Light My Fire by Katie MacAlister Read Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “Is that good? It sounds like it could be a compliment, but knowing Jim, maybe you meant that in a less than sterling way.”
    She just looked at me with mild brown eyes.
    I sighed. “Gotcha. You mean that I’m weird. It’s OK. Ive pretty much come to grips with that. Moving on ... what did Fiat mean about one of my kids—not that I’m going to have one anytime soon, and I’m not sure that Drake and I are going to be able to work things out, but assuming that miracles can happen and we do, what was all that about one of our kids not being wyvern after Drake?”
    “That is something for you to talk to him about,” she said, her lips making the thin line that I knew meant she wasn’t going to be forthcoming with any further information.
    “But you know the answer?”
    She nodded .
    “Criminy. Why does no one ever want to tell me any thing?” I groused quietly to myself as I took another sip of the dragon’s-blood beverage. Heat roared through me, causing a few stray flickers to erupt from my fingertips. Absently, I slapped them out. “It’s like some sort of guessing game and everyone knows the rules but me. I hate that sort of thing. It makes me want to take my ball and go home.”
    “You still do not have a true understanding of what it is you’ve agreed to do,” Amelie said, shaking her head. “Aisling, this is not a game you play. You hold many peo ple’s lives in the flat of your hand, and I fear that one day, you will destroy them without knowing it.”
    Her words hit me like a bucket of ice water. “I’m sorry, Amelie—I didn’t mean to appear flip. You may not believe it, but I’m very cognizant of my responsibilities to the dragons. Hence my rather strained restraint with Fiat earlier. And I know Jim would say I’m whining, but some times I feel like everything is stacked up against me, and there’s no way I’m ever going to find my way out.”
    “You will,” she said, signaling for the check. She plopped a couple of coins on the table. “You must simply embrace all of the possibilities.”
    “Right. Like the possibility that I’m not going to go insane, and someday, I will understand everything.” I snatched up my purse and followed Amelie through the crowded floor of the club to the door. Once again, a magical aisle opened up for us, and I was aware again of being the focus of many people’s attention. It was a very creepy feeling.
    “That is one possibility, yes. How much time do you have?” she asked as we made our way out of the club into the soft evening air, bright lights, and nonstop low drone of chatter that make up Paris on a summer night.
    “Eeek. About twenty minutes. Is it far to the train station?”
    “Non. We will walk there.”
    Security issues being what they are, we had to part at the outer lobby of the train station. Amelie embraced me, her smile warm and empowering.
    “You will do what is right, so long as you always leave yourself open to the possibilities. Be true to yourself, and everything will fall into place,” was her parting advice. I wished her well in return and told her I’d give her a call in a few days to set up a time when Jim could come to visit Cecile again.
    I’d arrived earlier than required at the train station, had ample time to get through customs, and soon found myself wandering around the departure area, waiting for our slightly delayed train to arrive. Even though it was late at night, the station was crowded with English tourists returning home after a day spent shopping and sightseeing. The station was a cacophony of the usual train station noises—people talking and laughing, children running around screeching as they played tag or just generally got in the way of people trying to move through the mass of bodies, music coming from the fringes, where several street musicians had set up competing stations, and occa sional blasts of static-filled, unintelligible announcements from the train company, in what I assumed was