Page 87 of Wild Fires

“Which is why they will only be focusing on containment efforts working safely from the perimeter.”

I went into details on the plan we'd erected.

“This just might work,” he finally conceded. “And I could pull some of my men back to help aid from within.”

We quickly got to work getting people into place.

It warmed my heart to think of so many people banding together in a common effort like this. It seemed everyone had something valuable to offer. There was even a group of young teens whose feathers hadn't even come in yet helping by forming a line and grabbing a stack of buckets to help wet down certain areas.

I stood back and smiled as two hours later Clarence called me to say the fire was under control, still raging, but unmoving.

When night fell, reinforcements seemed to come out of nowhere, allowing others time to rest and regain their strengths.

I had never seen people sustain their powers for this long, but they did it as we continued to fight the fire.

With a unified effort and various gifts across multiple Flocks, a team had managed to gather enough elements and resources to force it to rain through the night.

By morning the fire had died down to nothing more than smoke and smoldering embers. We'd done it.

I took a step back from the spotlight and let Julia Grimes, who I had learned was the name of the woman who'd first approached me, and Clarence make the announcements as the entire town gathered around.

“The fire is out!” she exclaimed to the crowd who erupted in cheers.

Clarence stepped in to thank everyone on their efforts and warn that we weren’t entirely out of the woodworks just yet, but that his team could manage things from here to ensure we did not spark a secondary fire.

Some of the credit was given to me, but I immediately turned it back to Julia and her brave cousins.

As Clarence continued with some announcements, I saw Gracie walk out of the ashes laughing and shoving with Guffy and Rodney. By all accounts neither of them should have been alive, yet they were—because of her.

My heart swelled with pride for the woman I loved, her found family, and all the people of Ravenden. Together we had overcome a terrible situation. We'd lost a few homes in the process, but no lives. It all could have been so much worse if it wasn't for my one brave mate.

Grinning proudly, I nodded her way.

It took a lot of effort not to run to her, check every inch of her body and kiss her until I was convinced she was okay. But I'd made enough of a spectacle already and now was not the time or the place. Plus, I knew I was going to have a lot of groveling to do when I finally got her alone.

Gracie

Chapter 24

Ryan was there when we walked out of the woods. Hell, everyone was there clapping and cheering us on as we were the last team to arrive. But he was all I saw.

I froze and the guys all stopped and sort of gathered around me like they were protecting me or something.

No one could protect me from Ryan, not even myself it would seem, because when he smiled at me, my traitorous heart wanted to run to him.

I didn't, obviously. I was still on the job and we had things to do.

Maybe I should have gone to him, the others may have teased me a little about it, but no one would have begrudged me it. We hadn't exactly spoken of what had happened, but I knew they all suspected.

It had been a long couple of days, and all I wanted to do was go back to the station, shower, then crawl into my bunk and sleep for a week.

I scuffed the ground with my shoe over the yellow tape loosely holding on as a ridiculous barrier between the public and what was the start of the fire line.

My breath caught as I leaned down and picked up a wooden match lying next to a single black feather.

It was him.

I picked them up to examine them.