Kiss of Fire (Imdalind, #1)(36)

“You’re on,” I answered him, already standing tall; trying to meet him at his full height, which only brought me to his shoulders. I tried to look intimidating by squaring my shoulders, but it looked rather silly, and both Ryland and Wyn laughed at my poor attempt to psych him out.

“Oh, fine,” I said, giving in and grabbing Wyn’s hand to pull her over to the line of trees that surrounded the clearing. “You can play referee.”

“You gonna cheat, Jos?” Ryland asked as he took his place at the tree next to mine, stretching his arms out in preparation.

“Nope, I am going to win.” I gave him my biggest smile and then looked up to the tall branches above me. I knew I had a problem. Although I loved the feel and the smell of Ryland’s sweater, it was way too big to be effective during a tree-climbing race.

“Oh, great,” I mumbled.

“Losing confidence, Joclyn?” His taunts were pointless; he hadn’t beaten me since the first time we had tried this.

“No, but I swear you’re going to be in big trouble if I rip any of my clothes.” I shed the large sweater and let it fall in a heap at my feet. I looked down to make sure my green shirt was lying flat before looking to Ryland who had fixed this strange look of happiness on his face.

“I like that shirt, Joclyn; it looks very pretty on you,” said Wyn.

I turned to her and smiled in thanks. She gave me a big thumbs-up, which made me smile more.

“Don’t worry, Jos. If you tear any clothes, I’ll just buy you new stuff. I still owe you a pair of pants anyway; we’ll have to go shopping.”

“You wouldn’t owe me anything if you would stop ripping my clothes off, Ryland.”

Ryland’s face blanched before spreading into a wide grin. Wyn laughed behind me. It took a moment for the reality of what I had just said to click into place.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that.” I rounded on Wyn, silently pleading, but she didn’t even see me through the tears of laughter that rolled down her cheeks. “Ryland, tell her!” All my pleading was for naught, even Ryland laughed gleefully.

“All right, Wyn,” I loudly interrupted the laughing, causing them to stop. “You tell us when to go. First feet to hit the ground again wins.” She nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her face.

I looked to Ryland, who winked at me before turning to his tree, still chuckling. My stomach twisted, whether with joy or nerves, I couldn’t tell. I turned and faced my tree, nonetheless, stretching my fingers in excitement.

“On your mark,” Wyn said. “Get set. Go!”

I lunged toward the tree, my hands pulling me up into the tangle of lower branches. The second my hands touched the bark, a fire ignited within me. It always did this every time we raced. I felt a strange energy surge under my skin as I vaulted up the tree, propelling myself higher and higher. The familiar feeling of flying took over me as I moved up, my arms propelling me faster and faster.

I looked to the side to see Ryland keeping pace with me, although still behind. I grabbed the next branch and pulled myself up even harder, my legs kicking off to raise me up. I didn’t look down; although I wasn’t afraid of heights, I knew we were at least twenty feet up in the air now. I could see the deep notch we had placed in the tree all those years ago and knew it was almost time to make my descent.

“Goal!” I yelled as I pressed my palm to the large gash in the tree before turning to speed my way down the tree.

“Goal!” Ryland yelled from above me.

If I was fast climbing up trees, it was nothing to how fast I was going down. I knew Ryland didn’t have a prayer. There was a movie I had watched when I was a kid, that had a man and boy climbing out of a tree as a car fell down on top of them. They swung and jumped and leaped in their frantic attempt to beat the car out of the tree and not be crushed to death. It had scared me senseless at the time; but in all reality, that’s how I felt when I climbed down trees.

I continued to drop, not bothering to look at where Ry was beside me. Branches flew past me as I swung from one to another, dropping, only to catch myself on a large outstretched branch at the last moment. I could hear Wyn mumble below me, making me smile.

I released the branch that I had just grabbed, to fall to another one a few feet below me. I realized moments after I let go that I was going to overshoot and miss the branch I was aiming for. I looked down; there was still another ten feet to the ground. Wyn cried out in fear, which broke my concentration for a minute.

I pushed Wyn’s panic from my mind as I twisted in the air to grab a branch that was next to me. I knew my timing was off because of the distraction. My leg slammed into the tree, and I felt a small branch poke into my skin through my pants. I continued my descent, gravity pulling me down headfirst. As I reached for another branch below me, I could feel the twig grind against the skin on my calf as it ripped through my pants. Great.

I grabbed the last branch before swinging my legs down all the way, my feet coming in contact with the ground. I let go of the tree, my burst of energy dissipating as I released the tree branch and dropped to the ground to pull my leg around to inspect the cut. My skin was slightly scraped, barely even bleeding. My pants, on the other hand, were a lost cause. The fabric was cut from my knee all the way down to the hem.

“Oh, my gosh! Joclyn, that was amazing!” I heard Wyn come up right beside me, her voice in awe.