“How the hell are you alive?” I hear Koen gurgling in pain as he grabs his shoulder, leaning into the snow.
“I don’t know.” I stare at my trembling hands. No blood. No new wounds. Only my palms, reddened as if I touched a hot stove. The pain is brutal, but at least I am alive.
“I’m going to kill him,” Koen growls, trying to catch his breath through the words.
“Oh, stop it.” My eyes narrow in, watching Koen get angrier by the second as he thinks of what Florian just did to him. To me.
“He could have got you killed, Spark.” His eyes lock onto mine, and I swiftly look away.
No. I will not let his eyes make my insides burn with fire. A fire I want to force into rage, not… thisdesire. I can’t. Iwill notlet this fire inside me win.
“I’m fine. Look.” I toss my arms up.
“But we didn’t know for certain if you would be fine.” His elbow digs into the snow, letting his head fall back as his tousled curls that have fallen from his bun sway. “He. Is. Dead.” He grunts the words, forcing them out of his lips as he catches his breath.
“You are being irrational.” I watch him struggle to stand.
“You have seen nothing yet.”
I roll my eyes. “Did the stone unleash the cranky side of Koen?”
Koen grunts. “Very funny,Serene.”
His palms dig into the snow as he lifts his body, his foot slipping as he falls back down. “I hate traveling through the stones.” His voice deepens, catching a glance at me. “Traveling through them weakens me… can I have a hand?”
I scuff, rolling my eyes away from his pitiful glare. “Like you helped me back at the tower… where you left me to die?”
His eyes narrow into slits. “I already told you, I knew Florian would see you. He wouldn’t have left you.”
My boots are drenched from trudging through the slushy remnants of snow that melted around where my body laid asI finally reach Koen and pull him to his feet. I deeply exhale, lifting his massive body off of the ground. Snow is caked around his pants and shoulder, intertwined in his chestnut hair. His hands clasp mine, sending a fiery jolt through my veins that nearly takes my breath away, but I pull him up with all the might I have. Which is hardly any compared to those from Azure. His chest collides with mine, towering above me as a single curl falls over his brow. His eyes dart intensely between mine, nearly making me fumble backwards as I lift my chin, feeling the warmth of his breath beat against my skin.
But when his eyes fall down to my lips, my breathing hitches and I push him back.
“No. Stop doing whatever this is.” I frantically rub my forehead, looking away from him and scan the area for any signs of Florian.
“I was just shocked to see you alive.” He dusts the snow off of him, making it dance in the freezing wind. “No one survives the travel of the Light Stone unless you have the Royal blood or the pendant from the Gods.”
“It's not just here, right now where you…” I falter, searching desperately for the right words. My stomach squeezes into knots, a feeling that I wish I had control over, “do this thing with your eyes and lips, gazing at me like I'm some…”
I stop talking, rubbing my lips together as my shoulders rise. My hands raise to my face before I shakingly rub them over my eyes and down my neck. “Whatever you are doing,whatever game this is, I need you to stop.”
Our breaths puff into white clouds and chills run over my bare arm and neck as I stare at him.
“It’s no game.” He crosses his arms, the dragon scales cracking under his movement. “Why do you always feel I am up to no good?”
“Because that’s all you have shown me?” My eyes close for a second before glancing over towards the frozen waterfall of the Ice Nation. “Just keep your distance, and let's find the archives. If you ever look at me the way you just did, I will remove your damn eyeballs.”
He chokes on a laugh. “Alright, there is the spark I saw in you the first time I met you.”
My eyes roll towards him, my jaw clenching. “Keep away, eyes off of me, and let’s find Florian.”
“Distance won’t keep me from looking at you.”
“Look all you want, Koen,” I grunt, taking long strides through the snow.
“No fun,” he teases. As I halt, I snap my gaze over my shoulder towards his mischievous grin that tugs on his lips.
“Find your way back to Lykia. You vowed to her, and vows must not be broken.” My eyes burn, but from the weather of the Ice Nation.Nothing else.“She is the woman you need to be looking at, not me, Koen.”
