Free Spring Rain by Lizzy Ford Page A

this wasn’t a
dream. He reached out towards her instinctively.
    “No!” she snapped and recoiled. “I swallowed
the soul stone!”
    “We figured that out,” Decker replied
drily.
    Beck continued to look at her, unable to
summon anything to say directly to her. He’d thought her dead for
three months and now … she wasn’t. His feelings and thoughts were
reeling, and he couldn’t shake his disbelief.
    “How are you feeling?” Summer asked and
stepped beside Morgan.
    “Good. Chilly.” Morgan sat. “What’re you
doing here?” She eyed Decker.
    “The hospital called me,” he replied.
    “And me,” Beck added. “I guess we were in
your phone.”
    She flushed as red as her
hair, and he recalled with some tenderness that she’d listed him
as home. Was she
thinking of that now? “You can’t be here, Beck,” she
mumbled.
    “For the record, I, too, am eighteen and
choose where my life takes me,” he replied. It took effort to
subdue the overpowering urge to touch her. Her fire magick was
pinging around, agitated by his nearness and her spiking emotions.
His earth magick had always loved the liveliness she brought it. It
yearned to reach out to her and calm her as much as his heart
did.
    “Whatever, but I can’t be here. Dawn found
me.” The fiery, stubborn side of her was betrayed by the shake of
her hands as she pushed off the thin sheet covering her. “I have to
go. Passing through.”
    “Like hell,” Beck said with more heat than
he intended. “There are people who care about you, Morgan. You
can’t run away from me or your brother!”
    “Beck, I think she means …” Summer cleared
her throat and pointed to the bathroom in the corner.
    Beck’s mouth snapped shut.
    “Too much testosterone,” Morgan repeated.
“Summer, will you kick them out for me?”
    Summer smiled and lifted an eyebrow at
Decker in a silent order, her subtle power nonetheless strong. He
rolled his eyes and went to the door. She turned her attention to
Beck.
    “No,” he balked and crossed his arms. “That
won’t work on me.”
    “You can talk to Decker about what’s going
on,” she suggested sweetly.
    Dammit. Beck didn’t want to relent, but he did, grappling
with his emotions and the fury building in his chest at the thought
of his brother keeping secrets.
    “Peacefully,” Summer added.
    Beck went to the door and exited, joining
Decker in the hallway. The two squared off as they sometimes did,
the tension and magick surrounding them palpable enough to passing
humans for them to turn the other way rather than cross paths with
the powerful twins.
    “I’m not sorry,” Decker started
defiantly.
    “I get that. But you’re … you’re a dick
sometimes, Decker.” Beck sighed, resisting the urge to wring his
brother’s neck. He reigned in the feelings that felt like they were
almost to the point of bursting. After struggling for several long
moments, he managed to speak through clenched teeth. “Start from
the beginning.”
     

Chapter Seven
     
    Morgan was torn up. Her insides were icy one
moment, fiery the next from the combination of the soul stone and
foreign magick, and she was shaky. She didn’t recall what happened
after sinking into the water and assumed she’d been rescued at some
point, maybe by Noah, and taken to the hospital.
    Summer supported her as she wobbled with her
first step. Gentle, warm earth magick soothed her physically, but
did nothing for her flying thoughts. It reminded her too much of
Beck’s magick and how incredible it always was for it to flow
through her. He was the only person she knew who could soothe the
agitated fire magick and help her feel grounded, balanced.
    She had hoped, if she ever crossed paths
with Beck again, she would remain completely unaffected, and
everything that might’ve been between them stayed in the past.
    The moment she opened her eyes and saw his
strong profile, athletic frame and concerned teal eyes, her fire
magick had surged and begun to sing,