Gaze of Fire Read online

  Gaze of Fire

  Melissa Kellogg

  © Copyright 2018 by Melissa Kellogg

  All rights reserved. No part of this book, either in part or in whole may be reproduced, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, photographic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Author.

  Formatting by: Polgarus Studio

  Cover Art done by: Karri Klawiter

  Sequel

  to

  Veins of Ice

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 1

  Karena woke when the first rays of the morning sun pierced through the windows and tumbled onto her face. Just from the light and early warmth held in those first light splinters, she could tell that it was going to be a warm, spring day. Her eyes traveled over the black pillowcase to Asher’s still, but relaxed form. She studied him with a smile. As he slept, his rugged, good-looking features had softened from their typical sculpted appearance.

  The sheets were too warm for her, but her body had adjusted. Subtle heat waves rippled over Asher’s body, whereas a dusting of snow and ice had coated the silver and black sheets on her side of the bed. She propped herself up on her elbow, and swept a hand through Asher’s obsidian hair, creating waves in his thick locks. He stirred, and his lips twitched until they formed a smile.

  “Good morning,” she whispered.

  He opened one mocha-colored eye, and then the other, and scooted towards her. Embers zigzagged over his naked, muscular chest. His body sizzled. He was adjusting to the change in temperature on her side of the bed. He tilted his head up and kissed her on the cheek. She bent down to nuzzle his ear and kiss his forehead.

  “Morning, and it’s a beautiful one at that,” Asher replied. “Do you think anyone noticed that you were gone last night?”

  “Nah. Well, Hadrian and Rose might’ve, but they won’t say anything or worry.”

  He reached his arm over her waist to rub her back, pressing her close. Her hands traced the ridges of his stomach. He craned his head over to look at his grandfather clock of opal and quartz, which seemed to stand guard by his bedroom’s door. Its size and expensiveness dwarfed her tiny, dented alarm clock sitting on her nightstand in her own bedroom. There was a long and a short hand on the face of his grandfather clock, but also two middle hands. One middle hand was posed at the five. The long hand caught up to it, and a songbird’s twittering tune sang from the grandfather clock.

  “Time to get ready for work,” he said with a depressed sigh at the end.

  They had spent the night together, but now the rest of the day would have to be spent apart and pretending like they didn’t know each other. If they did happen to converse, Karena knew that it couldn’t be done amicably or else it would raise suspicion.

  “Let’s make breakfast, and then we’ll go our separate ways,” Karena said. But she didn’t move to get up, and nor did he remove his arm around her.

  His sad expression vanished and became replaced by excitement. “I want to escape with you to the mountains, and get away for a while,” he said. “I want to spend more time with you.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “What about this coming weekend?”

  “I have a meeting with the Council.”

  “Oh, I see. What about the weekend after that?”

  “Hmmmm,” Karena said as she searched her brain. “I don’t think I have anything planned, and even if I do, I’ll cancel my plans.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “But I want to.”

  The laugh in his eyes made it impossible for her to resist kissing him in a teasing way.

  “Breakfast, before we get sidetracked,” Asher said, and rolled away from her and eased out of bed. He stretched and his back muscles seemed to yawn and shift with him.

  Karena forced herself to get up and walked into his bathroom to take a quick shower. Once out and fully dressed, she padded downstairs and into his kitchen. Asher still hadn’t put a shirt on, and was cracking eggs into a bowl. In order to complete the omelet, she pulled out a couple of vegetables from his refrigerator to chop up.

  After eating, Karena left. A light dew sparkled on the grass outside, and the air was saturated with the scent of faraway forests and mountains. She walked down the street to where she had parked her car a block away from Asher’s truck. Asher couldn’t walk with her, even though he had wanted to. She had stopped him because they couldn’t be seen together. The sad reality of their forbidden love sunk her spirits and zest for life into dark places. Ice crept from her hands, bursting into misshapen snowflakes, showing her mood. She shook her head. They would find a way to be together, even though she was a Chaos Ice elemental and he was a Chaos Fire elemental.

  On the roads, people were driving to work or stopping to get coffee and breakfast. She picked her way through the Fire district, from one street to another, until she reached the center of Archelm City where the cryptid hunting headquarters was. The massive brick building stood like a fort that needed no wall or tower to defend itself. Black ribbons hung from its eaves and on the nearby trees.

  Then it hit her like a sudden downpour. The black ribbons were for the Sandalwood family. They had been killed in the blaze that had ravaged the Earth district not even a week before. She had almost died as well from confronting the cherufe that had started it all. And that cherufe, a molten entity that lived in volcanic vents, had come from one of Asher’s father’s foundries. Questions still swirled around in her mind about who had been behind that, but she was strong in her conviction that Asher was innocent.

  Karena chose a parking spot and got out of her car. The black ribbons fluttered in the soft breeze, catching her attention again. They tapped against the bricks. The funeral had only been yesterday, and she had been with a Fire last night. And she had stopped the fight in the street that Sean and his friends had caused in the Fire district, which probably hadn’t gone over well with everyone on her side of the feud.

  Feeling conflicted, Karena walked up the steps into the cryptid headquarters, and strode past the receptionist’s desk. At the employee door, the door clicked and she put her shoulder against it. It gave in, and she walked through the hallway with the scientists’ labs on her left and the cathedral-like windows on her right.

  The Warren room was sparsely occupied by the early birds who had already changed into their uniforms and were enjoying their coffee or tea. She disappeared into the women’s locker room. In the lounge area, a group of Airs were having a shrill chat about something until they saw her. They hushed, bringing the noise volume in the locker room to a ringing silence. Karena felt their eyes on her back as she made her way to her locker.

  Before she could reach her locker, near the front of the first locker rows on her right, Danielle, an Earth elemental, spotted her and blocked her from walking past her. “There�
��s the referee!” Danielle announced. Half-dressed, she still needed her pants.

  Karena shook her head, and gave her a knifed smile.

  “You walked right out and left us corralled like cattle,” Danielle accused. Hands on her hips, she leaned forward. Her face flushed with anger.

  Karena knew she had, but what other option had there been? After the funeral for his sister had ended, Sean and his friends had driven into the Fire district and had attacked every elemental in sight. By the time she had arrived, Sean and his friends had become severely outnumbered, which was to be expected, and someone was either going to get severely hurt or killed. After losing Ravenna, her husband, and their two kids, they didn’t need any more deaths.

  Karena felt as though she had handled the situation well. She had diffused it by preventing Sean and the others from continuing to act out until the police could intervene, and by not engaging in a fight with Asher, who had come striding in to put an end to the fighting. She had neutralized the entire situation.

  “Every Earth and Water was outnumbered ten to one. What was I supposed to do? Let everyone fight until someone died?” Karena fired back. “I wasn’t going to allow there to be several more deaths, which would’ve incurred more grieving and tension in the feud.”

  The lockers shook as though from an earthquake, but it was from Danielle’s anger. She said, “You should’ve fought Asher. His kind started those fires.”

  “Talk to Captain Valmar. None of them were seen or caught in the Earth district at the time that the fires broke out.”

  “You’re unbelievable, Karena. You’re defending them. You know what you are, you’re a wimp, and here it is, you’re a Chaos elemental. You don’t deserve to have your powers.”

  Karena’s eyes strayed to those watching and the smirks and anger on some of their faces. Apparently, she hadn’t just upset her fellow Waters and the Earths by stopping the fight that Sean had so foolishly started in the Fire district, but also the Fires and Airs as well. It seemed like everyone had wanted to see someone else die.

  Before she replied, Karena took a deep breath to steady herself and her rising emotions. She said, “I guess I don’t deserve them. I suppose you should have them and contend with the responsibility that they create. Though I do have to warn you that these powers of mine will turn you into a lethal machine even on a good day. It requires a great deal of self-control to keep my emotions in check. If I don’t, I could possibly kill someone. Then of course, there’s the expectations that you would have to live up to. Imagine having to shoulder such a burden, and being unable to ever walk away from serving your community and even this entire nation.”

  Danielle’s eyes narrowed.

  Karena continued, “And judging from the shaking in this room, you wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

  “You don’t belong in this city, Karena,” Danielle spat, and went back to her locker to put on the rest of her uniform.

  Karena didn’t regret what she had done yesterday. She was thankful that she had resisted being egged on by Sean and the others to engage in a showdown with Asher. Not only would that have ruined their relationship, but one or both of them could’ve perished in the fight. Asher’s powers were just as dangerous as hers. And the fight wouldn’t have been dangerous to just the both of them, but to others as well. There could’ve been other casualties because, unlike the dueling arena, there weren’t any force fields to protect the nearby people from becoming victims of collateral damage.

  Due to the reaction she was receiving from being a figure of neutrality, Karena hated to think what would happen if anyone found out about her and Asher. The hostility would be unfathomable. For four hundred years, the feud had reigned and continued to escalate with no end in sight. To love someone from the other side of the feud was forbidden in everyone’s minds. Conditioned from birth and by generations of past hate, the feud was beyond resolve unless something united them into a whole city. But Karena didn’t think that her love for Asher could do that, not when everyone was so stuck in their ways.

  Chapter 2

  After changing into her work uniform, Karena sat down at her team’s table. Her eyes strayed to Asher sitting across the room, but her view of him was obscured by other Fire teams. Staring at him wasn’t a good idea, so she turned her attention back to her table. Karena glanced at Tristan who was just as oddly quiet as Hadrian was. The only one who was talkative was Amarine, but she had given up on trying to talk to them and was chatting with others from nearby tables.

  “So what’s up with the two of you?” Karena asked them. “I haven’t heard a word from either one of you.”

  With eyes that were glossy and unfocused, Tristan looked at her. Hadrian leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

  “What do you want to talk about?” Tristan asked. He clasped his hands on the desk and hunched forward.

  Karena shrugged.

  Tristan tried again. “How was your weekend?” he asked.

  “Other than what Sean did, it was uneventful. What about you? I didn’t see you there at the funeral.”

  “I had other things to attend to, and then when I heard about Sean’s foolishness, and everyone following him, I went to see what was happening. I was concerned about you. You didn’t make it back home yesterday. Hadrian was less than worried about your safety,” he said, watching her as though recording every movement that she made.

  “For good reason.”

  Hadrian spoke, “Tristan has taken it upon himself to know your whereabouts at all times. He even wanted to go inside of your room.”

  Karena’s jaw dropped. “Why?” she gasped.

  Tristan couldn’t meet her gaze. He said, “You shouldn’t have been in the Fire district. They’re brutes, especially Asher.”

  She wondered why he had brought up Asher’s name in particular. It made her nervous. He had said it with a certain knowingness.

  “I’ll ask you again. Why did you want to go inside of my room? That’s a highly personal space that belongs to me and only me,” Karena growled. Frost crept across the table. It followed the swirling grains of the wood.

  As testament to his altered mental state, Tristan said, “I wanted to see if there were any clues about where you had gone.”

  Hadrian spat, “There you go, the most normal response ever, to look for signs about where someone might have gone. Perhaps the underwear drawer might’ve contained the answer?”

  Feeling her anger rise and the temperature around her plummet, Karena seethed to Tristan, “Don’t ever try to go into my room again, or I’ll freeze parts of you that’ll make you incapable of ever having children in the future. Understand?”

  “I understand. It was an error in judgement and it was a mistake made out of hasty concern, that’s all. No harm done,” Tristan said. “Hadrian stopped me.”

  “Good. And Hadrian does care about me, more than you, because he respects my personal space, which includes my room.”

  They fell into silence. Now she knew why Hadrian and Tristan weren’t talking to each other, and joined Hadrian in his ice-cold attitude towards Tristan. Tristan picked at the cuffs of his uniform, unfazed by her disgust with him. He seemed not at all guilty or even self-conscious of his attempted invasion into her bedroom or the weirdness of him wanting to track her down.

  Karena felt threatened by Tristan. What would be next? She didn’t know what was going through Tristan’s head, or how far he would go in his desire to be with her. He was intelligent, and as a wizard, he was dangerous with his knowledge of spells and magic. If she had to fight for her life against him, would he be able to incapacitate her before she could freeze him? All these thoughts, paranoid and alarmed, sounded off in her mind.

  Captain Valmar had said that in two months’ time, he would switch her or Tristan out to another team. He had assured her that Hadrian would stay with her, but not Amarine since Amarine was closer friendship-wise to Tristan than either her or Hadrian. She would be out of sight, and hopefully, within we
eks, out of mind too with Tristan. The work days couldn’t go by quick enough it seemed like until Captain Valmar could do that. Tristan was creeping her out. She didn’t like it. It made her not want to come to work. If she had to, she would take a long vacation from work just to avoid Tristan and then return when Captain Valmar had made the necessary arrangements.

  Captain Valmar started the work day, and began handing out their assignments. He gave them a folder and continued to the next table to hand them one as well. Amarine flipped through it, and passed it around. Karena made sure to memorize the address of their first assignment.

  “Looks like standard stuff,” Amarine said. “Who’s driving the truck today?”

  No one volunteered.

  “Wow, everyone is in a sour mood. Do all of you need breakfast or something?” Amarine asked with raised eyebrows. Her blue hair was beaded with tiny water droplets that day.

  “No, or I’ll throw it up,” Karena said. She glared at Tristan.

  Tristan withered under her gaze. “I’m not hungry,” Tristan said.

  “I’m fine. Thanks for offering,” Hadrian said.

  “Tristan, why don’t you drive the truck? I think it’s your turn to drive it,” Amarine said.

  They got up, and rather than leave as a group, Karena ditched them. In the massive garage of the cryptid hunting headquarters, she grabbed a helmet and a pair of gloves, jammed them on, and sat down on the closest motorcycle to her. Hadrian plopped down on the one beside her, having been right on her heels. She rode out with him following her.

  Karena gunned her motorcycle through the streets. She seethed at Tristan, and grieved for what had once been. His words and actions had led to this, where she wanted as much distance from him as possible, which unfortunately, included Amarine as well, since she was closer to Tristan than to her or Hadrian. Their team, which had been united as four, was now split. It would take time for both Tristan and Amarine to realize that. It saddened Karena to think that their friendship might soon be reduced to nothing after so many years of being friends. They had been inseparable as teenagers at school and as adults at work.