Nothing Between Us
Episode 69
Puredarknessshroudsthevoid beyond the train.
“Where are we?” Arisanna asks behind Cerian, and when she shifts closer to him, he squeezes her hand tighter.
The darkness. It terrifies her.
Using his magic, he creates an orb of light and directs it into the inky blackness, but the void is cavernous. His light finds nothing off which to reflect. It’s just darkness everywhere.
Arisanna shifts even closer as her heart thrums faster in his chest. She really is terrified.
“Why is it so dark?” she whispers.
“I don’t know. I wish for daylight.”
They watch, waiting for something to happen, but no sunlight appears to chase the shadows away.
“Perhaps we’re underground,” he suggests. Her fingernails dig into his arm, but he doesn’t complain.
The way she clings to him when she’s frightened adds to the heat running through his veins after their kisses moments ago. The memory of his hand sliding along her leg threatens his control.
He needs to harness his fire so he can be her safe place now, but when she presses herself against the arm she clutches, his heat intensifies.
“Don’t be frightened by my fire,” he says before pressing his lips to her hair. “Stay by my side, and it won’t hurt you. I promise.”
She nods as she inches even closer, and he struggles to focus. Does she grasp the effect she’s having on him?
With his free hand, he creates a fountain of flames, angling it forward and up, and Arisanna flinches, but she doesn’t move away.
If anything, she presses closer.
At least his flames take the edge off his heat.
There’s still nothing beyond his firelight other than more darkness.
“Maybe the heartlanding doesn’t want us to get off the train,” Arisanna whispers.
“Perhaps.”
Or perhaps it wants them to venture into the darkness for reasons he can’t comprehend.
“I wish for the mountain chalet,” she says, but nothing happens. “Has it refused our requests before?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“Why now?”
He extinguishes his flames before turning to face her. “I would protect you. If you...if you wished—”
“To get off the train?”
He nods, and for a moment, she stares at him. Her fear is obvious, but she doesn’t respond, and he gives her time for the thoughts reflecting in her eyes to sort themselves out.
“I want to say no,” she eventually whispers. “But you once suggested the heartlanding is teaching me to trust you.”
He frowns at her words. Does she still not trust him? After everything they’ve been through together?
