Page 104 of A Flash of Golden Fire

Everyone shouted at once before a huge explosion shattered my eardrums and knocked me into the water. The world turned to fire and cold and darkness. I held my breath out of instinct, but I didn’t know which way was up. As I lost my bearings and began to panic, a flame lit inside me, a white-hot rage taking me over before I had any chance to stop the rising power.

Again.

I burned like a fireball and the water lit up around me. I looked at my hands under the water, even as my lungs screamed for air. They were nothing but two balls of blue flame as the water around me became a maelstrom and propelled me in one direction with incredible force. I caught a glimpse of Dinesh through the waves, leaning over the side of the skiff, ready to dive for me. But then I surfaced and gasped a lungful of air, and he saw me.

“Rooster! Simon!” he yelled, reaching an arm out, but I was already there, and I couldn’t grab onto him because my hands were on fire.

Instead, I grasped the edge of the skiff as the men looked on with palpable horror, and Domingo made the sign of the cross, his eyes wide.

My blue-fire fingers gripped the wood like strange claws, as I recited the ancient words:

“Bring me the fire and the flame,

O’er the ocean, in my name.

Give me the lightning and the storm,

From the heavens, let it be borne.

Smite those who threaten what’s mine.

They’ll not have anyone this time.

Let the sea and the flame rejoice.

Let the ocean and sky make the choice.”

I chanted them over and over as a storm of my making caused the wind to whip and the waves to toss. Rain pelted my face and sizzled against the heat of my hands. Flashes of lightning lit the sky as the storm surrounded us. I was bringing the wrath of hell upon us all. I didn’t know what was happening, but I held the image of Captain Martin in my mind and repeated the words over and over again until, after a long time, everything became calm again.

I recognized the chant as some ancient incantation, long forgotten. Perhaps my mother had taught it me, or an unseen force had placed it deep within my memory. I kept saying the words, even as I was pulled aboard the small boat and cradled in someone’s warm lap, a cold cloth placed over my hands that still burned with a hot fire.

“It’s all right, my love. Rooster, you’re safe now. We’re safe.” The captain’s voice sounded in my ear, his arms around me.

I sobbed and turned my face into his clothes, inhaling his familiar scent like that alone would save me.

Where? Where are we? In hell, or in heaven, or someplace else?

Time became fluid. The skiff rocked and hands pulled at me, and the world turned upside down. I went up, up, and up. Then found darkness and peace, at last.

Chapter Sixteen

Aftermath

Iwoke with pounding pain between my ears and confusion.

Where am I? The water… Did I drown? Am I dead?

“He’s awake, Dinesh. Look.”

Domingo’s voice.

Then I heard the captain’s frantic tones as I struggled to open my eyes.

“Rooster! Dear God, Simon. Talk to me. Wake up! Please…”

A hand pressed to my forehead and then warm palms against my cheeks, and the softest touch of lips to mine.

My eyelids fluttered open. Dinesh’s face came into focus as his frown turned into a jubilant smile. If I’d doubted his love before this moment, the truth was plain in the look he gave me now.