Am I dead?

My eyes were closed. I swayed precariously on my feet, but still...I had to be dead to be tasting this.

My eyelids fluttered to give me a brief glimpse of light. So, not dead then. I drew in a breath of the aroma that surrounded me. But if not dead, then what?

I hadn't opened my eyes yet. When I finally did, I expected to be standing next to my mother. Maybe I was eight again. Maybe this was a dream? Perhaps...perhaps the last ten years were nothing but a figment of my imagination, a glitch in my brain's circuitry from being struck in the head by lightning?

That's right, the coma. Was I waking from the coma?

Daylight, I identified with a grimace, opening my eyes, and then squinting. I was outside, not at the hospital. I was staring down at my toes. They were dirty. I could feel the cold in them as they curled on the edge of a rock. There was water down below, churning, rushing, rippling. Something twisted in my heart. Mom isn't here. I...I really don't understand.

The aroma wafting through my open mouth and nose was so much like her, and yet, it was not really the same at all. This taste, it was nothing like her... Because this is something new?

Something newly realized, wild, and exhilarating. I swallowed and discovered I was filled with the fragrance, every pore exuding it. My saliva, my sweat, my breath, the sweetness was coming from my core. I exhaled a long breath, took it back in, and shook my head in disbelief.

My hand slid to my stomach, and then I remembered their two powers had come together inside of me.

No, I was not dead. In fact, I was more alive than ever. And I was in love. Heart hammering, I breathed in again, relishing the sensations wafting through me. My spectral soul and my physical soul had opened their eyes and spread their wings wide, fully aware, and now I understood. For how could I not acknowledge the whole truth, now that I was tasting it? This brave new understanding that was beyond being in heat, beyond the she-devvi crazed drive to reproduce. Just feelings, pure and unadulterated.

Lightning and Rain. Their power in my middle blended into one. It was perfect. They were perfect, together, in me. My two males and my two souls. I understood I was in love with them both, my one soul drawn inexorably to Micah, and the other to Alex.

I swayed on my feet, resisting the pull of the earth. The brightly lit air that surrounded me was warm, draining the cold from my toes. There was the disjointed realization again of the water below, swishing, rolling, bubbling-inviting. The river, I realized. I was standing over the river, and I had never felt more beautiful. I wasn't the abomination I had been made out to be in many people's minds. I. Am. Beautiful. In this very moment, in this dualistic love.

Letting a sweet breath of it roll out over my tongue, my bottom lip trembled. It had been ten years since I tasted anything close to this, and I'd never been this happy. My arms came up to my chest, hugging the happiness to me. I contemplated my position above the river, and the thought occurred to me that I could simply step off. I could give myself to the water below. I could take this beautiful happiness with me and hold onto it forever.

I took a step forward...

Two arms wrapped my waist from behind. My eyes shut at the familiar body pressing to my back. I could give myself over to the river...or, option two, I could stick around a little longer. My eyes reopened. Stay to see what became of this life, of having two soulmates.

"Micah?"

"I am here, little one."

I leaned back into him, fully accepting my second choice. "This light I'm seeing..." I lifted my chin. Like windswept curtains struck through by a shaft of sunlight, the light billowed out between Micah's arms where he held me. "This is my aura?"

"It is you, my sweet Aurora." His voice held an awed reverence. "By the gods, this radiance comes from you."

"Does my aura seem different?"

"Your heart, your body, and your two souls, they have become perfectly aligned." He explored the back of my head as he spoke, his nose rooting through my hair. He inhaled the light. "Harmony turns you into a whole different being, dear girl. Something more than human, even beyond devvi."

I turned in his arms to gaze up at him.

"Aurora, what makes you radiate like the sun?"

"I am happy."

"Happiness...?" He hesitated.

"You're still alive." I smiled wistfully, and he smiled back, the corners of his mouth soft.

He appeared tired, like he could sleep for days. But he was alive. My eyes widened then, and I searched his face.

"There's more?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Do something for me?"

"Anything."

Exhaling slowly, I touched the side of his face. "Breathe out"-my thumb smoothed down the bridge of his nose- "so I may breathe you in."

With one slow blink, he leaned close to touch his forehead to mine. Closing his eyes, he exhaled through his nose, long and hot. So sweet was the air he respired that tears filled my eyes.

Leaning back, he took one look at the expression flooding my face and realization hit him. "Peaches?"

"Peaches," I echoed, nodding.

Excitement fluttered across him. Triumph that quickly faded to a soft seriousness. His lips parted over mine, and he exhaled, slowly saying, "Aurora Whyte, I love you."

Closing my eyes, I took his love in, paused, and then exhaled, my lashes fluttering open. "Micah Valhalo, I love you as well."

His eyes widened. A pang of need shot through my full core, and I reached to grasp the back of his neck, ash curls twisting between my fingers. "I love you, Micah of the Lightning," I said it again. "I desire you in soul and in spirit, your voltage and your flesh. I take all of you here and now, and I make you my Beta."

After all, it was the proper title for the first male taken on by a female. If I was going to start doing things all she-devvi-like, officially create a queendom, I was going to use the correct terminology.

Other than using the word "beta" I didn't know where the rest of my proclamation had come from. It was simply there. This was the best phrasing to describe the instinctual need to claim and protect what was mine: my friend-and now my mate. Hopefully the leadership part of being an alpha would come to me just as naturally.

"From this moment forward I will consider myself taken," was his response to my declaration.

He was happy. I could sense it. Overjoyed, in fact. Though he kept his elation to a quiet flicker in his heated eyes, colored the glorious red wine that they warmed to when he was filled to the brim with strong emotion. My fingers loosened from his hair, and I allowed myself to be pulled into his embrace.

"I will love and protect my cherished female." With our bodies pressed close, his voice was a quiet rumble inside of me. "Love and protect and dote upon."

Dote upon? A shiver shot down my spine when a spike of lust stoked a fire to the wine in his eyes. "Is doting how you are choosing to label a deeper exploration of our physical relationship?" This meant he was determined to figure out a way for us to be intimate without electrocuting me.

"Ah yes." His rumbling voice went low, honey becoming thick. "Deep exploration. There will be much doting."

"Mmm...probably."

"Just probably?"

"Very probably." I rolled my eyes.

His lips hovered over mine. "I like that type," Micah teased with a gentle grin, pulling back from the brink of a kiss. "However first, my female, before the doting ensues, you should do something about that." His chin rose, gesturing skyward as he turned me around to see a looping brilliance against a velvet black night. The Sky Devil was still alive and making high arcs above the river.

"Oh!" I had completely forgotten about the umbra.

The long creature bayed, a mournful, echoing wail, almost the song of a lonesome whale. It was carrying on as if by my acknowledgment that it still existed, I had brought forth some sort of fervency in it.

"It calls out to you," he told me with a squeeze.

Unsure of what he meant, I stood very, very still, watching this luminous creature as it maintained a path of endless loops under a sprinkling of stars. The storms were long past. "She isn't chasing us anymore?"

"Even an umbra of this magnitude will never attempt to overcome power grander than itself."

"That means?"

"It acknowledges you as the Greater Force of Nature," Micah said with awed respect. "Who knows," he added with some hesitancy, "with time, you may not need my protection."

I frowned at his words. I might have been impressive with the power level I carried right now, but this "greater force of nature" stuff was surely a temporary condition. As soon as I released his and Alex's power, things would return to normal. I would be back to my not-as- tough-as-I-wished-I-could-be self. However, was Micah thinking more of the future? Did he believe that someday I would always be this way? Was his hesitancy a sign of fear that I wouldn't always need him?

"I will always need you," I said, just barely audible.

Silent, he shifted to watch me with solemn eyes. The sky umbra let out another succession of mournful tones. I would always need him in my life. My improbable, I-shouldn't-even-exist life. It wasn't going to be easy.

"I will need your help to maintain control."

The slant of his eyes told me he understood. I did not want to

have a repeat of my clothes crumbling from my body or of being used to shake a building apart. The lives of others surrounding mine were fragile-Reese, Trevor, Aaron, their families and friends who lived in Petroleum Valley. I needed to achieve perfect control.

"However, first things first." Together our attention returned to the sky. "Help me understand, Micah. Why has the sky umbra lost all of its color?"

"Color is an indication of lifespan. However, I can't say I've ever seen a pure white one. Its life force should have faded away a while ago."

So it shouldn't exist. Is that why its song sounded so mournful? Did it grieve because it was doomed to die? I leaned forward in Micah's arms, as if being closer by an inch would help. Or maybe, just maybe, it knew something was wrong.

"It can't die." I was very certain of this. "It wants so badly not to exist it hurts." It was in pain.

"Then it calls out because you alone have the strength to resolve the issue."

"She," I labeled softly. "She is calling out-how can I help?"

His hands smoothed down over my abdomen's curve, swelled with power. It was an intimate gesture, a man appreciating a woman's belly, something I wasn't used to.

"You've got the power to help right here. The possibility to relieve her of the burden of existence is swollen in you."

"I should use it?"

"How can you not? You can't keep it trapped forever."

My hands came down over his. Sadly, yes, I had to let it go. Letting go, however, probably meant the end of tasting peaches for now. Perhaps I could come up with some excuse to get Micah and Alex together. A nice, casual movie night, us three sitting closely together, snuggling on the couch eating popcorn. Hey, a girl can dream.

I nodded my affirmation, and Micah's arms slipped away. Taking a wider stance, I tossed my hair over my shoulder.

Wetting lips with the tip of my tongue, I pressed an index finger to my middle and drew a straight line, navel to mid-chest, concentrating. I didn't understand the reasoning behind these actions; it just seemed right. The power spindled in my core loosened with the outward gesture and proved me right.

Instinct. All of this just-knowing-what-to-do stuff was probably a very natural way of functioning for a devvi. Something the human part of me might not ever fully comprehend.

Exhaling slowly, I clasped myself by the elbow and raised my right arm to the sky, searching for the head, surrounded by its floating anemone-like mane. I aimed and followed with the swooping movement through the V of my fingers. It was like aiming for the darting front car of a roller coaster.

"That stance," Micah said at my back. "I've seen it before, used by an oxygen-fire wielding water devvi."

"Alex showed me a couple of things." Yeah, showed being the keyword. Really, it had been just a demonstration. I swallowed down a spark of fear. Jeez, should I really be trying this?

The power loosening in my middle responded appropriately when I raised my arm-just like it had done in Alex-and it came flowing back up the path it had taken in, up through my chest, where it tickled some, like the makings of a really good sneeze. It collected in my shoulder, expanding, and waiting. Waiting for the tweak in my knuckles that would open my palm to release it. Building, trigger, then achoo! Easy stuff, right?

The sensation of before, of wholeness and contentment, was already draining away, the taste of peaches fading with it.

With a soft sound, I steadied my aim, following her swooping arcs. I got ready to trip the trigger in my hand, but then I froze. I just stood there, dumbfounded, staring through my fingers when a thought struck me: It isn't on the physical plane.

"How am I supposed to hit it?"

Micah was instantly at my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Umbrae exist on the astral plane." Unease slid through me, the building pressure tightening my shoulder. "I thought I understood the mechanics behind this. But..." My mouth was going dry. Dang it. I couldn't move my arm. Could I even tweak my fingers?

"Micah," I squeaked with panic. Oh crap, my arm. The building pressure was going to blow it off. "I don't know how to shoot into the astral plane."

"Aurora," Micah growled, and he grabbed me from behind.

His closed fist pressed to my rib cage, and his other hand cracked me across the hip, startling me out of my hysteria. Gentle teeth slid into the sweet spot of my shoulder, and he gave the frozen muscle a tug. My back arched in response to his teeth, the position similar to the night we first kissed atop the golden smokestack.

His teeth loosened enough to talk. "To shoot into the astral plane you need to seek out the rhythm of her sleep. Wait for our galaxy to breathe in, and fire on the inhale."

"You can really sense something like that, this cosmic respiration?"

"As devvis we can find it when we concentrate."

"You can help me?" I took my eyes off the sky to nuzzle him.

His mouth in turn found mine. One slow kiss, and there was barely a snap of electricity to it. Cheddar, I had really drained him. So this was all on me. I was the one with the power. I had to put the sky serpent out of her misery.

"Breathe with me, Aurora."

I leaned backward into him, concentrating on the rise and fall of his chest. Sure enough, he had picked up a rhythm that wasn't his own. Deep, sound intakes. Slow, almost labored exhalation. This was the rhythm of a being in the midst of a fathomless sleep.

"Like this?" I matched him, my gaze upward, fixed on my target. The loops were getting slower, as if she sensed what was coming. I readjusted my stance. "Release on the inhale?"

"Slow exhale-pause-then release," Micah confirmed. "You can do this. I am with you."

I know you are. Slow exhale-pause-inhale.

After a few cycles of following his lead, I realized that I didn't need to. Reality itself had begun to shudder whenever I inhaled, drawing upon it. If I am breathing in sync with the galaxy, does this mean the galaxy is alive?

I blinked as reality shuddered again, this time with the throaty rumble of a speeding car. I knew this sound. I picked it out from my memory of having ridden home in the passenger seat from the movies. Alex is coming. His silver corvette raced across the blue bridge. He stomped on the accelerator, and the car lurched forward. He saw us on the rock in the spotlight.

Alex is coming because Micah contacted him. Soon, my dragon would be here, standing close by my lion. A pang of anticipation flashed through me as I exhaled. I was a being with two souls, a person with two soul mates. How was I ever going to manage this?

Exhale-pause-inhale. These two males, one of electricity, the other of water, two opposing elements encircling my life. Hovering, seeking, yearning, closing in to seal our fate. It was as if we three were caught up in some precarious waltz. I could only hope it didn't prove fatal to us all.

Exhale-pause-I twitched my hand, widening my fingers-and the surrounding sky vanished, night transformed into brilliance by a vivid white light.

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And with that, we have reached the end of BOOK ONE!

But wait! There's more :) Continue on to the next sections to read the first 30 pages or so of book two: "FIRE, WATER, BURN". The opening of book two picks up minutes after the conclusion of book one. So you get to see everything that happens after the "vivid white light." Is the Sky Devil vanquished? Does Alex reached Aurora and Micah in time to be any help? Will Aurora get another "three-way peaches" moment with Micah and Alex? Find out all of this and more in the FIRE, WATER, BURN bonus chapters to come: