Fire Stones (The Fire Wars #2) Read Free Page A

fully love you – but something stops me. I feel like I can't – no, that I shouldn't. We can't...not yet. Not until we're sure that I'm...who you think I am.” I wanted the tears that had sprung at the corners of my eyes to vanish. “If you still have some doubt about me being Vesta...I don't want to...” Go all the way? How could I – when we were still so unsure?
                “You're so beautiful,” Chance sighed, tracing my face with his fingers. His eyes were filled with pain – his gaze earnest and heartfelt. This was not the ironic, jocular Chance I had known at school. “It's just that I don't want to lose you. I love you – you , Mac – whether or not you're Vesta. Others have died trying to prove that they're her – and I was sure with them, too. How can I let you take that chance, when taking that chance might mean losing you? And I couldn't live with that.”
                “And if I'm not Vesta?” I couldn't resist asking.
                Chance held me tighter still. “I'd rather tear my own heart out than keep up this search – this pain...” There were tears in his eyes, too. “I want to be with you. Vesta – she...you...I don't know. We had this love: an eternal love. And I know my destiny is to find her, to restore the lands in a way that only the united power of Fire can accomplish. But when she...you...I don't know...when Vesta left me, it left a cleft in my heart even centuries have not healed. If you are Vesta – then...how can I get over your leaving me once before? And if you're not...I could start over...”
                “A clean slate,” I said. “Like all the embodiments here on Aeros Island?” I shook my head. “But none of us are clean slates. None of us on this island are new to this earth. Look, Chance – I had this vision. When we were flying. I don't know what happened – when you thought I fell asleep. I saw you, Chance. I saw us. We were in this place, this beautiful place, with fire everywhere. And we were in love, and we were happy, and there were these gemstones...”
                Chance's eyes flew wide open. “Gemstones?” He turned to me, his expression serious. “Describe them.”
                “They were shaped like the moon...” I thought back to the vision. “And inside there were these flames....there was an amethyst, and a sapphire, and an emerald...a garnet...and a topaz.”
                “The Fire Stones,” said Chance softly. “She created them. Vesta did. To bring me back to her. Her Embodiment, whoever she is, should be able to find them – that's part of the Embodiment's test, to prove that she is Vesta. If you had that vision, Vesta's memories, surely it must mean...”
                “I don't know, Chance,” I said. “I felt like I was Vesta in that dream – but it could be a mistake. An illusion. Maybe I wanted so badly to be Vesta that I dreamed I was in her place...” I shook my head. “But I can't live with not knowing who I am. I have to figure out my identity – I have to go through with it. Not just for your sake, Chance, but for mine.”
     

 
    Chapter 2
     
                A nother kiss – and then another. We spent hours kissing in that secluded cave, as the shouts of thunder and the wailing of the wind raged around us. It was cold; the rain poured down in floods. But it didn't matter. Where we were – we were safe. Warm. I could feel Chance's strong arms around me, the rippling of his taut, tanned forearms as they held my waist, pressing my flesh. I could feel the softness of his skin, the roughnness of the stubble on his chin, the combination of tenderness and danger that made him so irresistible to me. How had this one man affected me so much? When I was near him, it was like I was no longer myself, like I no longer had any control over who or what I was. Another identity seemed to be tugging at my heart, at my soul –