Free Igniting Spirit (Gathering Water Book 3) by Regan Claire Page A

aflame, to meet Ezra’s eyes.
    “It’s not funny.”
    “It’s a little funny.” He obviously thought so, judging by his barely.
    “You could have told me earlier.”
    “You could have pulled away.” He wasn’t laughing now, but his dimple was still showing, and his eyes showed a heat that was matched by my own.
    “Yeah, well…” I didn’t have a comeback, so just pushed away completely. “It’s time to go, c’mon.” I dived out of my Shield and into the water just seconds before releasing the Shield  around Ezra, letting him get pummeled by the water before he was ready.
    Now that was funny. Besides, cold water was supposed to help that, er, type of problem. I swam quickly, intent on catching up with Lena and Ian before they got further away, ashamed that we took so long before following them. I trusted Ezra was keeping up, something I knew for a fact when he grabbed one of my feet and tugged me back, playfully, just enough so that we were swimming side by side. I put the cone-Shield back up, and with the feel of water at our feet pushing us forwards — Ezra’s Loa, no doubt — we caught up to Lena and Ian easily and swam past them.
    I almost missed how grueling the trip down had been without the Ambrose halfway through, because then I’d been too exhausted to think past saving Cash. Nothing else could sneak in.
    Now, my mind went over a million different things: the true cause of my mother’s death, and the split of the Ethnos and whether I seriously thought they could come back together after all the hurt. I thought of Ezra, and how quickly our relationship— or whatever you could call it — had progressed without ringing any of my warning bells, and whether I was prepared for the way I felt about him. That brought me back to Kaylus, and the coppery scent of blood that I smelled in my vision of him killing Ezra. I increased my speed. He wouldn’t hurt anyone else I cared about.
    Even though he hadn’t been the one draining Cash, the man who did was at Kaylus’ command. And that was more than enough for me.
    The last half of our journey took a little longer than the first. I could have pushed ahead of the others and arrived sooner, but I could do nothing without Ian, and I needed to conserve my energy in case he needed my help.
    I couldn’t afford to pass out.
    Besides, it’d be best if I arrived with the three Clades, instead of assuming they would arrive at my cousin’s hospital bed with no trouble.
    There was probably going to be trouble. I just hoped Alexander had told my father and gotten a message to my family by now, so they would be expecting my new, er, friends to arrive with me.
    It wouldn’t do to get the guy who’s supposed to heal Cash killed before he did his job.
    Speaking of getting people killed, I was starting to get incredibly nervous having Ezra with me. Of course, I was even more nervous to have him away from me, so there was nothing I could do about it.
    I really hoped my family wouldn’t try to kill my new boyfriend — or whatever — because that would seriously suck.
     

Chapter Six
     
    I’m back Journal,
    Anyway, I considered it my civic responsibility — as a human — to show the fellas a good time. I had to do a few sleight of hands around everyone to hide from my friends how much they (mostly Alexander) were drinking, while pretending like drinking three bottles of tequila by yourself was totally normal to them.
    I wonder if Elfennol get hungover, because poor Alex will definitely be feeling it today. He had loosened up considerably after his second fifth. And everyone got a kick out of him when he started singing what I can only assume are ancient battle songs. He has a surprisingly pleasant baritone.
    We ended the night on the beach. My friends tapered off, one by one, until it was only the three of us. And Alexander didn’t particularly count since he was trying to dig for sand fiddlers. I was glad my friends had left at that point, because he was