Page 94 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

I rolled my eyes. “Right.” I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Void shifted and reached into his back pocket. “I brought something. Figured it would make you a bit more trustworthy during our sessions.”

I cocked my head, ignoring the jab at my character. He pulled out a black cotton cloth from his pocket—a handkerchief.

“If you wanted to get kinky and level the playing field, Void, all you had to do was ask.” There was a part of me that needed to crack his apathetic front.

Void dropped his arms, and the handkerchief fluttered at his side. He deadpanned his features even more. “Could you not?”

I chuckled. “Whatever. Lay it on me, big guy.”

Void answered with silence and moved to stand behind me. How did he move so damn silently? He wrapped the cloth around my eyes, binding it at the back of my head, with a jerk.

“Okay, I can’t see. Let’s get down and…” My back slammed to the floor, stealing the end of my smartass retort. A heavy body pressed down on my torso.

“Okay,” I wheezed. “I see you like it rough. I can adjust.”

A sigh of exasperation reached me as the weight lifted from my body. “You talk too much.”

“Actually, I don’t. You just bring out the best in me,” I said, wiggling my shoulders.

“Focus.”

I sighed dramatically. “Fine,” I grumbled, tuning my senses into my surroundings.

This time, before he wrapped me in a chokehold, I heard it. The slightest movement to my right. It wasn’t enough, however, to prevent the inevitable whoosh of air that left my lungs. I was too slow.

“I heard you,” I said, grunting as I stood up.

“But you still failed. Try again,” Void instructed.

And on it went. Each time I sensed him, either I felt the air brush against me or heard its whisper, or even caught a whiff of his scent. But I was never quick enough to deflect him. It was a start. And I was a fast learner.

Lunch in the dining hall was the same as the day prior. Onyx and River accompanied me for the first half of my meal. Kodiak—the kind, beefy warrior—joined us for the second half.

I couldn’t help myself as I found my eyes subconsciously searching the room for Chrome. He never came by.

“So,” Onyx said, “how does being an Elemental feel?” He propped his elbows on the table and waited for my reply. My expression must’ve been bland because his eyes widened, shaking his head. “What? You just discovered a new part of yourself. You gotta feel different, right?”

I huffed out a breath before shoveling another spoonful of potatoes and stuffing it into my mouth. “I mean, aside from the new element that I always feel stirring inside me, I feel like myself.” If one defined their identity to be completely lost, then I suppose that could be true.

“What is your element, anyway?” River asked, her sharp, violet gaze piercing me to my seat. I wasn’t sure if it was socially acceptable to be asking such things, if they considered their elements personal information or not. River gave me a cunning, burgundy smile. “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” A wicked smile, indeed.

I gave her a pointed look. “Fine,” I said, stabbing the juicy slab of roast beef on my plate. “Air.”

“Shit,” Onyx hissed and dug into back pocket, retrieving a knife and sliding it across the table to River. “You may take my blades, but you willnottake my pride, woman!”

“Water,” River snipped as she snatched the knife with fluid grace and analyzed it. Her gaze devoured it the way Onyx devoured the mounted food on his plate.

I looked between the two of them before settling on Kodiak. The mountainous man sat with a bemused expression and then shook his head to himself before returning to his food.

“Uh, am I missing something?” I asked, confused. Feeling like, yet again, the butt end of a joke.

Kodiak looked at me with rich emerald eyes that reminded me of a spring field. “They made a bet on what your element would be.” He took a sipof water. The glass clanked on the table with a soft thud before he went on. “River won. And in the process, she won the coveted knife she’s been hounding Onyx about for years now. It’s a rare blade that completes an entire set of its kind.”

I snorted, relieved that it was something innocent this time around. “Serves you right, Onyx.”

Onyx reeled in his seat, his head shaking so fast one would’ve thought he’d earned a blindsided punch. “What the fuck? Why?”

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