Kiss the Sky

1 Kira F ire burst into life inside my open palm, and with it came the fear. I forced myself to keep the flame going and to stare at the ball of light and heat in my hand, even as cold terror washed over me and sent shivers down my spine. For much of my life fire had been my torment and my terror, a reminder of my past and a deadly threat to my future, but not anymore. Now I was going to learn to control it—and my fear with it. “Are you trying to kill us all?” a cold voice asked behind me. I turned toward Reven, squinting against the bright sun behind him. “I need to practice if I ever want to get better with fire.” “Not on this boat.” My black-haired assassin gestured around us. “This entire thing is made of wood. One stray spark and we’ll all go up in flames.” He did have a point. I closed my hand over the ball of fire, immediately dousing it. “It’s a good thing we have you then, isn’t it?” He scowled, but it didn’t make him any less handsome. If anything, quite the opposite. “Nice to know my role in this group is to keep you and Jasin from burning the world down.” He shot a glare at Jasin, who stood on the other side of the boat talking with Auric while making flying gestures with his hands. Auric’s golden hair caught the sunlight while he crossed his arms and furrowed his brow at whatever Jasin was saying. My fourth mate, Slade, sat nearby, ignoring the two of them as he sharpened his axe. He had the rich, dark skin common in the Earth Realm, along with a short beard and a large, impressive body that was all muscle. “Your role in this group can be whatever you wish,” I said. “Assuming you actually want to be one of us, that is.” “I’m here, aren’t I?” Reven snapped, before spinning on his heel and stalking off, his black cloak trailing behind him. I sighed as I watched his brooding form disappear below deck. He was here, yes. But would he stay this time? I leaned on the wooden railing and gazed across the waves. An unnatural wind—created by Auric—tousled my hair and filled the sail, guiding our boat northeast toward the Air Realm. In every direction all I saw was water and sky, a never-ending field of varying shades of blue that reminded me of my childhood spent in the Water Realm. After years living in the other kingdoms I only now realized how much I’d missed being surrounded by the ocean. I wondered if Reven felt the same, since he’d also grown up in the Water Realm, but I doubted he would admit it to me if he did. I rarely thought about my childhood since it only brought pain, but now I closed my eyes and breathed in the salty air and let my mind travel back. Back to growing up on the shoreline under the shade of palm trees. Back to the smell of fresh fish off the boat. Back to my mother, with her hazel eyes and sandy hair, and my father, with his scratchy beard and sun-kissed skin. The Fire God had told me they weren’t my birth parents, but to me they always would be my real family. Besides, I looked nearly identical to my mother, except I had red hair instead of blond. How could she not be my real mother? And if they weren’t my birth parents, then who was? Perhaps the Air God could tell me once we made it to his temple. This was only our first full day on this boat—we’d spend last night either trying to figure out how to sail, or passed out from exhaustion after our encounter at the Fire Temple—but we had many more days ahead of us before we would reach the Air Realm and the temple there. And after that our journey would continue across the other Realms, growing more impossible with each day. For hundreds of years our world had been ruled by the five Dragons, the divine representatives of the Gods of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. But in recent years the Gods had grown weary of the Dragons’ oppressive control and recently chose new Dragons to take their place: me and my four mates. Only problem? The current Dragons had no interest in stepping down. For most of my life I’d rarely spared a moment to think on the Gods, absent as they were, and when I thought of the Dragons it was with fear and anger. All of that changed on my twentieth birthday when I was struck by lightning and began having visions of the four men who would become my mates. A month later they each arrived in my village and I was forced to face the truth: that I was the next Black Dragon, who represented the Spirit Goddess and could control all five elements. The other men—Jasin, Slade, Auric, and Reven—each represented one of the other elements. And to unlock our powers and our Dragon forms, I had to bond with all of them. Yesterday I’d bonded with Jasin, my confident, flirtatious soldier, who’d been chosen by the Fire God to be the next Crimson Dragon. Jasin had once served the current Dragons in the Onyx Army, but he’d had a change of heart after he was forced to do things he didn’t agree with, including wiping out entire villages thought to be harboring members of the Resistance. At first I’d been hesitant to give my heart or my body to Jasin since he was a complete stranger to me, although not to other ladies it seemed. But after ten days of traveling to the Fire Temple together he’d won me over and I’d eagerly taken him as my mate. The memory of it sent a rush of warmth through me now. His hands on my skin. His mouth between my thighs. The fire that had swept over us as the bond had completed. And when it was done, I’d been able to summon fire and Jasin could turn into a dragon.