Free Born Into Fire by KyAnn Waters, Tarah Scott Page B

into hers. “I should leave…before it’s too late. Maybe it already is too late.”
    Kenna seized his arm. “Too late for what?”
    Airiana’s full-throated laugh floated through Kenna’s mind. She straightened, understanding dawning. “Airiana. Both of you are in my head. She’s part of you, too. Isn’t she?”
    ****
    Airiana’s whispers filled Erion’s mind. For so long, he’d shut out her wind song. A wave of crippling guilt turned his legs to rubber. He grabbed for the table.
    “Erion!” Kenna seized his shoulders and shoved him back.
    Hard wood jammed into his hip, and he grabbed the table edge.
    “Erion.”
    He lifted his head and met her gaze. Tears shimmered in the hazel depths of her eyes.
    “No,” Kenna said, “don’t shut her out. Listen to her.”
    Erion shook his head in an effort to drive the crooning softness from his mind. He straightened. Beautiful glass pooled in melted ruin around them. What more proof did he need of the threat he posed? And—another crippling wave of guilt washed over him—he’d nearly consumed Kenna as he had Airiana. But he hadn’t. Why?
    He shoved aside the questions with a mental snarl. What difference did it make? He wouldn’t make the same mistake. Kenna had survived the metamorphosis. Guilt piled higher with the realization that he had burdened Fiera with the responsibility of Airiana. He hadn’t known that could happen, but he should have.
    Erion stumbled back two paces. Even now, his need for Fiera overwhelmed. “I have to go.” He turned, muscles already giving way to the weightlessness of transformation.
    “No!” She seized his arm. “You can’t just leave me here after…my God, my workshop—Airiana and I—” She choked. “Aiden was here! I felt him…before….before I changed. Then he was gone. What did I do?” She covered her mouth. “I killed him.”
    Erion grabbed her shoulders. “No. Aiden signed his death warrant when he interfered with the Giris . He meant to enslave you, Kenna. You know that. It’s why you kept him at a distance. It was him or you. I wasn’t about to let him have you.”
    Scalding fire singed him to the core.
    Fire lit in her gaze. “You can’t just fuck me, turn me into…into…”
    “I didn’t turn you into anything.”
    She glared. “What happened here required us both.”
    “The joining, yes, that took us both. The Giris —your transformation.” He shook his head. “You were on the cusp.”
    A mocking laugh rolled from her. “Semantics.”
    Erion gave her a hard shake. “Would you rather have become Aiden’s slave? Or perhaps you would have preferred I be the one destroyed in our joining?”
    Her eyes widened. Remorse dug deep, but he would not relent. She was once again a woman, and he would leave her as such to find her way safely. Erion thrust her away and collapsed in on himself, shifting into air as he jettisoned upward.
    She whirled, her head upturned toward him. “Erion!”
    She reached skyward, stretching as if she could hold wind. Her fingers glowed. Fire curled around her hand, twisting and churning into a blazing orb. Kenna screamed, dropped to her knees, and shook the flames from her fingers.
    Erion swooped downward for one last feel of her skin, even if only to feel her in wind form, then realized the folly and veered toward the door. “Don’t fight it, Fiera. It’s who you are.”
    “Don’t leave me.” The words came from Fiera, but it was Airiana’s voice he heard.
    His heart wrenched. What was wrong with him?
    Sparks lit the room. He glanced back. Kenna’s eyes blazed. Determination radiated from her being. Tightness in his swirling core unexpectedly anchored him five feet from the door, and he swirled in place like a ribbon caught on a branch.
    Impossible . What force could cage him? Memory rose of last night in her bedroom and the feeling that he was nothing more than a moth drawn to her flame. Airiana . Erion turned his senses inward. Air, Airiana’s wind, pulled at