A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(108)

“No. I must go to the other wing,” Ariana said, sliding her arms through the sleeves of the jacket. She gave his hands a brief squeeze. “Thank you.”

She hurried away from him, toward the second point of fire. As she came around the bend in the hallway leading to the raj’s wing she was greeted with a raging wall of fire. Here too was the riot of men shouting and water flying and jackets and blankets beating. This fire was far worse than the other and she could hear screams from beyond the wall of flame.

Vich’s wives and concubines. She had unwittingly trapped them in the hall between two points of ignition. There was no escape for them. They and their children would burn to death if she didn’t take the flame back. But to do so on a massive scale would surely kill her, she fretted. She could risk her life willingly, but to risk her child?

No. She had to do what she could. She couldn’t leave them there to burn to death. She raised a hand against the burning light of the fire and began to focus on drawing it back into her. She was still hot inside from dousing the previous fire and this only made it worse. She began to pant from the heat, persevering as one inch of flame came away from its tinder, the another and another. She could just see beyond the flames to where Vich’s women were huddled against the floor, sobbing and wailing helplessly, clinging to their children. Ariana redoubled her efforts, her knees giving way beneath her. She fell to them, gasping for breath.

“Ariana!”

She barely heard whoever shouted her name. But then cold hands were shaking her, breaking her concentration. The man’s hands were like ice.

“Stop!”

“I can’t they’ll die!” she said numbly. Then it registered to whom she was speaking. “Sin!”

“Yes, love. Let me do it. You need to rest.” He cradled her to his chest and she felt the cold of his body like a soothing breeze. Her superheated skin was wet with perspiration and she clung to those deliciously cold clothes and hands as if she were drowning and they were her only means of staying afloat.

Then she was aware of the orange glow of fire dying down and the coolness of his body was gone, replaced by warming flesh and then he too was perspiring. Finally, the flames were gone and men were crossing the burnt hallway to retrieve Vich’s women and children. They were soot blackened, their noses beneath streaked with the smoke they had inhaled. They were coughing and crying.

“Lindo, take the women to clean quarters. See them bathed and put to bed. See that they are all well-guarded. I will figure out what to do with them later.”

He stood up and dragged Ariana up high into his arms. He turned and strode down the hall until they were entering the master’s quarters. He took her to the bathing chamber and ran cold water into the tub. He stripped her of the bedraggled jacket she was in and settled her into the icy cold water. Her body was so superheated that even a tepid bath would have felt icy cold to her. He knelt beside her on the floor, carefully keeping her head above water. Her teeth began to chatter and she automatically went to warm the water.

“No,” he said, realizing what she was doing. “Leave it cold. You need to cool down.”

“And what of you? You are warm too.”

He smiled at that and the way she tugged on him as if to get him into the bath with her.

“No,” he said on a soft laugh. “We’re taking care of you, not me.” He caressed her smoke-streaked face. “Where is that girl of yours? Scared out of her wits no doubt.”

“I told her to hide. She was scared. We both were. Oh Sin, I’ve never been so frightened. I thought he was going to use me to get to you. I thought you might give up your life for mine and I could not have it. He was going to kill me anyway once he learned I was pregnant with your child. He wouldn’t risk it being a son that could take it all away from him.”

“It was never his to begin with…and never would be. I know he would have killed you anyway. He would have killed us both. Giving in to his demands was never an option. But he could have made me feel it. Every minute of it. He could have used you to hurt me in…” His voice was throttled in his throat. “When my spies told me he was no longer in his camp I knew where he was. I knew he would come here. I played right into his hands. It was a clever ruse…almost a perfect one. But some of my spies are not so easy to fool, thank god.”

“Thank god,” she echoed through chattering teeth.

“I rode as if the hells were opening up behind me. I couldn’t get here fast enough. Kiltian dapples are strong and built for endurance, but they are not known for their speed. Oh how I wished for a Saren thoroughbred. But then I was here and I could see the fire. I knew it could not hurt you, but my mother…and so many others. And I didn’t know if he set the fire out of spite after taking you and going. Until I saw you in the hallways I thought the worst—“ Here his voice broke again. She saw him blink his eyes rapidly and she knew he was on the borderline of tears. It touched her to know she was so deep in his heart.

“Your mother is safe,” she said.

“I know. I saw her with the watch commander. Then he told me that you had told him Vich was dead and that you were inside.”

He reached for a sponge and a bar of soap. He lathered up the sponge and started to wash down her body in soothing, cool strokes. He washed the soot from her body and the smell of smoke from her hair. He did this tenderly and unhurriedly. He was gentle and thorough.