I cursed underneath my breath. Then he pulled the shard out and I screamed before I pressed my flaming hand against the wound. It didn’t hurt, but I heard my skin sizzling as it touched the fire all the same.
My eyes held Malakai, as I saw him looking at the ice shard, the blood covering it.
My blood.
“You almost bit me,” I accused, the words coming out a bit harsher than I had planned.
“But I didn’t,” he shrugged, his eyes sliding back to mine. “Unless you’re into that?”
“No,” I hissed, my teeth clattering when I clenched them.
He chuckled low. “Relax, a moment of weakness. It won’t happen again.”
“How can you be sure? How canIbe sure?”
His arrogant smirk slowly evaporated, his eyes unfocused, yet locked on me. The blood on his face began steaming, falling off him as if turning to ash, and then blowing away with the wind until his face was spotless once again. His eyes flickered to the corpse on the ground, then he bent down and went through his pockets. My brows furrowed, confusion lingering as the silence became suffocating.
But then I heard something, his hands stilled for a brief moment. I held my breath as he turned towards me again, holding his balled hand out towards me. Small cracking sounds were heard from within, faint smoke climbing from his grip. Carefully, I stretched my free hand out, open palm, as he gave me something. At first glance, they looked like pale pink rocks. My eyes caught that his palm looked burnt, but I felt nothing holding the shards.
“What’s this?”
“Quartz,” he said flatly.
A raw mineral—pretty, but still, it didn’t answer any of my questions. I looked up to him and he sighed when he spotted my lingering confusion.
“Quartz is lethal to a demon. Even the lesser elementals don’t die from your guns, they simply return to the demonrealm, before crawling back out again,” his voice lowered a notch, as if being careful.
“This, however, banishes them for good. If I try to bite you again, use it on me.”
We hadn’t killed the demons we stumbled upon? Only sent them back!?
“You… you’ll die?” My voice was shaking, the answer making me even more puzzled.
“Yes, normal wounds won’t kill someone like me. But this will.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I clenched my hand around the gems.
“You wanted trust,” he clarified. “Isn’t this enough? To know my vulnerability?”
I opened my mouth, getting ready to protest, to accuse him of lying, but no words came out, forcing me to close it again. Why would the mage have the minerals if it was untrue? Malakai hadn’t told the rest of the group about my abilities, and he had held himself back from trying to devour my magical energy. What were his true intentions?
Malakai huffed at my silence, brushing away my hand from my collarbone. “Stubborn until the end… How’s the wound?”
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“Aren’t you getting tired of saying that, kitten?” he teased, the corner of his mouth twitching, holding back a mocking smile. “It’s okay to not be okay at times; it doesn’t make you weak, merely human.”
His words had more impact than I cared to admit, but I simply pressed my lips together, forcing the emotions away again.
“Yeah? Maybe I’m not human after all then,” I muttered bitterly.
CHAPTER
19
My feet hurt.
We had been walking for a while, time seemed to lose meaning out here. Malakai was carrying the one bag we were able to salvage so I could rest my shoulder. The silence was eating at us, as we had once again fought about our objectives. He wanted us to press on, aiming for the mages’ camp to try and infiltrate them. I was all for it, but I wanted to find our comrades first.
