Page 18 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

As Emara walked over, she let the tears roll from her eyes and snuggled in beside her best friend. Cally took it upon herself to wrap around Emara like a human shield, and they sat like that for the longest time.

Letting out a long sigh, she whispered, “I am so sorry about your grandmamma, Em! She was like a mother to me, too.” Emara thought she heard a crack in Cally’s throat. “I just can’t believe it.”

Control your emotions, Emara coached herself. She turned onto her back and looked at the ceiling, taking in the design on the brickwork to distract herself from the ache in her chest. “I know she was,” she managed to say back.

Silence settled in amongst them on the bed for a few moments as they lay together.

“Do you believe what they are saying?” Cally broke the silence. Her eyes were wide as she also looked for nothing on the ceiling. Her expression was unreadable.

“What other option do we have?” replied Emara.

“I think—I don’t know. I think I believe…”

“I always have believed,” Emara said quickly. “I have always believed in spirits and angels, I mean. From a young age, I prayed to the Gods with my grandmother, always believing in a higher power and the other side—and if you prayed to Gods, they would look after you. But demons?” Emara trailed off. “My grandmother’s books never did mention anything about demons.”

“If anything, what we must believe in is luck.” Cally turned her head to look at her. “Because I believe that luck is the only thing that kept us alive last night.”

Emara’s throat swelled. “Do you remember everything?”

Cally was silent for a minute before answering, “Yes.” She grabbed Emara’s hand and squeezed it. “And that is why we must believe in luck. Not everyone made it out of the estate alive, but we did.”

“I can’t even bear to think who is still left,” Emara admitted, feeling that horrid pain in her heart.

“You don’t have to bear what happened alone.” Cally’s eyes welled up a little. “You have me. You will always have me.”

“I know, and that is why I will continue to pray to the Gods and thank them that you are alive.”

The heavy door swung open with a little more force than it had before. Both girls jumped, not expecting any other person to be alive in the world other than them. For a few moments, it had felt like it was just them.

“Oh, good, you found her.” An exceedingly tall man walked through the door. His body radiated strength as he walked into the room. “Aren’t you good with directions?” he said, aiming his words at Cally. He then slid his ocean blue eyes to Emara. “You look a little better than you did a couple of hours ago.” His glittering eyes lingered on her face.

Cally’s breathing hitched a little beside her and Emara suspected he knew exactly what he was doing with those baby blue, smouldering eyes as he dragged them from her face and back to her best friend. Cally was a sucker for a guy who had the confidence of a king and the swagger of a pirate.

And this guy had tons of both.

“I’m Torin, by the way,” he said casually as he walked further into the room.

Cally returned a deviant smile and then focused on Emara’s face as if waiting for her to say something.

She didn’t.

“How are you feeling?” the man asked Emara, his eyes darting to the bandage around her arm.

However, she said nothing again. Something about the way he had strolled into the room irritated her.

“Okay, silence it is, then,” he said, raising one eyebrow. He crossed his bulky arms over his toned torso and smiled. “I don’t mind silence.”

Cally laughed.

His cheeks pulled in, like he was doing his very best for his grin not to broaden across his lips. “This is normally where you would say, ‘Hi Torin, thank you for saving me last night,’ or something to that effect.” He held out a hand as his cool demeanour batted away the silence. “I will also accept thank you lined with the phrases such as ‘devilishly handsome, captivatingly beautiful, sexually sensual—’”

“They are the same thing,” Emara cut him off, meeting his stare.

His face was still overflowing with confidence before it fell slightly. “So, you do speak.” A corner of his mouth pulled up slightly in amusement.

Cally chuckled and bit her lip.

Did Cally find this funny? Did she find him funny? Emara didn’t know if she was just overtired or if the pain in her body had taken its toll on her tolerance levels, but she could feel the heat building up inside of her and it was boiling.

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