Page 85 of Of Wind and Terror

No, that’s impossible. I would’ve been able to tell from the very first meeting.

Yet…

They gave you special attention. Treated you differently. Cared for you. Protected you. Would they do that for just anyone?

It’s because they want me for my powers, I remind my inner voice.

Or could it be because they simply want you?

My breath saws in and out of me. Anger coils through my chest like barbed wire.

Is it true?

How do I even go about asking that?

I’d sound insane.

Someone stirs beside me, but I don’t pull my attention away from the trees to see which male is awakening.

“What the fuck…?”

Blaze. I’d recognize his growly voice anywhere.

He sits up abruptly, the movement barely visible in my peripheral, and scans his surroundings. I can tell the exact moment he sees Mitchia because he goes perfectly still. Frozen.

“Who did that?”

I don’t answer.

“Little beast.” Shifting. Movement. And then he’s there in front of me, crouching down, one calloused finger under my chin, forcing it up. The light in his eyes illuminates the woodsy brown, interspersed here and there with green, to a honey color. “What happened?”

Insidious fear slithers through my mind and grasps my heart. I shakily bring my hands up and sign, “I don’t know.”

His brows scrunch together. “You don’t know?”

“She did that to herself.”

You stabbed her, though, a snide voice in my head comments. You attacked her first. And if your mark is the cause of all of this?—

Shut up.

This isn’t the first person you killed, Kassandra. You’re no better than any of the males here. You’re a monster.

Shut up.

You have a darkness in you, Kassandra. It’s an ember just waiting to turn into a flame. You simply need to nourish it?—

SHUT UP! I mentally scream at the voice.

I haven’t even realized I started crying until Blaze pulls me into his arms. They band around me like iron vises, tight enough to restrict my blood flow.

“Fuck, don’t cry, little beast. Don’t fucking cry. I’ll fix this, okay? I’ll fix everything for you.” His red eyebrows pull low over his eyes. “Just tell me what to do.”

The concern in his voice…

The emotions clouding his eyes…

They shrivel my lungs until what little air they have been able to hold leaves.

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