“Gerard! It’s okay!” Elias said.
Gerard’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. Blue in the corner of his vision caught his eye. Blue robes. Like the lightning archmages wore. He swung around and stalked towards them.
“Gerard! Wait!”
The blue robes lay haphazardly in a trunk.
Elias’s trunk.
His mind blanked. He blinked. He reached down and lifted the soft fabric. He gazed down at what looked like a secret compartment at the bottom of Elias’s trunk. A secret compartment to hide …
His hand gripping the robes spasmed.
A secret compartment to hide robes and a mask.
His mind whirred, trying to make sense of how this could be here. But only one explanation presented itself.
“No.”This can’t be.“No. No. No.” The world slowed as he turned to look at Elias.
Elias stood completely still. Horror etched into the lines of his face. No doubt Gerard’s own expression mirrored his.
Gerard shook his head. “It can’t be you.Youcan’t be a lightning archmage. All you can do is little sparkles.”
Elias dropped his gaze. Gerard’s stomach fell.
“Elias, tell me it is not you!” His voice trembled.
Elias didn’t answer.
“Elias, is it you? Are you a lightning archmage?”
No answer.
“How can it be you?” Gerard’s yell bounced off the walls. Then he laughed, a strained, strangled sound. “No. I’ve seen your powers. You’re weak. Your magic is useless. You can’t be an archmage. You can’t! That makes no sense.”
Gerard’s whole being begged Elias to laugh too. To say that of course he was not an archmage. To come up with some plausible reason, any reason why this was here and it did not belong to Elias.
But instead, Elias remained silent and still. And as each moment of silence passed, Gerard felt his insides crumble.
“Elias, are you a lightning archmage?” Gerard choked.
Still no reply.
“Fucking answer me!” He yelled.
“All I am is a lie.”Elias had said those exact words to Gerard in the cave. Elias had told Gerard how easy it was for him to lie. How it was hard not to. Now Gerard was facing the truth of that.
Still, his brain fought to accept it. He just could not believe that the man who’d shared his bed, who’d held him, who’d spoken to him with so much affection and care, could deceive him so completely.
“Elias, it can’t be you,” he said, voice so soft and trembling. “Can it?”
Elias lowered his head. “I’m sorry, Gerard.”
Gerard staggered. He closed his eyes. Elias was a lightning archmage. He had lied about everything to Gerard.
Then a thought struck him.
“Were you the one who …” Gerard gestured to his eye patch and the scars on his face.
