Charred Tears (#2, Heart of Fire) Read Online Free PDF

like me get hurt.” With a deep breath, she pulled on boots and stood. “Okay, magic house. Take me home.”
     

Chapter Five
    Chace clawed his way up the last few feet of the almost sheer cliff. He’d given up trying to see straight. There was nothing but the cool, grey rock in front of his eyes. His body was numb, his head pounding from exertion far beyond what Gunner said he should be putting his battered body through.
    But he needed answers. Even if Freyja claimed his magic wasn’t at the top of the mountain, something was there, and right now, he needed everything he could get.
    The air was cooler the farther up he’d gone and much thinner, giving him a new kind of headache. This one was in his temples and made his stomach unstable. He needed a nap for his head and some pizza to settle his belly.
    He almost groaned at the thought, his mouth watering. He hadn’t had his favorite food in too long. If I survive this damn mountain, I’m going to eat four pizzas.
    The cold, almost useless fingers on one hand slipped out of their hold, and he grimaced, digging into the rocky face as he slid down a foot. His hands were slippery from the bloodied fingertips he was no longer able to feel. Forcing himself to focus, he concentrated on one handhold at a time and lifting his body with nothing more than sheer will forcing his broken body onward.
    Right now, he felt like letting go of the pain riddling his weakened body and simply … falling.
    The thought was accompanied by a flash of Skylar’s face in his mind, and he knew he had to keep going. Whenever he thought of her, he smelled her scent, the combination of a woman’s musk and peach shampoo. It filled his senses, quelling his doubt and fear and anger, helping him concentrate, the way her touch did in person.
    One hand found the top of the cliff he was scaling, and he shoved his toes into a new foothold, and then launched upward. Chace caught himself and breathed out hard, hauling his body over the edge. He lay still, shaking and weak. Cold, fresh mountain air chilled his skin while the heat of exertion and what remained of his fever kept him warm. The clear blue sky above reminded him of Skylar’s eyes, and he rolled onto his belly.
    He couldn’t stop thinking of her. It was driving him crazy.
    Chace rested long enough that he started to doze. He wasn’t used to his body feeling so … useless. He shook, and his thoughts were woolly.
    He pushed himself up to sit and look around. With Gunner’s help, he’d climbed to the highest peak he was able to find in the Oregon mountains and sat overlooking a shallow, rocky saddle between two peaks. The brisk wind made his eyes water, and he wiped his bloodied fingers off then sipped from the Camelback strapped to his back.
    “Dragons are better at climbing cliffs than panthers,” Gunner grunted and hauled himself over the same ledge Chace had just conquered. “But give me a tree and I’m all up in that shit.”
    “Do you ever think it’s weird that we are what we are?” Chace asked, scanning the area for some sign of what he was supposed to find.
    “No. I knew what I was growing up. My mom was a shifter and so were my aunts. I guess I never had any reason to question it.”
    “I keep wondering why they couldn’t just tell me that I was a shifter to start out with,” Chace grumbled. “I would’ve done so many things differently if I didn’t think I could be cured of my curse.”
    “A thousand years is a long time not to be comfortable with who you are.”
    Chace glanced at him, sensing the truth of his wise friend’s words. He didn’t know what to do with that truth, though. He’d wasted several dozen lifetimes trying to escape what he was only to face his own mortality and wish he had that part of him back.
    “I’m a dragon,” he said softly. “Even if I don’t have any wings.”
    “Yep. I’m a panther, magic or not. Though I wish you had wings, because I’m not looking forward to getting down from