Fall into Fire (Shamans of the Divide, Book 2)

Chapter Ten

It was a long, torturous ride to the bottom. We stopped every few inches while the ride attendant adjusted locks and gears and who knows what else. All I know is Renn never took his eyes off of me.

When we were finally let out of the ride, I told Cody that I recognized some people in the crowd and that I should go say hello.

"How on earth do you know anyone here?" He asked, keeping up with me.

"It's a really long, complicated story," I said, shaking my head. "Trust me."

Skye picked me up in a bear hug before things got awkward between us.

"Where's your crutch, invalid?" He teased, noticing I wasn't hobbling so much.

"I left it at the ranch," I said with a shrug. Skye's smile faded a little when he noticed the tension building in the air between Renn and Cody. They were watching each other in mirrored positions. Both had their hands somewhere on their hips with wide stances. They stood the same height and were measuring each other up.

"This is Cody," I said to Skye. Skye shook Cody's hand and introduced him to Renn, saving me the trouble.

Neither said anything and continued the face off.

"July, this is our friend from Montana," he said and I looked to where he was pulling someone from behind Renn. My heart dropped to my feet when I saw her face. The girl from my dream. The girl Renn let me drown for.

"This is Asha, she's a family friend," he said as the girl stepped forward and raised an eyebrow at me.

Just like in my dream, this girl was gorgeous. She had perfect, smooth skin and big brown eyes. An annoying pink rosebud mouth held firmly in a scowl at me. Her long black hair was neatly braided down her back and hung to her waist. She wore broken in jeans that hugged every one of her curves and perfectly polished red cowboy boots.

Good lord, her boots were perfect. Damn.

"I'm more than a family friend," she said, throwing Skye a look.

My hand was extended, but she took one look at it turned away.

I finally looked at Renn.

"What are you two doing here?" I managed to blurt out. I could hardly concentrate on what he was saying, the blood was rushing to my ears thanks to my pounding heartbeat.

"I thought you might be in trouble," he said quietly and his eyes jumped up to Cody. "But I guess you're just fine."

I looked to Skye with a question. What was going on?

"He had a dream," Skye said with a shrug.

"It was nothing, obviously," Renn interrupted Skye from saying anymore.

Skye started talking about the long ride over from Fort Hall and as much as I tried to keep up with him, my attention was drawn away.

I watched as the crowd moved in unison down the midway. Shapes and colors coming and going in a giant blur. All indiscernible. All moving. Except for one figure. He was a younger man, standing at the balloon pop game, watching as a teenager and his girlfriend threw darts at the inflated yellow balloons. They hit one and threw their arms up when it popped. The young man looked confused and tilted his head from side to side, as though trying to get a handle on what he was watching.

Unable to move, I continued to watch as the man turned slowly and showed his face. It was a mangled and fleshy mess, hardly recognizable and I gasped. It was obvious now that his clothes were merely shreds, bloody and blowing in an invisible wind. He only had one eye from what I could tell and he finally met my gaze. We held the stare down a moment before the dead man slowly shook his head from side to side