I’d hoped Izzy had brought me here for more pleasurable activities. I couldn’t get her soft kiss on my cheek from yesterday out of my head. My spirit longed for more.
Apparently though, she had other ideas.
I sighed. “I don’t know her well, but I’ve met her a few times. I wouldn’t call her unstable, but she isquiteparanoid. She’s constantly on guard, worried someone’s going to take her power, assassinate her. Beyond that…” How did I say it? “She doesn’t care… aboutanyone. She barely registers Saldrea, her own daughter, as a useful pawn. Everyone else is… a threat, a nuisance, or nothing at all to her.”
“So, she’s a sociopath,” Izzy stated it clearly.
“Essentially, yes.”
Izzy grimaced. “Great. And the rumors of her being in league with the titans?”
“Heard that, did you?” I sighed. “It’s nothing new, but no one’s ever proved she had anything to do with letting the titans into the palace the night the royal family was killed. But… given how friendly she is with them now… who knows.”
Izzy nodded as she gazed out over the cliffs before asking. “And Saldrea?”
“She’s definitely up to something with the titans on campus, but I have no clue what.”
“Issheunstable, paranoid?” Izzy asked.
“She flies off the handle now and then. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say unstable, but she’s certainly got one hell of a temper… but she’s also smart and calculating and cunning, which makes her even more dangerous.”
Izzy shook her head. “Fuck,” Izzy breathed. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I had a feeling from her sour tone, she was rolling them.
Then she looked at me, those sea-green eyes intense. “And you’re willing to risk her wrath… for me?”
“I’d riskanythingfor you,” I whispered.Too much? Probably.
“Because I was good to you? Because I’m determined? Because I somehow give you hope, and you think I can change all this?” She waved her arm at the world around us.
“Yes.”But more importantly, because I believe you can heal what remains of my heart.And because my spirit and yours are forever intertwined.I couldn’t leave you or hurt you if I wanted to.
She needed more than a one-word answer, her look uncertain still.
“Your spirit burns like a thousand bonfires,” I said, reverent.
Her eyes went wide, then she cocked her head in thought.
“And… as a seraphim… you have fire affinity, which is linked to spirit, so… you’d know. Huh.” It came out clinically, like reciting from a textbook. Sometimes I had to remind myself she was still so new to this world.
“Yes. You’restrongIzzy, and with the right training… well… if anyone could stand up to Saldrea, it would be you.”
She let out a long sigh. I was putting a lot on her.
“I don’t know,” she said with a smirk. “My knack for challenging authority isn’t my best trait. It only gets me into trouble.”
“Trouble is what this worlddesperatelyneeds,” I whispered. But I sensed I was pushing too hard. I backed off. “When you’re ready, that is.”
She gazed at me for a long time, eyes narrowing before she gave a little sigh. “You…needthis world to change, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She’d seen right through me. “But not just me.So manyothers need this world to change.”And even more than that, I need you to change me, heal me, so I can be whole again.
She nodded somberly. Then she looked away, her voice so very soft when she spoke next.
“And is thatallI am to you? A tool for change?”
“No,” I breathed, my heart racing. “You’re so much more.”
She nodded, as if she’d sensed how I felt. Perhaps her spirit already felt the pull?
