I hesitated, but only for a moment.
There was a reason he’d put me in a separate room. He knew it, I knew it, the storm knew it. But he invited me in anyway. He disappeared through the entryway, and I followed, wondering if he was dropping his guard because he was tired or for some other reason.
His room was like mine; there was a four-poster bed with intricately patterned bedding. Claw-foot furniture outfitted the room with a hearth in the corner where coals still simmered. Black drapes were drawn from the windows, sweeping across the floor. A red velvet settee sat before the hearth. I could easily sleep there before a dying fire.
In this world, the cold set a chill within me deeper than I’d ever known. I wished the fire were lit. It was no doubt due to this miserable weather.
I eyed the diagonal streaks the rain left across the large windows, revealing nothing but the darkness beyond. I tucked my arms across my chest, hiding a shiver.
“I never could’ve imagined what this feels like. To feel the very power of nature around you like it’s a part of you,” I said, looking into the darkness. “Are you sure Sadrina is alright out there?”
Blake moved past me, barefoot as he padded across the plush rug. He retrieved a teacup, filling it with water from a pitcher before adding a tea bag.
“I placed a protection barrier around her stable.”
I watched the muscles in his back move. “You can do that?”
He returned, handing me the steaming cup. “It’s similar to what I’ve been doing to you.”
I almost choked on my first sip, barely getting control of my throat. He certainly had been doing things to me. Just not enough things. I swallowed hard and glanced at him. He was giving me a curious look. A bead of water was trailing past his eyebrow. I reached out, swiping it away, but stopped when I saw his eyes flicker in surprise. I withdrew my hand and took a sip of the tea, this time, with both hands.
The fire crackled amidst the sound of the thunder reverberating throughout my body.
“These winds feel like they could destroy a tower like this,” I muttered.
“Everything in this world is fortified in ways that do not exist in yours,” he said. “But you may stay here tonight if you would prefer.”
I took another sip of tea and set it on the dresser.Stay with him?I glanced at the only bed in the room, the rich red and gold woven into the bedding, and its polished, dark wooden bedposts.
I glanced at Blake and he was watching me, no doubt assessing every move I made.
“Thanks,” I said. “I think I’ll be okay, though. I need to acclimate.”
Blake nodded and the chill in the air made me shiver. Blake noticed and raised his hand, the pressure around us shifting as he did so. Waves of energy radiated as he drew everi into his palm and opened his hand as if releasing a firefly.
A fire roared to life in the hearth and the sweet scent of the Haneitari Eru logs permeated the room.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “So, this place; the alliance maintains it?”
Blake nodded. “The tower has had many uses over the years, but right now it is where the alliance convenes. It is considered a neutral territory—many treaties have been written here following bloody wars for its control.”
Bloody wars over rifts through time and space. Explosive storms. Crushing gravity and foreign energy fields too dense for my body. All perfectly normal things to worry about. I went to the fire, seeking heat from the glowing embers. But it wasn’t just that. Something about its chaos brought me comfort.
Like Blake did.
Feeling Blake’s everi like a rush of wind, the flames burst to life in crackling blazes of flame.
“If I get selected, I want to go to Raven Falls with you,” I said.
Blake neared me, the light of the flames shifting the shadows across his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
Flames flickered in his eyes like they were a mirror. “You cannot continue your training in the Falls.”
I tensed. Blake was a contradiction. One second, he’d look at me like he might throw me against a wall and ruin me, the next, he was so distant he acted as if he barely knew me.
“Why not?” I snapped.
