Page 83 of Heiress of Fire

When she was aiming another punch at his face, he grabbed her forearm and brought her close to his warm body. His arm snaked around her torso as she fought against his grip.

“Stop fighting me, love,” he whispered.

“Stop calling me that!” she yelled but his grasp around her waist only tightened.

“We both know that you love my nicknames, Vivi,” he taunted.

Perhaps she could try to scare him off. Then, she recalled that she had a new blade hidden in a sheath under her sleeve.

Her fire rocketed inside of her chest and spread into her eyes, coloring them a bright violet with sparks falling onto the thicket around them. Using an uncontrollable strength she didn’t know she had, she jostled him against the same tree once again. The bark of the tree creaked as his back collided with it. A scowl found its way to her lips as she flipped her dagger between her fingers and set the cold blade to his neck.

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t,” he called.

His smug grin made her want to nick his throat.

“I do. I hate you for lying to me. For telling me that you’d understand, and when push came to shove, you were a coward,” Davina uttered.

“I’m not a coward,” he claimed, his brows scrunching together.

“Yes, you are.” The Captain pushed off of him, making sure not to hurt him, as she slid her dagger away from his throat and back into its holster. She closed her eyes and forced her lavender pupils to disappear. “You’re the only one who knows how afraid I am of water. You have no idea how scared I was when you didn’t come out of the lake on time, but I was much more mortified to think about you dying if I didn’t go in after you. I did it for you but you didn’t do the same for me when I needed you most.”

She took in a shallow breath.

“Davina…”

“That battle could’ve ended differently if you were there. Did you ever think about that?”

He remained silent for a few long seconds before saying, “No, I didn’t.”

She exasperated, “I really believed that you would fight with us because I thought… I thought you’d be willing to make the same sacrifices for me.”

“I am willing. We can fix this, we can work through this,” Ron argued.

Davina fought the tears that pricked her eyes. She had to put a leash on her emotions, just like Master Abigail had told her so. Breathing in deeply, she focused on her pulse and strengthened the walls around her heart. It was time to put on one of her masks.

“When are you going to get it into your thick skull that there is no fixing what you’ve done,” she claimed.

“Don’t say that,” Ron whispered.

“Don’t say the truth? Ron, you screwed up,” Davina said. “How could you say that about my siblings when they are the most precious thing I have?”

He tenderly stared into her violet eyes. “I… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” she bellowed. “Now, leave me be and enjoy your long and miserable life.”

She tried not to flinch when she saw the pain flash across his face.

“How could you say that?” he questioned.

Tearing someone else’s confidence should be easy enough especially because she learned how to with Mae and Nico.

“I’m only saying the truth. You’re miserable because of your lack of powers and you try to leech onto me because of that. Well, I thought about it, and I don’t want you suffocating me the way you have been all these months.”

“Stop,” he said quietly. “You feel something for me, just as I do for you. Why are you hurting me like this?”

“Oh, Levina. There goes another thing that you’re wrong about because I feel nothing for you now.” She chuckled.

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