The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

you instead of me."
    Oh God. He was a lunatic, he truly believed someone would hurt me. He thought he was warning me. Protecting me. I felt sick to my stomach, and was sure that I was about to puke up pizza all over my front doorstep.
    I rushed inside the flat, securely bolting every lock on the door and sank down onto my butt. My knees held tightly against my chest, my breath coming in ragged pants. The tears came as my body shook.
    So alone.
    So scared.
    So confused.
    Why was this happening? Did this have something to do with falling in that pit and losing two days? Or was I actually going mad? There were no answers whispered through the leaves of the plants inside my house, but I could hear all the Rimu Trees down the driveway creaking and groaning, singing a lament on the still night air.
    And the dark entranceway I was sitting in...
    ...was bathed in an unnatural vibrant green light.

Chapter 3
It Was Completely Unfair
    I stared at my eyes in the bathroom mirror for over an hour. They fluctuated between my normal dark blue, to a vibrant, unholy green. It took a good forty minutes for me to correlate the colour change to my mood or emotions at the time. But eventually I connected the otherworldly green, that shined as though lit by a light from behind, to my anger, panic, and the sheer depth of fear I was feeling.
    Something was happening to me and I didn't understand it at all.
    I sighed for the fiftieth time, but just continued to stare blindly at the state of my eyes. They were blue again - for now - but they no longer looked like mine. Even though I didn't have an explanation for what was happening, I did know that I had changed. Not just physically, but mentally. Psychologically. I was not the Casey Eden I once was.
    I missed her already.
    Feeling entirely too miserable about this change in my life, I wandered out into the lounge of my small apartment, taking in the many potted plants and immediately feeling soothed. I frowned at the closest plant, a Chinese Evergreen. I did feel better being near it, than I had in the bathroom where only one Maidenhair Fern hangs above the bath. Now I was standing right beside a pot plant on an occasional table next to the couch. And it felt nice. Good. Right.
    I reached out and traced the tip of my finger down one of the leaves.
    The plant shivered delicately with my touch.
    I paused, glanced across the room to an Areca Palm then lifted my hand as though to beckon the branches towards me. The Areca waved back.
    My eyebrows rose up under my fringe and I slowly turned around in a circle. As my gaze swept past each potted plant in the room they bowed. Literally bent over, shook their leaves out in acknowledgement, and then stood themselves back upright again. The delicate rustling of their foliage, as they made the unnatural movement, sent a shiver right down my spine.
    This was so very, very wrong. This was not normal. I wanted to believe I was hallucinating, that the bang - or as the good doctor had said, no bang - to the head was to blame for what I thought I was seeing right now. But I am a practical person, I don't believe in out of body experiences. Just what my eyes tell me, that's all. It's always been a good philosophy to have. I wasn't so sure anymore.
    What my eyes saw was unnatural. What my eyes saw could not be explained away in practical terms. What my eyes saw scared me to death. I was different than I was before. I was more. And more made no sense. I felt a little like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, any moment now I'd wake up and this would all be a hazy dream.
    On that note, I decided to force my weary self to bed. I didn't have an answer to what was happening to me. There would be no miraculous explanation given this eve. And as I still had the shop to open tomorrow, getting sleep was my first priority. And despite bone-chilling, life-changing alterations to my make-up, despite Theo's strange threats, I would carry on. I certainly wasn't going to let a psycho