeling the cold of winter the way she did. It swirled through her, a combination of warm and cool, before his fire magick pushed away her chill. His fire magick was capable of more than warmth; it lit the desire already swirling in her blood.

“Behave,” she said with a smile.

“Fine.”

His fire retreated, warming her without arousing her. She sensed his distress and hugged him closer, aware that only she was able to still the voices in his head and keep the Darkness from consuming him.

“Are you okay?” she asked, lifting her head.

Decker met her gaze. His eyes were brown, his chiseled cheekbones and dark complexion marking his mixed background. The tightness around his eyes and mouth softened.

“I am now,” he replied. “You know, if we were together every night …”

“We will be,” she promised. “But not yet.”

“I know.” He nuzzled her neck.

Summer giggled. It was a deal they made when they’d reunited three weeks before: to take things slow. She was still trying to recover from the three month trial she’d gone through to return to the Light from the Dark, and it was something of a shock to learn what the Master of Fire and Night had done in that short time span. The girls, the dead witchlings.

The Darkness.

Summer traced his face with her fingers, marveling at Decker’s stunning features. There was a part of her that wasn’t ready yet to take their relationship to where it had been, before she went Dark and spent three months recovering her soul.

“I love you,” she murmured.

“I know,” he said again, this time smiling.

“There’s blood on your jeans.”

“Yeah.”

She searched his face.

“I had to, Summer. He broke the Dark Laws. He was getting ready to hurt someone else.”

The hardest part of her being the counterbalance to the Master of Dark was not fearing what he was. Summer kissed him. Decker responded hungrily, his warm lips and hot kisses lighting her blood on fire. He pulled away before they went too far for either to stop.

“I love you, too,” he whispered. “You are my everything.”

Summer sighed. Decker was trying hard to respect the boundary she’d established. Every time his hands started roaming her body, he stopped them. Whenever their kissing grew too heavy, he withdrew.

She loved him for giving her the space she needed.

His arms tightened around her, and she breathed in his scent.

“What is it, Beck?” Decker growled.