Thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk. The steady slapping sound of her sneaker-clad shoes hitting the pavement punctuated the early-morning air. A slight film of dawn mist clung to her. Felicia wound her way through different areas of the park, nearly lifeless and eerily inviting for someone who hated crowds as much as she did.
The children’s playground, the neatly mowed lawns and the supple slopes of hills, such desired spots for sunbathing, picnicking, sports and lazing around during daytime, were hallowed grounds of silence and undisturbed nature. The damp grass was breathing in deeply to soak up some energy before all the trampling. Here and there, specks of color, slightly blurred, dotted the moist grey-green, indicating the few early risers who like her used the emptiness to jog.
Felicia broke the steady rhythm of the past few minutes to launch herself into a sprint, giving it her all as if there was a race to win. After several exhilarating minutes where she pushed her body’s limits and felt like flying, radiating heat all around her in palpable waves, she slowed down. Falling back into a comfortable, yet anything but slow jog, she fought to steady her breathing.
A sudden sense of something being wrong made her lose her rhythm before her feet automatically took over.
Whatever could be the matter?
She glanced to the left, right and ahead, and saw nothing and nobody who could be the source of her alarm. The dragon inside her raised its head questioningly, snorting smoke out of its nostrils as if mimicking her clouds of ragged breath.
Then she heard it.
The dull thudding of feet falling into line somewhere behind her.
For a moment, they were as clear as shots in the stillness penetrating the park. An instant later, she thought they were gone. It took her some time to realize that the stranger hadn’t left, but was jogging at exactly the same pace and rhythm as she was, their shoe soles hitting the winding asphalt path in unison.
Neither was the other jogger getting any closer, nor was he or she falling behind. Their rhythms continued to match for minute after minute, and it freaked her out more than an open threat or outright running after her would have.
Who was it?
What did they want?
The fire dragon lifted itself to its feet and shook its wings out, preparing. Preparing for what? A fight? Flight?
She took a deep breath, and made a decision. Without further ado, she stopped in her tracks. A millisecond afterward, the second pair of jogging feet halted. The silence rang loudly, and the sun chose this exact moment to pierce the gloom with its first rays.
Her pulse thumping in her throat, Felicia scolded herself for being so nervous. She turned around deliberately.
Her eyes fell on the figure of a man several feet away, closer than she had thought, facing her. He was exceptionally tall, and held himself as upright and still as a statue. As he was dressed in loose, grey track pants and a matching jumper with the hood pulled over his head, no face was visible. For a moment, her mind went crazy, coming up with those concocted horror stories on TV about criminals and supernatural creatures roaming the earth on their hunt for victims. Well, she wouldn’t make an easy victim. She had her magic to protect her, however unskilled she might be at using it.
The man lifted his hands and drew the hood back, revealing a pale, lean face and just as pale hair that glinted in the tentative sunlight.
“Joshua,” she whispered.
What was he doing here?
He broke into a short spurt of speed and was right in front of her before she had breathed out after her surprised intake of air.
Instead of a greeting, he reached out and brushed an errant tendril of hair back behind her ear, leaving a trail of goose bumps that had nothing to do with the cool morning air.
Having him so near after days of absence and longing was almost too much to handle.
“What are you doing here?”
She sounded more accusing than confused, which was exactly what she had intended.
“Jogging?”
He phrased it like a question.
She snorted.
“More like stalking a helpless, lone woman in the wee hours of the morning.”
He chuckled, and the sound did funny things to the flames leaping inside her belly and engulfing the dragon.
“Stalking is part of my job, but I certainly wouldn’t call you helpless.”
The fire dragon preened itself proudly, and she cherished the idea that he found her strong or confident or at least capable of handling what was thrown at her. She swallowed down her irritation at his behavior, and decided to enjoy his company while it lasted.
“You admit you’re a stalker?”
“Call me whatever you want, I don’t get offended easily,” he said.
Grinning at her, he started walking, hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie.
She fell into step next to him, keenly aware of his closeness and the place between their bodies where heat met cold and caused an electric sizzle.
“Is there really nothing that offends you?”
Curiosity leapt high inside her. She wanted so much to learn more about him, to discover what made him special, and to find a reason why she felt inescapably drawn to him. Extracting personal information from him was frustratingly difficult. She imagined it must be like this when archeologists chanced upon an ancient, hidden treasure buried beneath the sands of time, full of excitement but needing to reign it in and use the tiniest brushes and gentlest strokes to coax it free without damaging it. One wrong gesture, and the artefact was spoiled, never to be recovered.
“I didn’t say that. There are a lot of things that annoy me, but I don’t take actual offense at them because they’re not worth it.”
“Such as?” she prodded.
He shot her a studying glance from the side and quickened his pace, his long legs striding effortlessly ahead.
“Impatience.”
Felicia stopped herself from flinching, settling for a grimace instead. Damn the man and his superiority that made him think he could dish out snide side-remarks at her! But she was for once too determined to get more out of him; she wouldn’t let him rile her up. Staying silent took effort, but it brought her victory, for he elaborated his answer.
“I don’t like hot weather, it makes me feel on edge all the time, and it taps into my energy reserve. I don’t like rules, although I respect them because I have to. Crowds are not my thing. Neither is socializing. And I’m annoyed by the small necessities of life, all those things you have to routinely do if you want to blend in and survive. Mundane stuff can be very boring.”
She used a pause to say, “And yet I don’t see you doing extraordinary things to relieve the boredom.”
Again, he shot her a sharp glance. She wondered what was going on inside him. Was he scared of being figured out? Did he fear it would mean attachment?
“Are you telling me that working as a private investigator, rescuing ladies out of burning buildings, and trying to curb a rampant fire witch’s magic are ordinary?”
“Granted, those are all special, but don’t tell me you do such stuff all the time.”
“I don’t. And still, I wouldn’t say I lead a normal life. You aren’t in a position to judge me because you know hardly anything about me and don’t share my days.”
“Which is exactly why I’m doing this awkward Q&A session with you at the moment.”
They dueled in a staring match, fire and ice testing the limits and searching for loopholes. When the tension got too much for her to handle, she tossed her head, and poised herself on her tip-toes, one finger pointing ahead.
“Seeing how reluctant you are, I’m changing my tactics.”
He raised his nearly white eyebrows, his eyes glittering dangerously, yet enticingly.
She braced herself.
“Come on, I’ll race you to that bench by the fountain a couple of hundred feet away. The loser has to spill the beans on his or her life, likes and dislikes and routine and future plans and all that.”
&n
bsp; He threw his head back and laughed, making her stomach do a somersault of excitement.
“Okay, let’s race each other.”
Positioning himself so close that their shoulders touched, he counted down to three. Both of them shot off like bullets from the barrel of a gun, slicing through the mix of morning light and night mist.
Felicia ran as fast as her feet would carry her, remembering those small moments of glory during her school days when she inevitably came first whenever there was a race. She felt the air rush by her and play with her hair, tossing it over her shoulders like crimson banners. Intent on winning, she blocked all sounds and sights out, fixing her concentration on the white bench beside the fountain with the stone fish spilling water from its gaping mouth.
Her outstretched hand touched the wooden backrest a second later than his.
She threw herself down onto the bench and heaved for breath, battling more with her annoyance at having lost than with physical exhaustion. Suppressing a frustrated huff, she shrugged out of her red hoodie, and ran her fingers through her unruly curls. Dammit, she’d been too sure of herself! Of course he’d be faster than her, he had mile-long legs and he was a man—and he was much more in tune with his special gift than her.
When she looked up to acknowledge defeat, she caught him staring at her long, sprawled out legs, her red running shorts barely reaching mid-thigh and revealing lightly tanned skin that glowed subtly. His gaze raked over her like tiny needles of icy, sending a shiver of desire down her spine. He slowly lifted it back up to her face, dragging his stare in a coveting caress across all the bare skin her white tank top didn’t cover.
She blinked when their gazes locked, and forgot what she had wanted to say.
Joshua broke the magic by giving his head the slightest shake, unclenching his fists, and making himself comfortable on the bench close to her, sitting down on the backrest with his feet on the slatted seat and his hands once more safely lost in the depths of his jumper pockets.
“I won.”
He sounded a tiniest bit gloating about it, and she swallowed a hurtful remark down after an internal battle. Wasn’t it surprising how often she controlled her temper now because she wanted to enjoy her time with him?
When she didn’t reply, he half turned his head to her.
“Do I get to torture you with nosy questions now?”
Her naughty mind flitted away to all kinds of ways in which he could inflict sweet torture on her, and she was glad her face was already flushed from the race because she was sure she was blushing.
“Actually, I’m still saying I have more right to drill you. After all, you’re the private investigator, and you have probably already figured out all there is to know about me.”
Did she imagine that, or was he tensing and cooling down the air beside her?
“Is that your way of going back on your promise? It was your idea to race and decide.”
She sighed. “I don’t go back on my word. I’m a fiercely honest and loyal person, just so you know.”
Now she had his full attention, his crystal blue eyes studying hers in a piercing gaze. The hint of a smile curved his lips, and his posture relaxed ever so slightly.
“If it’s true—and I do believe you—then it speaks for you, and makes you different from about 99 % of the people I have had to deal with in my life so far.”
She raised a skeptical eyebrow, telling herself she shouldn’t be so happy that he held her in such high esteem.
“You’re painting a pretty black picture of the world. Nine out of ten people you meet would be liars and cheaters in that case.”
“Precisely.” He nodded and stared off into the distance, and yet again she wished she were inside his head.
“What a negative attitude,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought you’re a pessimist.”
A tiny part of her registered with glee that they were dealing with facts about him, although he had won the race. Maybe she’d learn a lot by keeping up teasing and challenging him without annoying him?
“I’m not. I’m a realist, much as I think you are. Besides, you know about my past. Is it so surprising that I have a bad opinion about humanity? I might be better off now, but certainly not thanks to anybody but myself.”
Felicia frowned.
“Granted, you had a hard life, but why do you allow it to make you bitter? What about the positive things? The people who took all those orphans to England? Your foster parents who brought you up as their own, and sent you off to America? The people who surely helped you settle down in the States?”
He shrugged, his face a cold, solemn mask.
“They all had an ulterior motive, something to benefit from. Ultimately, they only cared about their own life, and they far from had a clean record. When it boils down to it, everyone lies and cheats and seeks the easy way out.”
“I’m not like that,” she insisted.
His searching gaze, seemingly penetrating her brain, hit her again.
“You’re right. But perhaps it’s only because you haven’t had the chance to do so. Given the opportunity, wouldn’t you value yourself more than others, wouldn’t you want to save your skin, instead of sacrificing yourself for somebody else or for the greater good?”
How had they come from racing each other to discussing the way the world worked? Felicia felt his negativity press in on her despite the welcome rays of sun that her skin soaked up. As happened so often, his words made her think and question herself. She opened her mouth to voice her doubts when he continued, “And anyway, you’re living a lie, whether you are aware of it or not. You have been hiding your ability from yourself and others for all your life, and you’re still not revealing it.”
“That’s different! My fire magic isn’t something to flaunt. Just because I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve, doesn’t mean I’m a liar.”
He stayed silent, and her fury took over. How unjust of him!
“For heck’s sake, do you want me to hang up a banner over my house or give it a shout-out on social media? I’d end up in a lunatic asylum at best, or I’d be questioned and would have to prove it, and that’d make me a criminal and get me into prison. Is that what you expect?”
She realized she was shouting, so she shut her mouth with a snap, quietly boiling beside his still and icy body.
Stony silence settled on them, and she was beginning to regret her outburst when he said in a softer and less detached voice, “I get your point. I don’t mean that you should boast about it or use it the wrong way. But you need to fully accept who you are. If you’re as loyal as you said, then show loyalty to yourself. Be true to yourself.”
Felicia sighed. She didn’t want this tension, she wanted to get closer to him. Swallowing down the pride and hurt that would get her nowhere, she turned to face him again. Laying a hand on his knee, she said in a composed tone, “That’s exactly what I’m doing now, isn’t it? You have opened my eyes to how special I am, how special I can be. Yes, I lived a lie for more than 20 years of my life, but that is the past and can’t be changed. I’m trying so hard not to look back, but to plan ahead for the future, and to live in the here and now. You’re the reason for that, but it looks like you let the past influence you much more than even I do.”
He stared at her hand, then into her eyes, his face frozen into an unreadable mask, and his eyes more grey than blue while he was lost in thought.
While her stomach churned nervously, his expression thawed. He placed his hand on hers and gave it a short squeeze before lifting his arm and running his fingers through his hair.
“I still believe that people are innately selfish and bad. And yes, my past is a shadow I can’t leave behind. But you know what, maybe it’s time not only for you to change and move forward, but also for me to do the same.”
She was still wondering whether she had heard correctly when he went on, his voice philosophical and strangely pleased.
“You and I are more similar than I thought.”
> “We are? I thought we’re all about opposites attracting?”
He grinned for a second, only to grow serious again.
“Yes and no. On the surface, we’re as contrary as can be, but deep down, we have many things in common. Our dark past, long phases of self-denial, the wish to be different, the hunger for power. They are the same, they just manifest differently. And I’m sure there are more similarities. Take physical activity, for example.”
“Yeah, you can definitely run fast in those mile-long spider legs of yours,” she joked, hoping to lighten the mood.
Her mind was a jumble of thoughts racing hither and thither. Could he be correct? How tempting it sounded.
He looked utterly lost in his own world. All this theory and thinking ate up too much energy, much more than jogging or sprinting or teasing him. She was growing tired of the stillness and deepness of the situation. How to shake him awake?
“Hey, you still haven’t given me an answer I’m dying to know.”
Joshua blinked, returned to reality, and jumped down from the bench to dip a hand into the bubbling fountain.
“And what’s that?”
“What do you do that makes your life so abnormal?”
His dry chuckle mixed with the gurgling of water.
“Things like this.”
He jerked his head at the fountain, lifted his arms and whispered a command. The water froze within seconds, leaving the ugly stone fish with a stiff stream of vomit, ice drops and rivulets glittering around the area where the water jets had been hitting the surface of the pool.
Leaning forward, he plucked an icicle out, and handed it over to her with a silly ceremonial bow. She stifled a giggle, and turned the thick splinter of ice over in her hands. On a whim, she increased her heat and exerted pressure. The icicle was glowing from the inside as if suffused with fire. After a moment, it started melting and turned into a small puddle of warm water in her palms. With a goofy grin, she looked at Joshua, who grinned back. He waved a casual hand at the fountain, unfreezing the water.
“Knowing that I’m special makes this life bearable. I couldn’t face day after day after day of the same without my magic. I have learned not to overdo it, and sometimes I think it’d be better if I didn’t revel in it so much whenever I’m unobserved, but I can’t help it.”
“Why do you think you shouldn’t indulge in it?”
He walked over.
“It tempts me to do more. To be more.”
He didn’t go on, but she knew what he meant. With all his power, it must be a hell of a temptation to turn from normal human to superhero or supernatural freak. Was that why he didn’t live in a country full of snow and ice and lonely emptiness?
As if he had read her thoughts, he said, “I tried. I gave in to the pull and wonder of my gift once, not long after I had come to America and left my family ties and reliable job behind. I moved to Canada for a few months, locking myself away in a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains. It was wonderful, it was heaven. So many possibilities and invitations, and no limits in sight.”
“What happened?”
She had lowered her voice to a whisper, sitting on the literal edge of her seat, sensing the distress he always hid so masterly.
“The power nearly got the better of me. It turned me into a…a monster, something not human anymore. Some male ice queen of sorts that wanted to bring terror to the world, and cause eternal winter, and bury all the humans under snow. I could have been a picture-perfect villain.”
His gaze flickered to her face and away, sparkling with nearly white blue.
When he didn’t go on, she asked timidly, “What pulled you out of it?”
After a long moment of silence that stretched and stretched, he replied, “Animals. They, as a part of nature, shunned me, suspected me. Some fled, others attacked, but all of them showed me I was something not meant to be, not part of the circle of life. Somehow, I found the strength to resist, to rediscover myself within the magic. It’s what you might also have to face one day. Remember not to lose yourself, whatever happens.”
She got up and turned to him, magically drawn in by his words and voice and the power he radiated.
“I have you to teach me now, don’t I? Nothing will go wrong.”
Wow, had she heard herself say that some weeks ago, she’d have been mortified. To place so much trust in someone—someone who probably didn’t trust a single person in the world, let alone her—and to be willing to be taught, was a new experience.
He looked about to protest, but after some time, he relented visibly.
“I don’t make promises, so I’m not saying nothing will ever go wrong. But you and I will give it the best shot we can.”
She pressed her hot hands against his chest and lifted herself a little higher until her lips were a hair’s breadth away from his.
“Let’s seal the deal.”
With a soft groan, he gave in and pressed his mouth to hers in a searing kiss that traveled to the roots of every nerve and into every tiny flame living inside her. Their lips caressed and flirted, their tongues delved and demanded, their teeth nipped and teased. His hands pulled her closer, one of them snaking under the hem of her tank top to paint a trail of goose bumps up and down her spine.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that they had grown closer during the course of this morning than during the past few days. Even the kiss felt different. Was it because both of them were giving more of themselves?
When they surfaced from lover’s heaven to catch their breath, Felicia was suffused in a glowing light, sparks of fire flying from the tips of her hair. She could sense Joshua’s cold and see it glitter on the taut skin of his face, but it didn’t cut through to her.
“What’s today’s lesson?” she asked, fighting to come down from cloud number nine, wanting more than passionate kisses and fidgets of knowledge and inklings of trust.
As if nothing had happened, he bent toward the bench, picked up her hoodie, and handed it to her.
“There’s no time for a lesson. I just came back today, and there’s a load of work to catch up with. And you need to go home and get ready for your day at the library.”
She sighed. He was back to practical and unshakable. Two things she didn’t want to be at all at the moment.
They walked side by side for some time, the park warming to life around them while she wracked her brain for a way not to fall back into boredom and normalcy.
“What do you do to break out of routine when you don’t use your magic?” she wanted to know.
“I enjoy some action and switch off my mind. Sometimes it’s running or hiking or riding a motorbike. Sometimes it’s something more adventurous like climbing a mountain or taking part in a car race.”
She turned those sentences over and over in her head, and finally had her solution.
“I’m not going to work today,” she announced, making him stop and stare.
“Why not?”
“I want to enjoy some action too. I really need it at this time. You should teach me a lesson about that, it’ll be very useful for the future.”
For a moment, she was sure he’d refuse, admonish her, and crawl back into his shell. Today carried another surprise, though, because he didn’t.
“So, the teacher is encouraging the student to fake illness and skip responsibility?” he joked.
“Exactly.”
“Why not.”
When he saw her face stretch in a happy smile, he smiled too.
“And I have just the right idea what we can do today to make it worth the trouble.” With that, he marched purposefully on. “Do you know the amusement park Wild As Can Be?” he asked.
She frowned. “The one at the border of Fairview that is more popular with adults than with kids?”
He nodded. “Can you meet me there in…say, two hours from now? I want to be present at opening time because it’s less crowded. If you get there before me, stay outside, and don’t buy a ticket. Wear clothes that
are more or less tight-fitting and sturdy, and that you feel comfortable in.”
Wondering what on earth he had planned, she agreed, butterflies of excitement—or rather, a dragon flicking its wings in anticipation—dancing in her stomach.