Free Scorching Secrets by Kaitlyn Hoyt

moves back a little and does the splits before moving forward, basically laying flat on the ground, stretching her legs and back.
    “That’s disturbing. No one should be able to do that,” David says while attempting a similar move. David has trouble sitting Indian style, so stretching is almost comical with him.
    She looks up and smiles at him. “You’re just jealous.” When she sees him, she starts laughing. “You really should try yoga, man.” Her laugh is infectious. I can’t help but smile with her. I look over and see Emma watching me. She smirks but doesn’t say anything. I know that she’ll try to start meddling, but I’m not ready to tell Ryanne yet. I’ll have to talk with Emma later. She’s not known for keeping secrets, and her sharing a room with Ryanne isn’t going to make it any easier.
    Her smile widens when I narrow my eyes at her. Ryanne glances between the two of us, wondering what is going on. Crap. She’ll definitely ask about that later. She turns toward Liam and asks him to spar with her. He nods, and they walk to the opposite end of the yard. She doesn’t spar with Emma anymore because they are too evenly matched. None of the opponents she’s been up against so far have been similar to her size. I lean toward Emma when Ryanne is out of earshot. “Don’t say anything to her.”
    “Why not? Come on, Colton. You know everything will be so much easier when you tell her.”
    “I’m not ready to tell her yet, and I know that she’s not ready to hear it. Please don’t say anything. Don’t drop any hints and stop looking at me like that. She knows that something is going on. She already thinks I’m keeping things from her.”
    “Because you are keeping something from her. You’re just lucky that she can’t read your mind. If she reads it from my mind, it’s not my fault.” She gets up and walks over to David.
    I look toward Bragden, and he nods at me, understanding my need to spar with someone who will fight back just as hard. We start sparring like normal. After the first couple of punches and kicks are thrown, we start to pick up the speed and intensity of the moves. Neither one of us can infuse magic into our hits like Ryanne can, but they still hurt. When she hits you, it hurts like hell. I’d been on the receiving end of some of the hits and they leave a nasty bruise if Logan doesn’t heal them.
    I glance over at Ryanne and see her sparring with Liam. He got a punch in on her shoulder, but she retaliated with a kick that knocked him to the ground. I would have laughed at that if Bragden didn’t punch me in the gut. “You need to pay attention. She’s fine. Liam’s not going to hurt her.”
    “I know. I know.” I duck one of his kicks. “It just bothers me that she always,” I punch him in the shoulder and bring up my arm to block his arm, “takes everything so lightly. She doesn’t care that she,” I jump back, “is always putting herself in more danger than necessary.” Bragden stops sparring with me and glances over at Ryanne.
    “You know why she does it.” I watch as they stop sparring, and Liam says something to her. She is breathing heavily but nods. When she turns her concentration towards the trees, a bunch of dead branches start coming toward her, and she creates a large pile in the center of the grass. I notice that David, Logan, and Emma have stopped what they are doing and are now watching to see what she is going to do as well. When the pile is big enough, she turns and looks at him, waiting for further instructions. He says something and points toward the house. She starts backing up. Liam takes a couple of steps to the side and nods at her.

    *****
    “I want to try something new with you,” Liam says after he stopped sparring with me.
    “Ok, what is it?” I ask a little skeptically, while trying to calm my frantic breathing.
    “I want to see if you are able to call magic to you while you are sparring. Not just into your limps. Can you