Page 98 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Gray

Chrome looked like shit. His golden skin lacked its normal vibrancy and luster, while his tousled chromatic hair appeared unwashed.

“How’d you find me?” I narrowed my eyes at him, willing my heartbeat to slow to a normal pace. I hugged my knees to my chest again.

He stepped closer until he stood only a foot before me. “I have my ways,” he mumbled. Something was wrong.

Upon closer inspection, I noted how his eyes were bloodshot and heavy-lidded, bruised below with blueish-purple circles. He reeked of the strong tang of whiskey as if it leaked from his pores. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t feel any foreign emotions like I had in the training field. All was empty and quiet on his end, which confused me. How did this phenomenon work?

Chrome snorted and then slurred, “What isn’t wrong, little savage? Everything is wrong.” I caught him wringing his fingers with one another, twisting, twining, and squeezing until they were nearly white.

Why was he wearing a ripped hoodie? And was that blood splotching the black fabric? A sheen of sweat washed out his golden complexion. “If you’re hot, you can just take off the hoodie.”

He gave a half-hearted, hoarse laugh, being vigilant to not look me in the eye. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Fuck off.” The air within me stirred to attention, ready to protect if needed.

“Mhm…” He swayed on his feet. “Oh, don’t get all feisty with me now, Princess. I only came by to return your necklace.”

I arched my brows as he fumbled through each of the many pockets of his black cargo pants that had seen better days.

“Day drinking’s your thing?” I asked as he continued to search his pockets.

He peeked through the curtain of his reflective hair. “Careful. It sounds like you give a shit.”

“I’m pretty sure your people might. Can’t have a drunken leader promising to free them from my father’s tyrannical bullshit, can they?”

“I’ve never made such promises. I’m going to kill the motherfucker…probably die in the process.Then, they can do with the world as they please.” Chrome shrugged and nearly fell forward, only barely catching himself at the last second.

Realization dawned on me. “That’s why you brought me here: to become their leader. You don’t expect to be around after all is said and done.”

Chrome stood up straight and continued his search for my necklace. This time in his back pockets. A dark, crooked smile taunted me. “Well, look who thinks she has it all figured out. You know nothing of the gravity of this situation.”

Anger burned a fiery path through my veins at his condescension. I’d been talked down to enough throughout my life. I had to put up with it from my father, but I didn’t have to deal with it anymore. “Well, how about you do me a solid and fucking tell me?”

Chrome retrieved the necklace from a pocket on his pants leg at last. He looked at me with empty, reddened eyes that said he had nothing to lose. Those were eyes that spoke more than his words ever would.

“Why would you listen to someone whodisgustsyou?”

I felt the verbal slap as if he’d physically done it himself. The guilt from yesterday came thrashing to the surface, and my anger dissipated faster than my little nature show had upon his arrival.

“I…I’m…” I stuttered, searching for the right words but falling short. My heart clenched with shame. “I’m sorry I said that. I shouldn’t…”

“Forget it. Here’s your necklace.” He tossed the heavy black stone to me. “We have a session tomorrow. Lucky for you, Orion will be there.”

I sat there with my mouth hanging open, squeezing my knees tighter to my chest. He swallowed, the knot in his throat bobbing with the motion, pinning me in place with his lifeless gaze for several silent moments before he turned and stumbled away, back through the clearing.

Chrome left me staring after him, yet I couldn’t bring myself to stop him.

I held the black crystal necklace in my palm, already feeling my Elemental magic weakening. I set it down beside me on the boulder, wondering what use I even had for the thing now. Like Kinetics, Elementals used bracelets to mask their natures if they needed to.

Sentimentality be damned as it never belonged to my mother. The necklace had only been a tool for Forest to manipulate me.

Fuck him.

I picked the necklace up again, rearing my arm back. Allowing my turmoil to fuel me, I launched the stone into the lake. It sailed thirty feet before landing with a heavythunkin the water.

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