Touching Fire (Touch Saga) Read Online Free PDF

sour stench of meat stewing in the heat and a tang of copper like too many pennies in a single place.
    Somewhere in the distance, a car exploded, creating a mushroom cloud in the air. The force of it swept over the street, body-checking me into a lamppost. I gritted my jaw until my teeth creaked as pain exploded up my already bruised shoulder. I sucked in several gulps of air and forced myself not give the lamppost a vicious kick in retaliation. With my luck, I would have only managed to break my toe on top of everything else.
    Grumbling, I shoved away, cradling my injured arm and turned back to the abandoned street. A flutter of something red in a nearby tree caught my eye and I squinted. A torn kite waved erratically in the heat wafting off the steady crackle of fire consuming the car. I felt a pang of guilt at the sight of it and prayed no one had been hurt. Any deaths caused on that day were on my head. I had no idea how the Shadow Brothers had destroyed so much, but they had been there for me and I was responsible.
    A frown knitted my brow as a thought occurred to me. The Shadow Brothers manipulated their own structure. They dissolved into toxic mist. In the month they’d been chasing us, I had never seen them cause so much turmoil. They certainly did not have the power to move objects, never mind actually throw them around like pillows at a slumber party.
    Dread prickled along the back of my neck, raising the little hairs. I swallowed hard even as I pivoted slowly on my heel, searching the massacre of public property for some sign of someone else, someone that may have followed the Shadow Brothers. Someone with the power to manipulate objects, or worse. My brain rolled with names and faces as I tried to remember which of Garrison’s mindless zombies had those powers. None came to mind. If there was someone there, they were new, which meant I was in a lot of trouble.
    That’s when I saw them.
    Several yards away, figures moved through the remaining row of trees. Creatures with sharp fangs and black eyes. They were skeletal beneath tattered black gowns. They hid behind bushes and slinked around trees, but I knew they were watching me. One even pointed a long, talon-like finger in my direction and I felt the wind shift. The heat was leeched from the air and I was struck with a cold slap. I gasped and doubled over as shards of ice filled my lungs. They crystalized through my body, freezing my limbs until I could almost hear my bones crackling like brittle twigs in winter. Ice crystals formed around my blue fingers. But nothing else was affected. The rest of the world continued to go up in flames.
    Then, just when I was sure I was about to become a human Popsicle, Ashton’s voice cracked like thunder over the carnage. “ Satis !”
    He took a single step forward, but that single gesture hummed like a sonic wave. The air around him rippled a tangible black that haloed him. At his sides, his fingers extended, elongating into inhuman talons. Black fire leapt in the pits of his eyes from a face that no longer looked anything like the handsome man I’d met only moments ago.
    The creatures hissed. Their multi-jointed limbs bent in odd directions as they leapt back and scurried away like giant, black spiders. With them, the river of ice vanished and I could breathe again.
    I took several greedy gulps while I watched my father. He wasn’t looking at me, but stood watching the creatures vanish from sight. Then, very absently, he waved a hand and all the flying things crashed to the ground . I couldn’t believe it. My father was responsible for the mass damage. He had been the one to nearly kill me with a mailbox. Did that mean he was some hybrid telekinesis? I was pretty sure that’s what it was called, the ability to move things with one’s mind. I hadn’t watched Carrie in a while so the actual term eluded me at that moment. All I knew was that the man that helped give birth to me had the ability to become something much