“Well…” He shrugs his shoulders, his brows lifting as his eyes sparkle with a mischievous glint. “Did you?”
I lift my chin, daring him to back away. “No.”
I lie.
Of course I said it back. I always feel inside me there is this feeling of home when I am around him. No matter how many times he pushes away, threatens my life, hurts me… I almost wonder if this isn’t truly who, or what, he wants to be. That I remember this good inside of him.
A safe feeling.
But until I know for sure, what those flashes of memories are to me… to us, I will lie.
“No fun,” he whispers slowly, leaning closer. If he moves anymore, our lips will touch, and he will be nothing more but ash in the wind.
“You don’t remember ever saying that? Or meeting me before the field of ash?” I hold in my breath, praying, begging, that he remembers something that can help me.
His head shakes. “The only woman I vowed to love was Lykia. And I never said the words,I love you. Not to her. Not to anyone.”
“You’ve never said,I love you?”
“I don’t love.” His shoulders shrug nonchalantly.
“That's sad.”
“That’s called protection.”
“What a weak protection,” I mutter.
He avoids my lingering gaze. “Call it what you want.”
I shrug. “I will.”
His lip slowly lifts into a soft smirk, his lingering gaze turning my stomach into knots.
“I suppose we should go then. Now that whatever this was, we are good.Friends.” I nod towards the opening, noticing the tick in his jaw when I mention the word, friend. “The storm is coming. We should head to the Pyre before we have our second battle game tomorrow. I need you to go over the Fireninze with me when the sun rises, in case the Queen chooses for me to try and ride that one tomorrow.”
“What do I get in return?” He leans forward. “I can’t just wake up early to train you without anything in return…”
“Do you want me to fail tomorrow?”
His chin pulls closer towards me, making me shift back as I suck on air. “You wouldn’t fail. Even without my help.”
“You are too close,” I breathe out, my eyes dropping to his lips. “You know what could happen to you.”
His tongue glides on his bottom lip, pulling into a slight grin. “I’m not afraid of a little fire, Spark.”
“Even if that fire would kill you?” A brow of mine lifts, my eyes flickering between his lips that I can taste if I just lean in towards him, and his eyes. They darken with such an intensity that makes the air inside me trickle out. “You’d burn to ash. Just like that man in the pit.”
His eyes drop to my lips. “Fire could never kill me.”
“With the curse I have, it could.”
“Doubtful.”
I tilt my head, exposing the vulnerable curve of my neck to him as my fingers braid my damp hair. His emerald eyes follow the line of my skin, lingering as if it's a rare sight soon to be lost. With a playful arch of my eyebrows, I taunt. “Are you asking to die? Seems as if you are ignoring everything I am saying.”
“I ignore a lot of things.”
He inhales a tremulous breath, as if the very idea of never feeling the warmth of my touch is devouring him. In all honesty,it's devouring me too. The shadows in his eyes flicker with the fear of it, the agony of it. His movements grow tense and brittle.
