Page 47 of Taste of Thorns

“Are you sure we’re far enough away?” I say, peering back in the direction we’ve come. The spires of the academy are just visible above the canopy, framed against the starlit sky.

“Yes, we won’t be seen and we weren’t followed. But just in case.” He spins his arms around his head, casting a spell as his shadows stream around us. Blaze growls at the shadows, snapping his jaws at them when they come too close. “A cloaking spell,” he says, “it should keep us hidden.”

The clear sky means the air is even more frigid than normal, and even in my new waterproof boots, my toes are turning numb. I shiver, rubbing my hands up and down my arms.

The professor considers me, then Blaze who is snuffling around in the snow.

“You’re cold?” he asks and I nod. “Shit, I forgot how much the elements affect you puny humans.” I stick my tongue out at him. “Could your little friend provide you with some heat?”

“Erm,” I say as Fox’s shadows glide towards the forest floor, before depositing a pile of dry sticks and kindling by my feet.

“Ask him. We’re going to be out here awhile and I don’t want you freezing to death.”

“Blaze,” I call and the dragon comes trotting towards me, reminding me so much of a young foal I giggle out loud. He’s my height now and when he stops before me our noses are almost touching. “Could you send your fire that way, please?” I point to the pile of wood. The dragon tilts his head to one side as if he’s trying to understand me, then slurps his tongue up my face. “I don’t think this is going to work.”

“Try again,” Fox says, crossing his arms over his chest and stroking at his beard.

“Blaze, fire, there,” I try.

I point again and to my astonishment, this time the dragon seems to comprehend my meaning, he turns his snout towards the wood pile and lets out a stream of fire. Immediately the wood is ablaze and I step towards the warmth, feeling it play across my body.

“I think you need to keep your instructions short and simple,” Fox says.

“That was just luck. He doesn’t do as I say.”

“I think he wants to,” Fox says. But as I watch the goofball chasing his tail in circles and then diving head first into a pile of snow, I am less convinced.

“Right,” Fox says, rolling up his sleeves – an action which is way more sexy than it should be, “are you ready to give this a go?”

“Yes,” I say, trying to convey confidence in the nod of my head, even if I don’t feel it in the pit of my stomach. This new sensation has been simmering in my veins, and in quiet moments by myself I’ve attempted to remember Fox’s lessons – lessons that had seemed utterly pointless when I believed I had no powers – and follow those instructions, beckoning the power out of my blood.

Nothing has happened. I can no more force the magic from my veins than I could the blood.

“Then let’s start. Close your eyes, Miss Storm, and raise your hands.”

I do as he says, then gasp when I feel the cold touch of his lips against mine. He was several paces away from me only a moment ago and now here he is, his movement lightning-fast and silent.

I kiss him back, ignoring Blaze’s growls in the background and the crackling of the fire. When we finally break away, I open my eyes and am dazzled by the glow of his.

“Is that part of the lesson, Professor?” I ask.

“No,” he says, with a smile playing on his lips, “I just couldn’t help myself.”

“My magic is tingling more than it was,” I confess with a smile of my own.

“Interesting,” he says. He turns my hands over in his so my palms are facing up towards the stars, and traces his cold fingers over the lines that criss cross my skin. “Can you reach for that magic now? Can you beckon it outward?”

I try, but it’s like trying to capture a dream when you first wake up, the more I attempt to force it, the more it floats away.

“No,” I say finally with frustration.

“How about now?” he says, pulling me close to his body and wrapping me in his embrace, kissing me hard and passionately, the cold shadows racing from his hands and wrapping around us too. It has the magic in my blood tingling so strongly I gasp against his mouth and, this time, without thinking, the light streams from within me, racing from the center of my chest along my arms and to my fingertips, and then it’s dazzling us both, twined together in the bright light. “Stay with it,” he whispers again.

And I try. I try to stay in the moment and let the light shine around us, but soon it’s fading and we’re back in the darkness.

I blink up into Fox’s face.

“Did that hurt you? Isn’t sunlight bad for vampires?”