Molten Read Online Free PDF

really hoped that there was no one above her, because heat wanted to rise and she couldn’t stop it anymore.
    The first elevation was gradual, stone melted above her as she began to levitate on waves of heat. Her speed began to increase, the stone disappeared above her as the energy sought an escape route. She followed the fire.
     
    * * * *
     
    Rand disconnected from the generator once the repairs had been completed. To his shock, his family and their household staff came stumbling through the doors of the hospital a little bloody but intact.
    “Mom, Dad, Reeska, Norwilin.” He fought the tears as he hugged all of his relations and checked them for damage from the collapse.
    His sister grinned. “It figures that the Guardians would show up and the one I would meet was my big brother.”
    Their family remained in a huddle, and he smelled something familiar on their clothing. “How did you get out?”
    His mother gave him a puzzled smile. “It was the strangest thing. The outer edge of the cavern cracked and revealed an unmapped tunnel. It led us out into the southern gardens, and we headed to the hospital. It is amazing what that rock did to the prefect mansion.”
    His father hugged his mate with one arm. “It is no surprise that it ended up that way. If Norwilin hadn’t been able to keep the ceiling up for as long as he did, we would have died.”
    Rand looked over at his brother-in-law. “Thank you.”
    Norwilin inclined his head. “They are my family as well, Rand.”
    Rand caught a trace of that scent again and shook his head. “What tunnel? Was it hot, cold?”
    His mother looked at him with concern. “It was warm but easy enough to walk in, though a little tight. It was as if a teenager had made it.”
    Rand blinked. “Was there a pale woman nearby?”
    His family shook their heads, and he left them in the hospital, running for the southern garden and the new tunnel. He was near the decorative topiaries that his sister favoured when an explosion from the top of the hillside caught his attention.
    White-hot flame burst free followed by the streaking silhouette of a woman made entirely of fire. “Nanette.”
    The woman lifted fifty feet above the hilltop and slowly descended to the pile of stone on top of the prefect’s mansion, or what was left of it. She walked slowly across the rock, leaving burning footprints in her wake. With a deliberate pace, she made a path down to the grass; the flames that surrounded her flickered and subsided.
    As Rand ran toward her, she collapsed on the grass; her pale skin gleamed in the sunlight.
    He scooped her up and carried her to the shuttle, setting the scan to Terran and hoping that Wren had completed the upgrade that would let him check on Nanette. He noted a few scars in a strange pattern on her skin. He knew that type of pattern; knife wounds. She had been cut on her back and belly.
    With anger at anyone who had touched her to cause her pain, he throttled his rage back and ran the scanner over her, looking for damage or power drain. He pulled a sheet over her in case one of the others came in, and as he caught himself smiling, he realized he didn’t want her getting cold.
     
    * * * *
     
    The worst hangover of her life was pounding at her skull. Nanette sat up and Rand was at her side a moment later.
    “Don’t move. You are depleted.” He pressed a hand to her forehead in a gesture that made her smile.
    “No one has done that since I was a child.”
    “Is that when you became active?”
    She chuckled. “You could say that.”
    The sheet around her slid downward, and she grabbed at it, clutching it to her breasts. “Where is my suit?”
    “You burned it; at least, that is my guess. You came out of the hillside glowing white hot and slowly lost heat as you landed. You landed as you are, without the sheet.” Rand smiled, his copper eyes gleaming.
    “Did your family make it out?”
    “Thanks to you.” He took her hand and pressed it to his lips, palm