Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

He rolled onto his side. Even covered in sweat and dirt, he was handsome. There was a certain wildness to him that she appreciated. Angry red welts striped his arms, blue blood oozing on some that had split skin. He didn’t seem to notice he had been injured.

Jasper met her gaze through the flames. “So it was a person who locked you up?”

“It was many people.” She leaned forward and tossed another log into the fire. “Ignes, don’t be greedy.”

“Why did they put you in the World Tree?”

“There are prisons for criminals to spend a few years in, and there are prisons where you bury criminals in the ground and throw away the key. They didn’t want me to ever get out.”

“Why?”

She wished she had an answer. “People are afraid of what they don’t understand. This was back when we had no idea what the creatures inside of us were. I remember the day I wasn’t alone in my head. People were frightened. There were some who swore that it was the apocalypse. Or worse.”

A flash of white brightened the shadows of his beard as he grinned at her. “You remember not having anyone else in your head?”

“Faintly. I don’t remember a lot anymore. But I remember being only human. I was going to go to school to be a med student.”

“A what?”

“A healer.” She had forgotten that many of the old terms had been lost when magic replaced the jobs. “But Ignes was so young when we joined together. He didn’t know how to control his powers, and neither did I. We weren’t prepared for what was expected of us.”

“He was young?” Jasper shifted. “He doesn’t seem young.”

She snorted. “Yeah, he comes across like he’s mature. But Ignes is very young for a Phoenix. He’s the same age I am, and they aren’t considered adults until they are over a thousand.”

“Wow. That must have been difficult to be saddled with a baby at that age. How old were you?”

“I don’t remember,” she told him. “I don’t even remember my old name. Ignes named me once I started to forget my old life. I never thought something so important as my name would be the first thing to drift away. But it did.”

Jasper sat up and braced himself on his knees. “So what happened then? What caused them to be afraid of you?”

“Other than not being able to control my magic? Phoenixes are supposed to spend the beginning of their lives swimming in lakes of lava. The only lava lakes we have here are deep inside volcanoes or in the core of the earth. You can imagine they’re not very easy to find.”

She took a deep breath and continued, “Ignes tried to make his own lake. It took more out of me than I had anticipated, because to use his power, he has to use my lifeforce. We were in the lava before I could say anything. I thought for certain I would die. The other people who were possessed weren’t physically changed that much.

“But I lived. We were in that lake for hours before I finally dragged myself out of it. The lava should have stuck to me. It should have cooled like a crust and killed me. But it didn’t. I didn’t have an explanation for how I survived or what Ignes had done to me. A few people in my town saw me coming out of the lake and, to them, it was confirmation that we were possessed by demons.”

Jasper winced. “Backwards country types, huh?”

“They were afraid. I don’t blame them for what they did. I blame them for how they did it.” She shuddered. “They tried burning me. I don’t know why they thought that would work after what they saw. When I survived that, too, my own brother dragged me through these woods and stuck me in the roots of the World Tree. I still don’t know what magic they used to convince it to hold me until now.”

“The mark on the tree. That was your handprint,” he murmured. “Maybe you really are part of the prophecy.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry that happened to you. But you’re free now.”

She rubbed at her chest. A warmth had bloomed there that had nothing to do with Ignes. “Thank you. For what it’s worth, I do appreciate you getting me out of there.”

A flash of bright teeth answered her. “Prettiest treasure I’ve ever been sent to collect.”

She rolled her eyes and watched him sink back down onto the moss. This time, Mercy heard his breathing change as he fell asleep. All the while, her heart ached with a gentler heat than she had ever experienced before.

9

The sun rose sooner than Jasper expected. He groaned as the weak morning light hit his closed eyes. He didn’t want to wake up because he knew he wasn’t back in Haven. He wasn’t in his cell. He was with the most confusing woman he had ever met in his life.

Bluebell giggled in his head. “She brought us home! I like her.”

Mercy was all intriguing secrets and fiery temper. Jasper wanted to figure her out nearly as much as he wanted to go home. But, if he was completely honest, he wasn’t sure if he liked her. She was a broken thing, missing too many pieces.

Her own people had locked her up. Jasper immediately wanted to go back in time and force them to regret their actions. If he couldn’t find a way to do that, he would find all of their descendents and make them pay.

But these weren’t logical thoughts. He was a Fairy, he wasn’t cruel, and he certainly didn’t hurt people just because he could.

And still he wanted to harm people for harming her.

Which was ridiculous. He didn’t know her very well, and she had made it clear she was a loner. Hell, he would have been, too. The people she trusted most had