Touching Fire (Touch Saga) by Airicka Phoenix Read Free Book Online

lock gave and the door swung inward to reveal a small, tiled room that looked vaguely familiar.
    “I thought you would like to retrieve your things,” Ashton replied simply, moving through the opening.
    I spared Isaiah a quick glance and was rewarded with a shrug. Without a word exchanged, I turned and followed Ashton.
    It was a bathroom, cramped, dimly lit and smelling heav ily of antiseptic. A damp towel lay in one corner behind the door and the lingering humidity thickened the room. The narrow cubical was still beaded with water droplets from the shower I’d taken almost an hour ago.
    “How did we…?”
    Words failed me as we walked into the sleeping area and it really hit me just how far we’d traveled simply by walking through a door, a door that had not been there that morning.
    The motel we’d chosen had been, like all the others, a hasty decision. I don’t think we ever actually planned which motel we’d go to next. We always just sort of wound up at them at random. They were only meant to give us a place to rest for a few nights before we moved on.
    Our current crash pad was no different. The carpets were urine-free and the wallpaper still had some of its color , but our only interest had been the beds.
    There were two, but only one had the sheets thrown back and the pillow flattened. The one I used. The one I guessed I should have made before leaving. But how had I to know my father would return with us? It wasn’t as though that had been the plan. Truthfully, I had expected a few more meetings before we did the whole house visiting thing. However, that was clearly not going to happen.
    My father was standing in the center of the motel, eyeing the rumpled bed and all I could think was how bad that must have seemed.
    Isaiah and I did sometimes share a bed. Those nights were rare and usually only when I awake from a night mare, bathed in cold sweat. But not once had we ever done anything inappropriate. Hell, we hadn’t even shared a kiss. The guy was a saint. Not that it showed, what with one bed a total mess and the other not even touched. But I had no idea how to assure him that Isaiah spent most of the night sitting by the window without making the matter worse. So I opted to say nothing.
    “Why don’t you grab your things?” Ashton turned away from the bed to face me.
    It was a struggle not to blush.
    So awkward.
    “Why?” I asked. “ Where are we going?”
    Archer moved away from the bathroom doorway and went to the only window in the place. He pulled back the heavy curtains and peered outside.
    “We don’t have much time,” he remarked.
    “You’re not safe here,” Ashton said. “Not from Garrison … or anyone else.”
    I frowned at his hesitation. “Who else are we running from? Those creatures at the park?”
    Archer and my father exchanged glances. I had no idea how Ashton could read anything on Archer’s featureless face, but he sighed and focused on me once more.
    “I’ll explain everything once we’re out of here.”
    “Including the magical door in the bathroom?” I countered, raising an eyebrow.
    Ashton indulged me with a small smile. “ Even that.”
    Reluctant , I moved to the bed and retrieved the duffle bag stowed away underneath. It was already packed and ready to grab at a moment’s notice. I also pulled out the second bag that was Isaiah’s and dropped them both down on the bed.
    I’d lost most of my stuff while Isaiah and I had been on the run. Whatever remained back in Manitoba was my mom’s, which was packed inside her broken down Impala, alongside Isaiah’s motorcycle and Mom’s ashes. We never got the chance to go back and get our things after we’d been kidnapped and forcibly flown three provinces over. We’d spent the last four weeks buying small quantities of supplies that we could pack and move at a second’s notice. So it weighed nothing.
    “Done,” I said.
    It was a warped kind of satisfaction, seeing the surprise and fascination on Ashton’s