Page 35 of Beauty

Chapter Ten

Shim

I feel her panic. It starts like a hundred ghostlyfingers brushing across my flesh, making bumps appear in their wake. I sitstraight up in the chair I am occupying while drinking some of the tea PaigeHarper poured with a practiced hand. The young sidhe looks very muchlike her mother, with strawberry-blonde hair and a wide smile. She appears tobe between fourteen and sixteen years of age, but she proves her maturity as Ibegin to shake.

“Something is wrong.” Her hands move as though she can feelthe air around her. “It’s coming from the outside, but it’s focused on you,Your Highness.”

Someone said the girl has a way with witchcraft, and itseems that she’s also sensitive to psychic episodes. But I don’t have time tothink about it. I can feel Bron’s heartbeat as though it’s my own. I’m suddenlyout of breath, like someone punched the air out of my lungs.

I hear Paige calling for her parents, feel Duffy’s arm on myown, but I can’t see him anymore. My physical vision clouds, giving way to theeyes of my mind, going miles and miles away. I see a small brownie on theground, dirt swirling the earth beside her. A large leather boot rears back ina kicking motion.

“Damn it, Shim. Don’t!” Duffy shouts, his hand coming off myarm.

I try to hold on, but Bron’s pull is so great. She calls tome, demanding my fire, my protection. I feel my power shimmer, skimming alongmy skin from someplace deep inside.

Now my own panic begins to take over. I remember the lasttime I lost control. Lach nearly died. My brother was marred for the rest ofhis life. If I lose control here, in such a small setting, I won’t be able tosave the men in the house, much less the children. Gods, the Harper childrenare here.

I force myself up, stumbling, not quite able to see theworld in front of me. I try to concentrate. Try to force my brain back to thisreality. It’s so hard because I can feel Bron’s emotion. She moves from pureterror to a rage that threatens to completely overtake me. I have mere secondsbefore the fire will no longer be containable. I can already sense it building.It will be a blast that flows between me and Bronwyn, the flames shooting intoboth places. The Harper’s nicely kept house will become their children’s tomb.

And then I feel a calming presence. Paige. She puts a handon my elbow, whimpering a bit because she surely feels the heat in my skin.She’s like a wash of cold water, quenching me briefly.

“Tell me what to do,” she says, her voice shaking a bit.

Duffy’s hand is suddenly in mine. “Damn me, Shim. You’reblazing hot. Come on. We need to get him outside before he blows.”

“Blows?”

I hear Paige’s shout through the chaotic mess of my brain.My world? Bron’s world? It’s hard to tell what I’m seeing. I hold on tightly tothe power, but it’s growing. Bron’s need is a wild wave overcoming my will.She’s so strong, and she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

I stumble, forcing my eyes to focus on my feet.

“What’s happening?”

It’s my brother’s voice. I hear feet pounding and voicescalling out, but I’m not sure where they’re coming from.

Bron is so angry. Her rage fills me. Years of impotent angerbottled up, and now it won’t go away. My anger. Her anger. Our power.

“Damn it all.” I feel my brother’s hands on my shoulders.“Get away! Get away now!”

But my brother is still here. Lach lost too much. Lach mightdie if he gets caught in the fire, and it will be a big one. Grabbing on to thefinal vestige of my will, I push my brother away and run.

I’m outside now, I can feel the air on my skin as my clothesbegin to burn off.

I stop, my vision utterly taken over by Bronwyn.

I see a guard standing in the middle of a large crowd, abrownie child at his feet and his mercy. The guard has none. Bron’s memoriesassault me. It’s so much stronger than ever before. Being on the same planewith nothing between us but miles, I can feel her power. She transmits sostrongly, but not only can she transmit, she pulls power from me.

The fire builds and I give in to my instincts. I force thefire into my hands—Bron’s hands—and direct it in a thin line, trying to keep itaway from the crowds. Once I let it flow, it immediately becomes easier tocontrol. Flames shoot from my fingertips. My skin is on fire, every inch of mybody engulfed in flames, but I can control them.

The guard screams, but the brownie Bron was trying to saveskitters away. A long breath comes out of her body and then I hear a singleword.

“Witch.”

I fall to the ground, like a puppet that had its stringscut. The flames goes out, and I’m aware that I’m alone again.

My hands shake as I sit up. Something is very wrong. Theconnection was brutally severed. Bron is in trouble.

I struggle to my feet. My naked damn feet. As my power grew,I discovered my skin can handle the flames that engulf me, though my clothesnever survive.