Flame Caller Read Online Free Page B

die just yet.”
    Thea stood tall but he could see her
resolve faltering in her gaze.
    “ Did you ever have
children?” he asked.
    Thea’s hard gaze quickly returned
before she shook her head. “No.”
    “ But you did have family,
right?” He didn’t wait for her response. “Parents, of course, and
maybe some siblings. Maybe even some nieces and
nephews?”
    He could see his words cutting through
her rough exterior.
    “ I know you don’t like me
and you don’t want to help me, if you can avoid it. And I know you don’t like Sammy. If you won’t do it for me,
though, then do it for all the family of yours that probably still
exist out there, all your family that’s still in
danger.”
    He took a step forward and was
surprised when she didn’t back away. “I don’t know if we can
actually stop the Fire Warriors but I’m sure not going to give up
without a fight. Will you help me?”
    Xander could see her jaw muscles
clenching and unclenching as she considered her options. Finally,
she nodded sharply.
    “ Meet me in the courtyard
in fifteen minutes,” she said before turning away.
    As she walked away, she called over
her shoulder, “And Xander, you won’t enjoy this.”
    Xander didn’t care about her thinly
veiled threat. He smiled broadly as he turned back to
Sammy.
    Sammy didn’t meet his gaze. She stared
past him in the direction of the retreating Thea. He glanced over
his shoulder quickly to make sure Thea wasn’t giving Sammy a sour
look but only saw the back of her as the older Wind Warrior walked
away.
    He turned back to the Fire Warrior.
“Sammy? Earth to Sammy.”
    Sammy blinked hard as her eyes came
back into focus. Reaching up, she wiped away a thin sheen of sweat
from her forehead.
    “ Sorry,” she said before
coughing politely. “I was off in my own little world.”
    Xander couldn’t blame her for wanting
to avoid any confrontation with Thea. Only Patrick would have been
a more unpleasant encounter.
    “ Thea’s going to train me
again. Do you want to come with me?”
    Sammy smiled weakly. “I’ll be there in
a little bit. You go on ahead.”
    Xander nodded and stepped forward.
Pulling her close, he kissed her gently on the forehead, feeling
the heat that radiated from her skin.
    “ I’ll see you soon,” he
said before hurrying away.

    Sammy watched Xander disappear around
a building before turning her gaze back to the wall of water that
surrounded the island. She knew Xander assumed Thea distracted her.
She only wished it were that simple.
    Hovering behind the curtain of water,
a giant reptilian eye looked down on the island and stared intently
at the wayward Fire Warrior. Sammy shrunk from its gaze and felt
her temperature rising, as though her skin would burst into flames
at any moment.
    She had seen that eye in a hidden
chamber behind her father’s throne room. It had frightened her so
badly then that she had fled, never looking back. Despite knowing
the threat it posed, she hadn’t seen it again outside of her dreams
since. To see it hovering behind the water left her heart pounding
in her chest.
    Sammy was so intent on watching the
eye that she didn’t hear the tarp being pulled aside behind
her.
    Alicia stepped into the bright light
and stared at Sammy. The elderly woman followed her gaze toward the
wall of water and furrowed her brow in confusion.
    “ Is everything alright,
dear?” she asked, turning back to Sammy.
    Sammy jumped and let out a slight
scream of surprise. She looked to Alicia just as the grandmotherly
Wind Warrior looked back at the waterspout. Despite looking
directly at the spot where Sammy had seen the eye, she clearly
didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
    Sammy nodded and looked back to Alicia
with what she hoped was a disarming smile. “I’m fine. It’s just
been a really long day, you know? I probably just need to go rest
for a little while.”
    Alicia smiled. “It’s been a hard day
on all of us, love. Why don’t you go lie down for a