“Good form, by the way,” he said, retrieving his shirt from the ground. “Youalmosthad me.”
“Shut up,” I hissed, well aware that he was lying.
He merely laughed again, low and pleased, and sauntered past me as though we hadn’t just been one wrong move from drawing blood.
“Then answer this, why are you so determined to kill me?” Malakai asked, twisting his shirt until water dripped heavily from it.
“You’re ademon,” I barked, marking the word heavily. His glowing eyes darted to mine.
“And you’re amage.”
His words struck worse than a dagger. Rage boiled inside me, and in that moment of weakness, I threw my blade through the air at him.
Red threads shot out, blocking it, and the steel fell into the dirt.
“You’re ashamed.” It wasn’t a question, he merely confirmed what he saw in my shattered eyes.
I bent to pick up the dagger he had forced out of my grip earlier, before I began walking away from him—away from everything—aimlessly.
I heard no footsteps, no sound at all, yet red blood swirled before me and suddenly he was standing right in front of me, blocking my way.
My grip around the handle tightened, and his eyes noted it briefly before meeting my glare again.
“You think you deserve to die, simply because you were born with powers?” His voice was low, I almost mistook it for vulnerability. But I knew better than that.
“No.” My voice came out strong. “I had buried it, left it behind, until you showed up and forced me to use it.”
“You know that could kill you, right?” He tilted his head, studying me. I averted my eyes, my hand curling into a fist.
“You often get fevers, you said so yourself,” he pressed on. “Never wonderedwhy?”
I swung at him and he caught my wrist again. My breath hitched, as fear slammed into me when I saw flames burning around my knuckles. The fire felt it, and sparked brighter, spreading all over my hand as I heard the crackling sound of my flames meeting his flesh.
My eyes snapped to his, but he was completely unbothered by it, as if I was burning against rock.
What if he was feeding off the energy? Quickly, I snatched my hand out of his grip.
“You only want me to use it so you can feed off of it, don’t you?” I asked.
His eyes turned cold in an instant.
A beat…
Then he lunged forward, his teeth baring as his red eyes scorched. I stumbled backward, but his hands grabbed my arms, holding me in place. I felt his breath against my neck, but the teeth never sank into it. As if he was hesitating, or perhaps he was just enjoying my struggle, like a cat playing with a wounded mouse.
Malakai grunted as he shoved me to the side, walking past me. I spun right around. “Why didn’t you kill me?”
He stopped a few feet away, his back still facing me. “Who knows? Perhaps your stupidity is beginning to rub off.” His voice sounded teasing, yet different.
I snorted and caught a low chuckle in response.
He turned his head enough for me to see his profile. “Make a fire, get yourself warm,” he instructed. “I’ll dive in and see if I can find our bags.”
It took me forever to get the fire started because I used the old-fashioned way to do it.
Yes, I was using dry branches and twigs.
For the first couple of minutes nothing happened, then I got excited over a few sparks, only to have nothing happen for another couple of minutes.
