Page 29 of A Simple Truth

I extinguished the flames with a single blink. The exhausted Ten dropped to the ground, catching their feverish breaths. But I was already marching down to the trail back to camp, carrying Finn’s limp body in my arms.

“How long?” I asked Zora, who was trailing me.

“Two days, Gideon. Two fucking days!”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. We called for you the moment we saw her. We tried everything. Everything. Her shields wouldn’t let anything through. Meanwhile, the fire wouldn’t stop coming out either. And…we’ve been rotating, non-stop; Creators have been helping and…and…I... I tried to find the Basalt Glass…but it wasn’t there, and she completely fucking evaporated the damn river and…and...” Zora was crumbling behind me.

“I got it from here, Zora. Get your unit some rest.” My voice conveyed nothing but calmness and control while my mind was flooded with flustering anger.

My tent was untouched, as if I had never left almost a month ago. I placed her down on my cot, adjusting her body to the side as the shaking subsided into shivers. My black cape draped around her lifeless body stood out against her burnt skin.

Gone were the playful freckles, replaced by blisters and blood.

A string of profanities swamped my mind as I lowered my ear to her chest, anxiously listening to the faint, barely distinguishable beat.

Thud... Thud…Thud…

Thud. Thud. Thud.This time it was a bit stronger.

A shiver went down my back. She was still there, fighting.

“Come on, little wildfire,” I whispered, collapsing to the ground next to her, not allowing myself to remove my heavy armor, not having any strength to do anything other than just sit there and wait. Wait, to see if her body would make it through the burn out. If her mind would recover from the complete shattering and come, unharmed, back to me.

I warily traced circles on her hand. The skin would heal, I knew that. Yet, it wasn’t the painful blisters, but the knowledge of the internal pain that she was living through right now, that made my heart shudder. There wasn’t a way to pull her out of it now. The only person who could bring her back was her.

All I had left was hope.

But fuck that, too.

I didn’t hope for things. I just did them.

There was never amaybeor aperhapsfor things that I put my mind to.

At least, not until now. Not until today.

Now, everything was left at the hands of hope.

Fuck…fuck.

A small groan escaped my mouth as I leaned against the nightstand by my bed, resting my heavy head. My eyes remained, watching over her like a hawk, counting each second between breaths, unwilling to even blink.

“How is she?” Xentar walked in, bringing me a plate of food. It must have been dinner time. A few hours had to have gone by since my arrival. But I didn’t pay attention to anything but the seconds between her exhale and inhale.

I shook my head, not feeling even the slightest inclination to eat. A slimy feeling gripped my stomach, courtesy of the pointless thoughts swarming in my head. Xentar empathetically set the plate on the table, taking a seat on a small couch not too far away from me.

“She is alive,” I said out loud, more for my own benefit than anything.

“That’s a good sign, right?” Xentar said, as he took a bite of his own food.

“Yep,” I dryly replied, rubbing my sore jaw in frustration.

“You need to rest, you know that,” Xentar added after taking a long look at me. “How long have you been up?”

“I don’t know. Three days, maybe?” I replied, aware of the pure exhaustion clouding my mind. “I left the moment Liriya brought the letter.”

‘Left…’ More likeabandonedmy armies, my men, my post. And a part of me, the soldier part of me, should’ve probably given more consideration to that. But the moment I had read the letter, I simply no longer cared what that soldier part of me valued.

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