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

stay. She’d rather see him choke on his own blood.
    Behind her, Tegen’s low words carried with the faint draft. “There are others out there.”
    She stiffened, curiosity picking at her like a bird to spare bread crumbs. It could be a bluff, she realized, or it could be the start of something she privately ached for over the last seven years; the truth. Acceptance, knowledge, maybe even adventure.
    Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, screaming yes. Her brain logically fought back, reminding her it wasn’t real, magic couldn’t exist.
    Could it?
    Cocking her head over her shoulder, Rinae couldn’t believe herself as she asked, “Others like me?”
    He was back on his feet already, back pressed against the tree. Tegen shoved his hands into his pockets, forcing the rigidness of his body into a slouch. “Yes,” he said, unwavering. “Others like you.”
    “And how are they like me? Aren’t we, as humans, unique and individual?”
    “You’re far from human, dear.” He winked. “And you know what they say, for every one of you, there’s at least six in China.”
    What little cockiness she had drummed up shriveled and died inside her. Fire lanced through her veins, palms itching with the need to burn. “You didn’t answer my question.”
    Neither of them moved, keeping the breezing distance in place. Rinae watched him as he shifted from one foot to the next, a mask of amusement bringing his lips to a tantalizing smile.
    “They are like you because they are Nephilim.” His grin turned sharp, broadening to a smirk. “And whether you like it or not, there are others like the creature you just killed.”
    “I didn’t kill-”
    Tegen closed the distance between them in seconds, eyes sharp and bright. He hissed. “You did. You slaughtered a vampire who otherwise would have used your veins like a soda tap.”
    Stumbling back, Rinae locked her fingers around the handle of the blade tucked between the waistband of her jeans and her bare skin. If he came that close again, she’d slit his throat and not think twice. Personal space invasions were an immediate no-no.
    But other than crashing on her private bubble, everything he had done and said had been to help her. He told her how to kill that... thing. Part of her still wasn’t comfortable calling it a vampire. Vampires didn’t exist, they were make-believe creatures of nightmares and old folklore.
    Then again, humans who could create fire with minute willpower and sparkling wings that glittered worse than the craft department shouldn’t exist, either. Maybe her delusions over her ‘gift’ had manifested as a dream. This had to be a dream, a really damn good dream.
    “Say I don’t believe you,” Rinae challenged, pursing her lips. Thoughts of fanged freaks and balls of fire tossed in her head. “What happens? I take it I can’t just walk away from this.”
    His shrug said she could, but his eyes contradicted just that. “You could walk away, but you’d try to find me within days, that I can promise you.” He sized her up, eye-balling her critically until she folded her arms over her chest in irritation. “At the rate your powers are developing, you’ll attract every supernatural creature in a fifty mile radius. If you don’t learn to control it and use it right.”
    There was a way to control her fire? Rinae’s head began to spin faster, looping like a carousel on high speed. Her mind reveled; was it really possible to master the very complication that plagued her? Or was it a ploy by the mystery boy, luring her to something deeper?
    “More will come,” Tegen continued, running a hand through his short black locks. “Now that you can see past the glamours.”
    Glamours? Rinae pinched the bridge of her nose, willing the spiraling inside her skull to stop.
    A scowl tugged her lips in an ungraceful manner. “So what, this is how it works?” She tossed her hands in the air, beginning to pace in small circles. “You tell me there’s a world of