Page 43 of Crown of Flame

“I can’t control any of it, Serena. Can’t you understand that?”

I don’t know what to say. If I give my permission, then I’m justifying his intrusion into my mind.

”Forget it,” he says. “Never mind.”

He starts to float away. I realize that I need to stop him if I’m going to stand any chance of surviving.

“Wait.”

I reach to grab his arm, badly burning myself before pulling away.

“Why can’t I touch you?” I ask, looking at the reddened skin on my palm.

He turns back, startled. I can see that he doesn’t have an answer.

I can see that something has upset him dramatically.

“Can you at least take me home?” I ask, moving on from my question. “Maybe you don’t care about me anymore. Maybe you’re ready to believe horrible things about me. But I’m going to die out here if you leave me.”

He produces a bright flame, causing me to jump back. I worry that he might actually kill me.

“Fine,” he says. “Just use me like you always do.”

I look back, trying to think out how I caused this, how we could have gotten to this point. It’s true that I was a little aggressive yesterday, but it felt justified. I’m still putting myself together.

But that last thing he said really threw me.

What could have possibly caused him to think I allied myself with the dark elves? I even instructed him to wipe them out. Much of our time together has been invested in clearing the continent of their presence.

If he had heard me at all, he’d know how much I hate them. For him not to know, that tells me he wasn’t listening and didn’t care as much about me as I thought.

We walk together in silence, something I’m becoming a little more comfortable with than I’d like. Perhaps this relationship isn’t worth salvaging after all.

Maybe he’s different from me, on nearly every level. But he’s still the most real thing I’ve found in this frozen wasteland since I lost my family - twice.

“Well, you got what you wanted,” I tell him as we arrive back at the hovel.

“How could I possibly want this?”

I shake my head.

“You wanted a guide to get you through this world. The world of Protheka,” I remind him. I try to interject a little levity, burying my hostility toward him, so that we can leave each other on a positive note. “Now you know just about everything you need.”

He watches me for a time, studying me. I want to touch him, to close the distance between us, but for some reason, I can’t.

How did everything become so complicated so quickly?

I feel like I’m trapped in the center of a tornado, with no idea how to escape it.

“Just tell me the truth,” he says, calming down only to infuriate me yet again. “If you’re working with them, tell me.”

I clench my free fist, a contrast to the hand currently seeking his warmth. I need to get away from him before I do something I regret.

“I have no idea how you’d ever think that. And the fact that you do insults me.”

“I don’t mean to insult you,” he says. “But the dark elves are capable of unmaking me. They’re the reason I was brought to this realm in the first place–”

I walk back into the hovel, ready to be done with this conversation. The door remains open behind me.