Excerpt: Fire and Earth

“But, some stretched out leprechaun's been waiting for you.”

I'm used to Jess saying things that most people would find a bit odd, but that's beyond her norm. “Leprechaun?”

She ignores the question to go on. “I wouldn't give him any info on you, so he's just been hanging out with the books.”

My head turns toward the reading room, a small and comfortable library that's quiet on Tuesdays like today and filled with loud debates over Trivia Pursuit questions on a Friday night. My eyes narrow as a tall figure enters the doorway on cue. Even with Social Distortion playing on low volume in the background, I'm sure he heard everything that's been said since I got here.

He's no leprechaun. The unmistakable power of Dragon flows from him. But he is a textbook Irish redhead, freckles and all. Well... Aside from the eyes that dance not in emerald tones but with a fiery garnet.

Not that you can see his real eyes right now. They're lurking behind brown contacts. But I remember them far too well considering that it's been fourteen years since I last saw them.

“Riley?”

The grin is the same as it was when we were teenagers, a wicked look that defies authority and laughs at the entire universe. “Miss me, Kyra?”

Miss him?

You could say that. Or you could say that it took a full decade for me to stop catching imaginary glimpses of him everywhere I went. Now I'm down to once or twice a day.

“You're taller,” I say.

Gods, how inane!

“Am I?” He looks down his body, seeming bored. Then he looks down mine, seeming less so. “No, I think you shrunk.”