Burn First, Fall Later

Prologue

Gods, it was hot tonight.

I shuffled on my feet, hating everything about my life in one fevered moment.

My dress.

My parents.

The fact that I was surrounded by adults drinking and talking and being too loud when all I wanted to do was relax in bed with a movie and chocolate like most teenagers my age.

I searched for a distraction amongst the richly dressed people, shiny floor and the clinking of glasses. The most obvious one was the large intricate water fountain. The sound of the water had been one of the only things soothing me for the last hour. But now even that was gone.

I frowned at it. It took me a moment to work out what was wrong with it. Instead of a lovely fall of crystal clear water over the marble stone, there were now ice sculptures in its place. And not just any ice sculptures - explicit ones.

I had only just learned that word in English class, and this definition definitely applied tonight.

And explicit things did not belong in this pretentious stuffy ballroom that felt like it was going to strangle me with its thick air of politics and rigid manners.

I hurried over to the small group of kids laughing and shooting off sparks, wind funnels and blasts of ice into the thickly scented garden beyond the French doors.

I grabbed the arm of the loudest reveller, my red-haired ten-year-old sister.

“Elena Knox. Would you stop freezing the water into dirty images? Mom is going to pop an artery.”

My younger sister by two years pouted at me, her still chubby cheeks painted with red excitement. “What else am I supposed to do? This party is boring.”

“This isn't a party. It's a fundraiser.” I sighed and added dryly. “And you know that everything that Mom organises is boring. Just go and keep Dad company alright? He’s standing in the corner as usual not knowing what to do with himself.”

Elena huffed and pulled at her stiff royal blue dress. “You aren’t any fun anymore. If you aren’t careful you will turn into a proper Knox and start bossing everyone around like you have a stick up your -.”

“Don’t cuss.” I cut off Elena’s words, knowing exactly where her derisive sentence was going. “And don’t compare me to mom. I will never be like her.”

“I suppose not. For one you don't have any magic. And two you can’t carry off your dress half as good as she can.”

I glanced over at our mother, dressed in another shade of the same blue Elena and I were wearing.

Alaina’s was almost black, the silhouette virtually brutal as it wrapped around her slim body like a cage. Elena’s was more an age-appropriate puffy concoction, and mine…well mine was somewhere in between - although as the sister with no magical legacy to continue our line, I had been relegated to the palest blue possible.

“I thought we would wear red.” Elena continued. “You know, to represent our line of fire.”

“Well, the fire is a little burnt out now, isn't it?” I muttered.

I had none, and Elena had taken her element from our dad and had water magic.

“Whatever.” Elena pulled herself away. “I'm going out with my friends to the garden and having some real fun while I can. I’m not old enough to be shown off to the press tonight, and therefore of no use to Mom. She won't even know I'm missing.”

I was going to stall her, knowing the trouble a bunch of pre-teen kids could get up to if left unsupervised - let alone teens from a bunch of the most powerful Gen M families. But then I saw Max Callaway coming towards me and all thoughts of trying to be the responsible Knox sister fled.

Max was...something. Blonde. Confident. Handsome if you liked boys who never shut up about themselves. But he was also on the other side of a war against my kind just by coincidence of our births.

He was normal. And I was...not.

Elena sensed my distraction and smiled in triumph. “See ya!”

She was gone in an instant.

“Great. That was your fault.” I said, sending Max a withering look.

“What was?” He frowned in confusion and then held out a frosted cupcake. “Do you want one of these? And I mean to eat, not throw at my head like your eyes are warning me that they want to.”

“No, I don't want a cupcake.” I took the treat and threw it into the table behind me.

“It’s good. The chef must have earth magic because those sprinkles are a little bit of heaven on -.”

“I was supposed to be taking care of Elena.” I interrupted his enthused review of the food. “And then you swaggered over here and I lost her.”

“I wouldn't call the three steps it took me to get here a swagger. I could see you standing here looking lonely and thought you needed company.”

“I don't need company, especially not yours.”

Max ignored my attitude and asked. “Your sister will be fine. She’s a smart girl.”

“That isn't the point.”

“Is the point that you just don't want to have any fun at all? Because you are making it very well.” Max rolled his eyes. “Why aren't your parents looking after her?”

“The same reason your father is across the room talking to the security general and ignoring you. They are important. And tonight their kids are merely window dressing.”

“You make an extremely nice window dressing though,” Max said with an easy grin.

I flushed a little, not used to the new Max - the one who had emerged only a few months ago when he had turned fourteen - whose barbs were now laced with something else other than childish teasing. Something that I couldn't comprehend at twelve. I knew enough though to recognise that his slow smiles and lazy-lidded words were crafted to make me even more unsettled than I usually was.

“You shouldn't be conversing with the enemy,” I said, once again glancing toward my mom to make sure she wasn't witnessing this little interlude and then towards Max’s father. “Tyler won’t like us talking.”

“You aren't my enemy.” Max moved a step closer. “More like a jousting partner in a battle no one ever wins.” He ran his eyes over my dress. “And besides, you look pretty tonight. I wanted to tell you that before we are forced to stand in front of the press and tell them how much we disagree with each other.”

I closed my mouth, not having a retort for that.

“Ah.” Max grinned again. “I've finally silenced Sofia Knox.”

“You haven't -.”

“Sofia!”

I was grateful - for probably the first time in my life - to hear my mother calling me.

“I have to go.” I stepped away from his closeness and his heat. “Duty calls.”

Max’s smile slipped, something uncomfortable shading his expression. “Me too. But before you go, let me fix your dress.”

“My dress doesn't need -.”

My words were cut off in a sharp gasp as he reached over and straightened one falling strap back onto my shoulder. I surely imagined his fingers lingering, and the sparks that followed his touch as he gave me a brisk smile and then released me.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

“Don’t thank me. Just making sure you are ready for the perfect family photo.”

“Right.” I huffed.

Max met my eyes. “I meant it, you know. You look beautiful tonight.”

“You said pretty.”

“Then I upgraded it.” He laughed, the sound familiar and irritating all at once as he continued in a dry tone. “I just had the funniest thought.”

“What?” I asked, not sure if I wanted the answer. And not knowing if I could believe whatever he was going to say anyway. Ever since I had known him, he had done his best to keep me off kilter.

“I think I might marry you someday,” Max said then, perfectly living up to his reputation and all at once sending my stomach into freefall.

“That’s impossible.” I countered immediately.

“Because you are a generation M and my father stands for the oppression of all magic?”

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

“Then why it is impossible?”

“Because I don’t like you.”

Max seemed to find my declaration hilarious. “Just wait and see, Sofia. Life might surprise you.”

“I don't think so.” I turned and hurried away, pinning a smile on for my mother - the first in a long line of modern magic and currently campaigning for a seat on the senate - as she gathered me to her with a practised and polished expression.

I avoided the eyes of Tyler Callaway on the other side of the room. He was watching me in that creepy way he always seemed to at these public events.

I shivered, hoping to hell that the leader of all things anti-magic and the government division that regulated my family and every other family that had access to elemental powers - hadn't just heard his only son declare that he was going to marry me.

What a completely ridiculous thought. And one that would never ever come to pass.