Read Ethereal: An Illumine Series Novella (The Illumine Series) for Free Online

“That depends. What do you think I am?”
    Seriously, this freak was bantering with her? Rinae could practically see his ego oozing out of his head. “I’ve heard of people going a little extreme on the cosmetic surgery, but are you sure yours wasn’t less of a surgery, and more of a botch-job?” She gave a jerk of a shrug. “How the hell should I know what you are?”
    Flexing his jaw, the man grinned wickedly. “By the time you’re nearly dead, you’ll know.”
    Rinae squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a single, silent tear slip down her cheek.
    “Rinae!”
    Her eyes flew open in time to see a figure sprint out from the shadows. Tegen’s curls danced wildly around his head as he moved like lightning, a silver blade glittering in his outstretched hand. In seconds he was on the other man, pinning him to the ground and pressing the blade against his throat.
    The blade turned red, glowing like freshly forged metal. It dug into the fanged-man’s neck, sizzling and burning the skin where it pressed.
    Tegen spared no time with formalities or jokes. “Kill him, Rinae. Use your fire and finish him.”
    She scrambled to her feet, eyes wide. Again, she had to wonder how Tegen had gotten here so suddenly, how he had moved so fast.
    “I can’t-” she started to say.
    “Yes you can!” Tegen fired back, struggling to hold the man beneath him. The blade pressed deeper into his skin, fire sparking on the silver. “He isn’t going to stop until he’s dead. Listen to your instincts, Rinae!”
    Her instincts? Her instinct said to run like hell, to never look back at the two people brawling on the park ground. It said to burn everyone until nothing was left but ashes and embers, to incite riots with the power singing in her veins. Not once did her instincts tell her to kill the monster pinned beneath Tegen’s blade.
    Not until now.
    Raising her hand, she studied it in the pitch-black night. She could feel the heat waiting, desperate to be free after all these years. Could she finally be useful in the world, could she shine when it was impossible to hide?
    A scream cut through her thoughts, and Tegen was flung backward into a tree. He slumped to the side, unconscious, and Rinae had barely enough time to register that he was hurt before hands reached out to grab her from the dark.
    She spun around, screaming and flinging her hands out in front of her. That was all it took; she felt something unlock inside of her, a key turning and opening the door to everything. White fire rushed off her hands, exploding in front of her like fireworks. The man screamed, sprinting backward, clutching his face as fire consumed his hands and arms, until it swallowed him whole in a burning mass. Writhing, he belted out a wild scream before exploding into ashes, raining over a small patch of ground where he had been standing moments ago.
    Rinae stood there, stunned. Had that really just happened? She had to be dreaming, had to have accidentally sipped a drink with some kind of drug in it. Maybe she was like Alice, and fell down the god damn rabbit hole into her own personal hell.
    But the moan behind her said otherwise. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the faint shift of movement, Tegen stirring in his crumpled state.
    A new wave of fury, white hot and concentrated, seared her veins. This was all because of him, all because he decided to dig into what she was and blackball her in public. She’d burn him alive just like the man, only this time she’d do it with glee.
    Kneeling before him, she took fistfuls of his shirt in her hands, and jerked him upright. “What the hell is wrong with you? Is this your idea of fun, putting people in danger expecting them to react?”
    His head tilted to the side, limp, but his eyes fluttered open. “That’s some power you’ve got there, Slayer.”
    “Don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me that,” she hissed. Shoving him back, she turned and started to leave. No amount of words could make her