Read Online Changeling by Kelly Meding - Free Book Online Page A

out. Arms sprouted feathers. Nose sharpened, turned hard and yellow. Black feathers began to cover everything, head to torso, as his body shrank to less than one-fifth its former size. In moments, a green-eyed raven lit off to the sky and soared toward the factory. Cipher jogged after him, tossing a supportive wink to Trance as he left.
    A hand touched my shoulder. Trance lowered her voice. “Only what you can handle, Ember.”
    “I know,” I said. “I’ll be careful.”
    “How come you never worry about me like that?” Tempest asked.
    “Because you’re cautious enough for ten people.”
    “How about we all be careful?” Flex said.
    It was something everyone agreed on.
    Tempest and I approached the blaze from the west. Water from the fire hoses flowed around our feet in gray streams. The thick odor of damp pavement warred with the smell of smoke, making it difficult to breathe properly. I sucked in deep breaths through my mouth. We took position twenty feet from the leaping flames. Firetrucks surrounded us. Firemenwrangled their hoses and ladders and kept the crowd at bay.
    None of that mattered. We had to concentrate.
    Side by side, we gazed up at the inferno. Tempest raised his hands above his head. Cooler air swirled around us, creating a bubble within which it became easier to breathe. The fresh air energized me and helped me focus.
    “I’ll suck the oxygen out of the interior of the warehouse,” he shouted. “Take away the fire’s fuel and kill the source.”
    I nodded. “Go for it. I’ll see what I can do about this heat.”
    The fresh air disappeared as Tempest concentrated his powers elsewhere. I closed my eyes and opened up to the heat, welcoming it inside my body. To my very core. Hundreds of degrees, thousands of individual flames. Out of the wood and metal and chemicals, into me.
    In, in, deeper in.
    Superheated, but unburned. Surrounded, but not smothered. Constantly in motion, but unmoving. I descended into the bowels of hell, where fire and brimstone and ash thrived, heat blazed in all its glory, and cold had no chance of survival. The inferno glowed like embers, the innards of a piece of coal. Sharp and bright and red.
    My heart pounded. Blood raced through my veins, hot like a lava flow. Energizing and exhausting all at once—the perfect adrenaline rush. I skated along the edge, terrified of going too far, of losing myself, of making a deadly mistake. Of hurting someone else.
    So much fire, almost too much. Closer to the ember, deeper into the flames.
    The edge of reason narrowed, and an abyss loomed. My chest hurt; my heart was pounding right through my ribs. I couldn’t see, couldn’t smell, couldn’t breathe.
    And then I fell. Down, down, unable to stop.
    No.
    I pulled out of it, but didn’t quite make the jump. The hard pavement scraped my hands. All I saw was flame—bright and scorching, sweeping over and into me. My lungs seized; I couldn’t breathe. Someone touched me. Shouted. Pulled. Shouted again.
    Skin burned. Sizzled. Too hot, too much. I screamed, soundless and never-ending. Still couldn’t breathe.
    Air whipped, cool and fast. Wrapped me in its chilly embrace. Lifted me up and out. Flying. Descending.
    The flames were gone, but the intense heat remained. My body radiated it, unable to absorb anything else.
    Come on, girl, come out of it. You’ve got a breakfast date tomorrow, remember?
    Frigid wetness enveloped me in its slick embrace. I latched onto that sensation and held on tight.
    I woke up in the back of an ambulance, soaking wet and covered with blankets. The gurney beneath me was drenched. Nauseating odors of smoke and burned plastic lingered, and set my stomach roiling. I coughed, lurched to the side, and tried to vomit onto the floor. Nothing but dry heaves, as my angry lungs forced old air from my body. I retched until my throat burned and my stomach threatenedto turn inside out, then I collapsed onto my back, rattling the gurney.
    The roof of the ambulance