Read DaughterofFire for Free Online Page A

stronger.
    “You are home now. That is all that matters.” Pele’s smile
was weary, the happiness of their reunion not reaching her eyes. Despite the
goddess’s youthful appearance, lines of worry creased the corners of her dark
eyes. Kalama was surprised by what she read in her mother’s face.
    “Mom, what’s going on?”
    “I suppose I should tell you. Do you remember the earthquake
that shook my islands several years ago?” Pele turned away from her and began
to pace back and forth.
    “Yes. I read about it. 2006. Wreaked tons of damage on Oahu
and here on the Big Island. Kona was hit pretty hard if I remember. The
hospital and Hulihe’e Palace were pretty messed up.” Her mother’s question
confused her. Something as mundane as an earthquake never bothered the Goddess
of Fire. Most of the time, her volatile anger was the cause of the shaking
earth.
    “In addition to the destruction on the land, something
happened in the sea. The quake released your aunt, from her prison.”
    Air rushed from her lungs. Blood roared in her ears and she
felt lightheaded. She sank down to the sofa, her legs made of jelly and no
longer able to support her weight.
    “This is bad, Mom.”
    “She’s after me and my islands.” Pele sat down beside her on
the couch and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.
    “Why does she hate you so much?” Kalama had never met her
aunt, the Goddess of the Sea, but she had grown up understanding that
Namakaokaha’i had chased her mother across the sea from island to island.
Kalama had heard the story of how the sisters had battled in hand-to-hand
combat on the island of Maui. They’d fought for days on the western slope of
the mountain Haleakala. Namakaokaha’i had torn the body of her mother apart and
broke her lava bones into pieces and spread them across the mountainside.
Kalama had been to the site many times. It was called Ka Iwi O Pele, or The
Bones of Pele.
    “There are many stories I have never told you. Stories about
your aunt…your father.”
    “About my father?” Kalama whispered. Pele rarely mentioned
her father.
    “Namakaokaha’i was in love with your father, and he was
infatuated with her, until he saw me,” Pele said without arrogance. Kalama
raised an eyebrow at her mother’s comment. The goddess was notorious for taking
a liking to some mortal and doing whatever necessary to win his lust.
    “Did he really want you or was it one of your tricks again?”
Kalama asked, not sure if she really cared to know the answer. All her two-hundred
and thirty years on this earth, Kalama had been told her father was a British
sailor with Captain Cook who had run back to the sea before she was born.
    “This time there was love, daughter. Your father was a
handsome man, so tall and strong. His hair flashed brightly in the sun. We fell
in love and I became pregnant with you. Then your aunt found out,” Pele said,
sitting on the couch, her head in her hands. Kalama looked at her mother, not
sure what to make of what she was being told.
    “Namakaokaha’i is the real reason your father left us. She
loved him, though obsessed with him is a better way of putting her attraction
for him. He didn’t believe in magic and gods either. To him I was nothing but a
beautiful native girl and I let him believe that because I loved him so. Much
like that idiot scientist guarding my mountain believes I was an older woman in
a stained muumuu,” Pele said, her voice turning to a hiss. Kalama smirked at
her mother’s description of Jack, laughter catching in her throat.
    “He’s not an idiot, Mom. Jack is a celebrated
volcanologist.” Kalama shook her head even though her own thoughts had mirrored
her mother’s only hours before.
    “He is an idiot with no regard for me and my power. Your
father was very much the same. He was ill prepared to handle my goddess form.”
    “Oh Mom, you didn’t,” Kalama said with a sigh. “He thought
you were human, didn’t he? You never learn. Mortals