Brigid Kemmerer: Spark

Gabriel.

He could feel flames coming through the floor, looking for him. The sound of wood giving way was deafening. Sparks and ash rained down.

He wasn’t going to make it. He was going to fail. Again .

Then a hand closed over his wrist and pulled, hard .

Gabriel followed—what else could he do?

He burst into fresh air that felt arctic on his cheeks. That hand kept pulling, dragging him.

He stumbled and almost fell, but he caught himself before he dropped the girl.

He felt grass under his feet and slowed.

Someone was jerking the girl out of his arms. “Is she breathing?”

Hunter.

Had Hunter gone into . . . into that to drag him the rest of the way out of the darkness?

Also by Brigid Kemmerer

STORM

ELEMENTAL (an e-book)

SPARK * The Elemantal Series

BRIGID KEMMERER

KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

BEYOND THE STORY

Spirit,

Copyright Page

For Jonathan, Nicholas, and Baby Sam:

I thank my lucky stars every day for each of you.

As always, I have to start with my mother. She’s an amazing woman, and if not for her incredible support, you wouldn’t be holding this book in your hands. I’m grateful for her presence in my life every single day.

My husband, Michael, makes writing possible. He’s my best friend, my support system, the love of my life. And for some reason, he insists on waiting to read a finished book. So here you go, honey. I hope you like it. Thank you for everything.

Alicia Condon and the entire team at Kensington are all incredible. I can’t thank you all enough. I’m so glad I’ve gotten the chance to work with you all.

I have many close friends on this writing journey, but I would be remiss in not thanking Bobbie Goettler, Alison Kemper Beard, and Sarah Fine. You all keep me grounded, you keep me sane, and you keep me writing. You’re all amazing women, amazing mothers, and amazing writers, and I’m so lucky to know you.

This book took a tremendous amount of research. It absolutely would not have gotten written without support and assistance from Ed Kiser, Assistant Fire Chief for Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Department. He already works tirelessly at a thankless job, and he was able to spare a considerable amount of time for me (including immediate response to e-mails at one o’clock in the morning). Ed, I cannot thank you enough.

Additionally, I owe special thanks to Officer James Kalinosky, of the Baltimore County Police Department, and Officer Todd Schwenke, of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, for their information on police investigations, arson, arrest procedures, and anything else I could think to ask. I took all this research and delightfully twisted it to fit my needs. Any inaccuracies are on my part, not theirs.

Special thanks to Thomas Berry for providing every math question included in this book, as well as advice on how to handle teaching situations. If you’re his student, say thanks from me.

Special thanks to Layne Berry for letting me use her first name. I hope I did you proud.

Finally, extra special thanks to the Kemmerer boys, Jonathan, Nick, and Sam, for your love and support, especially understanding when I need to just plug in my headphones and write.

Gabriel Merrick stared at the dead leaf in his palm and willed it to burn.

It refused.

He had a lighter in his pocket, but that always felt like cheating. He should be able to call flame to something this dry. The damn thing had been stuck in the corner of his window screen since last winter. But the leaf only seemed interested in flaking onto his trigonometry textbook.

He was seriously ready to take the lighter to that .

A knock sounded on his bedroom wall.

“Black,” he called. Nicky always slept late, always knocked on his wall to ask what color he was wearing. If he didn’t, they ended up dressing alike.

Gabriel looked back at the leaf—and it was just that, a dead leaf. No hint of power. Behind the drywall, electricity sang to him. In the lamp on his desk, he could sense the burning filament. Even the weak threads of sunlight that managed to burn through the clouds left some trace of his element. If the power was there, Gabriel could speak to it, ask it to bend to his will.

If the power wasn’t, he had nothing.

His door swung open. Nick stood there in a green hoodie and a pair of khaki cargo shorts. A girl on the cheer squad had once asked Gabriel if having a twin was like looking in a mirror all the time. He’d asked her if being a cheerleader was like being an idiot all the time—but really, it was a good question. He and Nick shared the same dark hair, the same blue eyes, the same few freckles across their cheekbones.

Right now, Nick leaned on a crutch, a knee brace strapped around his left leg, evidence of the only thing they didn’t share: a formerly broken leg.

Gabriel glanced away from that. “Hey.”

“What are you doing?”

Gabriel flicked the leaf into the wastebasket beneath his desk. “Nothing. You ready for school?”

“Is that your trig book?”

“Yeah. Just making sure I told you the right assignment.”

Gabriel always attempted his math homework—and then handed it over for Nick to do it right . Math had turned into a foreign language somewhere around fifth grade. Then, Gabriel had struggled through, managing Cs when his twin brought home As. But in seventh grade, when their parents died, he’d come close to failing. Nick started covering for him, and he’d been doing it ever since.

Not like it was a big challenge. Math came to Nick like breathing. He was in second-year calculus, earning college credit. Gabriel was stuck in trigonometry with juniors.

He was pretty frigging sick of it.

Gabriel flipped the book closed and shoved it into his backpack. His eyes fell on that knee brace again. Two days ago, his twin’s leg had been broken in three places.

“You’re not going to make me carry your crap all day, are you?” His voice came out sharp, nowhere near the light ribbing he’d intended.

Nick took it in stride, as usual. “Not if you’re going to cry about it.” He turned toward the stairs, his voice rising to a mocking falsetto. “I’m the school sports hero, but I can’t possibly carry a few extra books—”

“Keep it up,” Gabriel called, slinging the backpack over his shoulder to follow his brother. “I’ll push you down the stairs.”

But he hesitated in the doorway, listening to Nick’s hitching steps as he descended the staircase, the creak of the banister as it supported his weight.

Gabriel knew he should help. He should probably be taking the place of that crutch. That’s what Nick would do for him .

But he couldn’t force himself through the doorway.

That broken leg had been his fault. Thank god Nick could pull power from the air, an element in abundance. He probably wouldn’t even need the brace by the end of the week.

And then Gabriel wouldn’t need to stare at the evidence of his own poor judgment.

He and his brothers had always been targeted for their Elemental abilities. Being pure Elementals, they should have been put to death as soon as they came into their powers. Luckily, their parents had struck a deal with the weaker Elementals in town.