Free Licked by the Flame by Serena Gilley Page B

the tension building in the air around them. The taut muscles in Kyne’s still-human-sized body were tight with his barely pent-up apprehension. She had long since shrunk back down to her natural size, but Kyne remained every bit as large as his father. His body held the effects of the Sizing Dust much longer than hers.
    She watched him, studied his wary interaction with Baylor. Despite Kyne’s obvious fairy features, the resemblance between the two men was uncanny. How had she not known right from the start how very human he was?
    It seemed that his human characteristics were more pronounced the more he was around humans. His aura was just a bit dimmer and his body more angular, more rugged. She doubted that Kyne would appreciate if she pointed it out to him. She wished he could appreciate his more human attributes. Certainly she did.
    Perhaps it was, in fact, his blatant humanity that had attracted her to him in the first place. He was wild, exotic, and absolutely irresistible to her. Of course forbidden passions and longings had come bursting to life inside her as she had been around him. Kyne was everything her deepest, most secret nature craved. Her initial battle against that had been futile from the start.
    Now, however, it appeared they were being asked to help battle something else, something unknown. Whatever these forces were, they were actively compiling an arsenal to cause irreparable damage within the Forbidden Realm. The Veil itself seemed to be their target. Baylor had no idea whom he could trust and whom he could not, so he’d come here.
    He needed Kyne to do what he couldn’t, to travel swiftly and undetected to find out what he could about these strange happenings. And Kyne would go, she had no doubt of that. Despite his animosity toward his father, he would go. He loved the Forbidden Realm more than he hated the man who sired and then abandoned him.
    And whether Kyne liked it or not, Raea would be going with him. She loved him more than she feared whatever they might find at the end of their journey. In the wild, uncivilized West Fjords of Iceland, of all places. There was no telling what sort of magic was running unchecked in a land such as that.
    “It’s here,” Baylor said, pointing to a crude map he had drawn on a discarded paper. “I’d download more-specific coordinates for you, but I’m afraid none of my electronic technology works up here in this cabin.”
    “We don’t work like that, anyway,” Kyne said. “I’ll be navigating by magic, so your human drawings are worthless to me.”
    “There’s an awful lot of magic over there, I’m told. Really ancient things have been left undisturbed for centuries. You sure you can find the way?”
    Kyne sneered his response, clearly insulted by Baylor’s question.
    Raea decided it was a good time for a question of her own. “You said your information indicated the equipment was being delivered to a remote location at a volcano. Is this the same sort of equipment we found here in the woods?”
    “No, this machinery has been altered in some way. Instead of supporting the Veil, it seems to create further damage to it. All we know is it’s highly dangerous and is being sent to the wilderness around the Drangajökull glacier. It’s been shipped out of Sandstrom Industries in unusual quantities for some time now.”
    The named triggered a recollection for Raea. “Did you say Sandstrom?”
    “Yeah,” Baylor replied. “It’s owned by some guy not too far from here. Not sure what his connection with the Forbidden Realm is, though.”
    Raea’s heart thudded in her chest and she shot Kyne a quick glance. He frowned at her.
    “Sandstrom? Is this name supposed to mean anything to me?”
    “It’s a fairly large corporation,” Baylor said, not noticing Raea’s panic. “It’s owned by some genius recluse who spends most of his time out on his boat.”
    Kyne seemed to be digesting this. “Boat? Wait a minute, this isn’t the same guy