Read Into the Fire (The Mieshka Files, Book One) for Free Online

slender neck was a tapered head. It tilted, staring with eyes like white, burning ash.
    “Mieshka,” it seemed to say. Words moved like thoughts in this dark place. Heat shimmered around it, matching the fire that now coursed through Mieshka’s bones. It drew slowly closer, its outstretched wings unmoving. Perhaps it didn’t need them to fly.
    Those white-hot eyes blinked once, and its head dipped lower.
    “I have been waiting for you,” it said. Its great wings beat once, and the power of a thousand suns raced through her soul. It didn’t hurt.
    Its wings stretched out once again, spreading to the horizons in this infinite place. Fire crackled with thought. She would never be cold again, it promised.
    “I have been alone,” said the Phoenix, ashen eyes blinking fire like tears. “Now you are here.”
    It raised its head in a cry—a long, fierce, musical cry that shook her non-existent lungs—and it vanished.
    Everything went black. Again. And cold.
    Her hands gripped the armrests. Slowly, she lifted them off. There was no resistance. Putting them safely in her lap, she sat up and looked around. There was no light, but she heard a noise behind her.
    “Are you okay?” Aiden’s voice came from beside her, close to the floor.
    She swallowed. Her whole body tingled.
    “I think so.”
    Fire slipped into the air like a wayward will o’ wisp, illuminated the dead console to her left. She flinched away from it. Warmth danced over her skin.
    “I pulled the kill-switch. Once you get out of the chair, I’ll turn the power back on.” The firelight danced over Aiden, who lay on the floor with his head under the console.
    She did so stiffly, careful not to touch the armrests again. The tingling turned to pinpricks as she squeezed around the chair. She stepped over his legs, ducked her head away from the low ceiling, and moved from the console. Her shadow stuttered wildly across the hallway.
    “What happened?”
    “Your magic happened.” He fiddled with something underneath. Metal scraped against metal.
    She waited. He didn’t elaborate.
    “There was a phoenix talking to me.”
    The scraping stopped. The fire guttered briefly, reflected in the shadowy walls. The chrome gleamed.
    “This ship is kind of special. It runs on a sentient power force, just like the shield. It figured out that it could transfer into you.”
    “Transfer into me?” She wasn’t a computer.
    He slid forward until his head cleared the console, and leaned against the navigator’s chair. The fire moved with him, settling near the floor. Its light glittered in his eyes.
    “We might as well have this talk now. Do you want to sit?”
    She glanced at the pilot’s chair, which remained dark. Sitting hadn’t worked well the last time. Still, she lowered herself to the floor and crossed her legs, leaning against the corner of a wall.
    “Have you heard of living evolution?”
    She shook her head. She’d studied evolution in class two years ago, but never heard of ‘living evolution’.
    Aiden continued: “It’s like evolution, except it happens during a single lifetime. No need to pass on genetic material and evolve through descendants. Magic in this world is new and weird. Not really like in my home world. My home world developed with magic, so our sciences reflected magic. Here, well, think of the world as one big organism. A foreign body comes in, and the organism develops defences for it. Like antibodies for a virus. Magic sprang up in response to us Mages crash-landing in this world. It’s unpredictable and random, so the old technology works at odds with it sometimes.”
    He cradled one hand in the other. She saw where the fire had burnt the skin.
    “So, I’m like a white blood cell?”
    “More like an antibody. From what I saw, your magic allows you to channel stuff. Basically, if we had let the Phoenix continue, you’d be a full-blown Fire Mage with its power. Quite a bit of power, mind you. Probably, if I’d left you alone, you