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“I can hear your heart pounding,” he said with the confidence of a man who knew his exact place at the top of the food chain. “Did you know, some say if you give someone your real name, they have power over you?”
“I’m sure they say if you tell someone the hard thing that built you, it would also give a person power over you.”
“Mmm,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
He eased his powerful hand down for a shake. “Once upon a time, my real name was Josiah.”
She ghosted a glance to his hand, then back to his solemn face. “Josiah Itall,” she said softly, testing the name.
“No one knows me by that name anymore, besides my mother.”
“Would you like me to keep it a secret?”
He nodded once.
She looked at his hand again, still extended for a shake. The handprint on her arm was absolutely on fire right now, and it was intimidating to think of touching him again.
Green flames traveled down his arm with awhoosh. She gasped and jumped back a foot, but there was no heat from those strange-looking flames. His hand was consumed with the green fire, and a small smile curved his lips. “You gave me a new power. The world will probably hate you for it someday. Maybe you are the beginning of the end.”
God, he was terrifying. Beautiful like some avenging angel come to earth, but terrifying.
He stretched his hand out farther. She blew out three quick breaths to hype herself up, set the flowers and candy down on the ground, and then slapped his palm once, testing. It was warm, but not burning hot.
The green flames sent a soothing sensation up her arm, and siphoned the burn from the handprint on her other arm. “You’re scary,” she admitted, hiding her smile as she considered touching him again.
“Oh, you have no idea,” he rumbled, and she knew he meant it. He really was scary, and was self-aware as well.
She slowly reached her fingertips toward him, hesitated, then slid them against his palm and clasped his hand.
The translucent green flames rolled up her arm and stopped just shy of her jawline. She gasped and stood as still as she could, just holding his hand as a buzzing sensation droned through her arm. It tingled a little, but at the same time was soothing like a massage. The handprint on her arm felt like nothing at all now.
The smile had faded from his lips, and his eyes were trained on the green flames roiling up her arm as they held their hands clasped. “You’re the one who is scary,” he said low.
He released her suddenly. She stood there by her candy and her vases of flowers as he backed out of her driveway and drove away.
Her? Scary?
She was just a fragile little human.
Him, on the other hand.
He was a monster.
The name Wreck suited him.
Chapter Three
Green flames.
What the hell did green flames even mean? And why did he only have access to them around Timber?
He twitched his fingers open and tried to conjure the green, but only the hot yellow showed up, like a blowtorch spewing fire from his palm.
With a frown, he closed his fist and extinguished the fire.
Perhaps the animal in him was still growing in power, and needed something to focus on when he used the green flames in these early days of discovery.
Perhaps the entire world would be consumed with green flames someday, when he finally lost all control.
