Finding Fire -Book 1 of the Finding the Element Series

Chapter Five

The wind slapped against my skin leaving stinging ghosts along my face. My flesh, battered with sores from the branches that hit me as the horse drove itself through patches of pines, burned with searing pain. The night fell across the land like smog. It drifted along the tree tops and then down to cover our ankles. It went reaching every end of the woods, leaving it in darkness, and leaving us riding hopelessly blinded.

I prayed that I hadn't made the mistake of trusting him; trusting Kade and leaving Cal. What I would do to take it back if this was a mistake.

I rode in front of Kade, slowly being jostled side to side as his horse weaved back and forth in between trees and under shrubs.

"Where are we going?" I yelled in the wind. It went through my clothes, chilling me to the saddle. I couldn't move, it stung and had an effect that made me sick.

Snow. It was snowing.

Flecks of white stuck to the horse’s mane and drifted into us. It landed in my hair and covered my cloak.

"I am showing you why Calder was brought back."

The words rocketed through my chest, adding a dull throb in my body. The snow had covered most of my pain, his words though was the aftershocks.

"Why?"

"Because I know who you are," he leaned to the left when the horse did so.

The pines had become a homing platform for collecting snow and white hawks. They screamed at us if we got to close and dove at us if we didn’t move away. One nearly speared my head but we had ducked under a pine at last minute, losing it in a flurry of snow.

"Fast weather change," I coughed and put a hand to my bare chest.

"We crossed the border, stay close, I need warmth."

I scrunched my face and looked at him over my shoulder.

"I'll freeze, I'm water."

I sighed. I needed to know what he knew and I needed to ensure Cal will stay safe, and that would mean keeping Kade alive too.

I leaned back into his chest and forced myself to be angry. Angry with having to keep Kade alive when burning him was right at my fingertips. Anger with Nathaniel for not making sure that his son wasn't lurking around the door, had begun to bubble to my mind as well.

I felt my face heat up and heard Kade mutter something. He sighed and slumped forward so he leaned heavily on me.

"Heat," he murmured.

"Yeah, enjoy it while it lasts."

Carefully hidden behind a pine cone, a girl twirled and twisted in a move that consisted of soft leaps and tiny steps. She was the size of a pencil with soft skin that blended in with the snow. Her lips were drawn on pink, matching the gently collected bushels of petals stuck to her skin.

"Dance," she sung in a soft voice.

Kade's eyes narrowed and he waved her off. Then three more appeared in front of the horse. The stallion jerked to a halt and neighed. His front hooves pounded into the ground and disappeared under the snow.

"Get out of the way!" Kade yelled at the three.

"Dance," they repeated.

Dance, dance, dance.

"What are they?" I leaned my head back.

The girls had hair colors that reached new heights of extremes. They had tightly pulled pink, blue and even some green buns on the top of their small heads. Their dresses were layers of petals that caught their movements and melted with them. "Dance," one of the green headed girls said.