Page 29 of Ocean of Silver

“I’m serious, Tezya. How old are you?”

“I’m a hundred and twenty-one.” Awkward silence filled the room. She nodded her head but didn’t respond. I looked down at my hands, realizing that I was still holding her folder with all her information in it. I grabbed the paperwork regarding her virginity and ripped it in half before using my flames to burn the paper. Nothing was left of it but ash.

She rose to her feet. “Your ability is fire?”

“Yes,” I said slowly, forgetting for a second that she had a traumatic history with, not just water, but fire too. I cursed myself when I remembered her right calf and the mangled skin that remained there. I was just staring at it moments before, along with the long gash that went from her hip to her knee. I wanted to murder the Tennebrisian compulsion user when I realized it was him that gave it to her. It was a whole other level of fucked up that the Dark Kingdom’s High Council sent the compulsion user they tried to kill her with to us.

“I thought… I thought that you just had a way of knowing people’s emotions?”

I laughed. “Well, first off, I told you that my ability is more than just knowing people’s emotions. A lot more than that. And secondly, I don’t just have one ability. I have two. I don’t think I would be in the army if I didn’t. Fire is one of mine. Elemental abilities are really common here. A lot of people have water, fire, air, or ground abilities. I figured you knew I possessed fire when you saw my markings in the water.”

She nodded, a small shudder working its way through her. “I just never saw you use it before. I hadn’t thought about it.” She paused, then looked around the hut. “But there’s no fire in the room. That means that you can create the element, not just manipulate it.”

“I know. It’s why I’m a rank five. Along with my other ability that you can’t seem to figure out.”

“Tell me then,” she said as nonchalantly as she could muster. I could tell she was attempting to calm down. She took a seat on the sofa again, this time curling her legs under her.

I grinned as I realized it bothered her, not understanding why I could gauge her emotions. I also realized I liked making her flustered. “Rumor, I’m not just going to offer up the knowledge of my ability for nothing.”

She rolled her eyes before they focused on the ash that was now scattered across the floor. “I thought you said that the King forced you to have those tests done on me? Why are you destroying them? I’m not going through that exam again. That duck-beak-thing is not going back up…”

“Relax, Rumor. I won’t let that happen. The King just wanted to make sure you weren’t pregnant. I kept the paperwork stating just that, but he doesn’t need to know about your virginity.”

“Oh,” she said, playing with her thumbs and looking down at her knees. She asked even more softly, “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to find out what he would do with that information,” I said through gritted teeth, knowing full well what he has done in the past. “Everyone thinks that you have been touched by someone of Tennebris. I think it’s better that everyone continues to think that.”

“Why?”

“No male will try to approach you if they think that you are…” I struggled to find the right word to say without insulting her. “Tainted by them.”

“So no one would want to touch me?Ever?”

“It’s better that way. Trust me.”

“What right do you have to say that?” she snapped. “What if I don’t want that?”

I arched my brow. “I can introduce you to males once the King declares your fate if that is what you wish.”

“I don’t want that. That’s not what I meant. I just…” she paused, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m sick of people looking at me like I’m a freak. In Tennebris, it was because they thought I was tainted with human blood, and now this. I’m sick of lying and not being able to be myself. I’m sick of people thinking I’m something I’m not.”

I was all too aware of what she was feeling.

“You are going to have to trust me, Rumor. I know it’s not ideal, but I am doing this to protect you from the King. Even though you were born here and you are Luxian by birth, you aren’t a citizen, not yet anyway. You need to be careful and not draw any attention to yourself. Only a few Advenians will know who you really are, will know about your past, and it’s best to blend in as much as possible.”

“I guess.” She started twirling her wet hair around her finger, and I found myself unable to look away.

“Rumor,” I said before I sucked in a breath. “I have something that no one else knows about me.”

Her blues eyes met mine, her hair was still around her finger, but she momentarily stopped twirling it.

“But you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t.”

“I’m serious. No one knows this for a reason, Rumor,” I said, trying not to second guess this. “I could get in a lot of trouble for saying this out loud,” I added, which was an understatement. If she were to tell the King or if he used the compulsion user to go into her memories again, I’d be killed for what I was about to tell her. But there was something about her vulnerability that made me want to open up, made me want her to know everything.

“I won’t tell anyone. Besides, the only person I know on this island other than you is my maid, Patricia, and she is so old, and I’m pretty certain senile that no one would believe anything she says. But I promise I won’t say anything to anyone, even to her.”

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