“I like it too,” I whisper, not sure how to react. I swing the necklace around her neck, letting the small sun shaped medallion fall between her collar bones, just above the top of her satin pajamas. She shivers under my touch as I close the necklace.
“Where are your memories?” I ask politely. She nods into the direction of her drawers. I open it and there they m. I pull the cork off it and twist it a bit.
“Close your eyes, please.” Deep down, I am kind of scared they will fall past the medallion or will not fit. I click the medallion. I tilt it and with a sound of magic, like faeries and twinkles, the sparkles fall perfectly in place. I hope it works. As if the memories understood my intentions, they form towards the shape of the necklace and I can close it with ease.
I catch Eliane peeking through one eye.
“You can open them.” I chuckle.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asks, not meeting my dark gaze.
“Because you had good memories and I know they are your saving.” She holds the little sun in her bold fist.
“Thank you.” She smiles, her face close to mine. I feel the sudden urge to kiss her. Press my lips to that precious mouth of her. Could I kiss her here? Would she want me to? I lean even more forward, so close our noses almost touch, my hand brushing her leg. Before I can taste her lips, I slip in her mind. And all she is thinking of are good memories. Even though Ibelieve her first kiss would be another good memory, for me at least, I don’t. I don’t want to ruin her reliving all the memories with Da. With me.
It isn’t the moment, so I contain myself.
“You know, I can feel them when I really try, holding them close.” She smiles, closing her eyes. But all I can do is look at her pretty face as she doesn’t look at me.
I have no idea how to answer that, so I keep quiet.
All I do is smile at her, until she crawls back into bed again, closes her eyes and falls asleep until the trials will wake her.
And all I will do is draw. Draw the feelings away. Draw away the strong urge to kiss her. So after a few days I finally hit my cabin again. I draw and draw until the night comes and I force myself back to bed.
A loud bang on the door makes the both of us sit up straight in our bed.
“Be ready in five!” a low man’s voice shouts at us and all the other candidates. I jump out of bed, not bothering to shower.
“Are you a bit reloaded again?”I ask, putting my leathers on. She nods at me, smiling widely.
“Yes, I am.” She follows my lead and changes into her fighting leathers. My eyes catch her hands putting the small sun necklaces under her tight leather and the corner of my mouth twitches upwards. She looks up from packing her backpack.
“What?”
I just shake my head, smiling as an answer. I fly her daggers towards her, while tying my own weapons to my back.
“Ready?” I ask.
She gives a nod and I open the door. She takes the lead and marches towards the entrance of the side building. It is still dark outside.
This time we aren’t last, but not the first either. Kailey is already stepping inside the carriage. How did she get that good out of Hazel’s death anyway? Eliane must be thinking the same thing because she asks.
“Are you okay? Like, aren’t you hurt?” she asks, not holding a blade in front of her mouth, stepping in the carriage that will be dragged by horse to wherever they want to take us.
I follow her. There is room for one more in this carriage and so there will be at least one more I assume. I sit down next to Eliane, who dumps her backpack between her legs and starts braiding her hair. Kailey is also busy with putting her hair up as she answers.
“I blocked her out on time. My magic was gone for a few hours, but I definitely didn’t get the real blow.”
“Are you okay?” She reaches for Eliane’s hand. Eliane gives her nod and forces out a smile. I slip into her mind and despite the fact that she looks pretty calm, I feel the rage bubbling inside of her, growing. Like magic tried to interrupt us and wanted to give Eliane an escape, something is stuck in my shoe, again. Her eyes meet mine and that makes it clear to me she feels the same thing. We bow together in sync, each pulling out the small cylinder that likely holds our hint, since Kailey doesn’t take anything from hers. Eliane glances at me, her eyes widening slightly.
“I thought we already got our hint,” she suggests a kind of beat. Well, it seems like something between me and Zef really changed. He wouldn’t have given us a hint if he and I weren’t on good waters. He gives us a tip, just from bother to brother, friend to friend.
“I thought so too.”
I hand Eliane my cylinder because I still can’t get those stupid things to open, and we hold the two pieces of parchment next to each other.
