Spring Rain by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online

feel the work you’ve done. It’s
amazing. Do you need any help?”
    “I don’t think so. I think it’s just a
matter of time.”
    “Well let me know if you decide you do.” She
smiled and passed him, headed towards the stairs. “If you’re good
with the dorms, I’ll open them up today. Wanna take a look at the
other dorm and new fitness center?”
    “Sure.” He trailed her out of the first dorm
building, toured the second, and finished his inspection with the
remodeled fitness center. His father was a marathon runner and
workout fanatic; the equipment was top of the line. His eyes
skimmed all of it and settled on the wrestling mats where he’d once
challenged Morgan to a match.
    His blood warmed at the remembrance of her
soft skin and fire. She could fight well, compliments of an
overprotective brother with several black belts. He’d won only by
dragging her to the ground where she couldn’t use her size and
speed to best him. He smiled at the memory of her raw sex appeal
and quick anger. She was too naïve to know why every guy in the gym
had wanted to wrestle her that day. A combination of the natural,
burning sultriness characteristic of fire witchlings and her beauty
had stopped even him in his tracks.
    “Beck, you coming?” Amber called from the
doorway.
    He blinked away the warm memories and
followed her out of the fitness center to the administrative
offices. Classes had started, and the hallways and common areas
were quiet once more.
    “… review the spring
semester class schedule,” Amber was saying and plopped an iPad on
the desk before her.
    There were moments when being the Master of
Light was really boring. Beck prepared himself for a day spent
catching up with the school’s administrative tasks and sifting
through his emails to determine what else he had missed in his
exile.
    “Let me check out Miner’s Drop first and
I’ll be back to help out,” he said.
    “I’ll be here!”
    He didn’t bother going outside to summon his
fog. He was careful about it in front of the students, but Amber
knew what he could do.
    Seconds later, he emerged at the bottom of
Miner’s Drop, beneath the cliff that still inspired disturbing
memories whenever he saw it. He shivered in its shadow. He recalled
too well what happened the night Summer jumped, how her broken body
had looked from the top of the cliff and how Decker had almost gone
mad over the course of a single night.
    There were no good memories of Miner’s Drop
or the field nearby where he had later fought Decker with
magick.
    Beck turned away. Unable to sense Dark the
way Decker could, Beck searched the floor of the rocky valley with
his gaze before beginning to walk down its center. He sensed …
something. A stillness of the air, the electrified air present
before it was about to snow or storm even though the sky was
clear.
    He paused midway through the valley, unable
to continue. A sheet of solid ice had settled into the lowest
points, and he wasn’t wearing the best boots to navigate it. The
snow remained here whereas it was melting from the forest floor. He
was about to dismiss Amber’s concern when he caught the footprints
in the snow running along one wall of the canyon towards a series
of caves he and Decker used to play in as children.
    The imprints were crisp and fresh.
    Beck left the path he was on to follow them.
His feet crunched into the snow. More than one set of footsteps
were visible. From the size of the shoe prints and the length of
the strides, he guessed one was a woman and the other a man. They
led along the wall to the first of four small caves.
    He steadied himself against the rocky wall
and leaned into the first. It was dark and shallow, and sunlight
reached the back wall.
    “One down,” he said, his curiosity growing
about what two witchlings were doing out here in the canyon. It
was, and had been, off-limits to Light witchlings for quite some
time. That the Dark witchlings were traveling forty five minutes