Page 37 of A Simple Truth

I took a long breath, concentrating even more as a drip of sweat rolled down my neck; yet again, he smothered my flames just as they rose off my hand. As if they never existed in the first place—not a spark, not even a puff of smoke; gone, disappeared.

I calmed the rising storm within, ignoring his blatant arrogance as he paid more attention to the birds flying above us than the flames I conjured.

At last, I gave up, lowering my arms, trying to keep annoyance at bay as I spoke, “I’ve been throwing fire at you for a week, other than a few little tricks and suggestions, you’ve taught me absolutely nothing of value. There has been no progress, and I’m sick of wasting my time.”

His eyes returned to me; his brow rose with curiosity.

“What is it that you want to learn then?”

“Teach me how you do that,” I said.

“Do what?” he asked, and I chucked another fireball at him.

“That,” I replied as he disintegrated the fire into thin air.

“That is boring… What you truly want to learn is this...” he stated with a mischievous smirk on his face, but I couldn’t reply because I could no longer breathe. Every single cell in my body suffocated, as if the entirety of my being and my newly-found powers were being sucked out of me. Pain shredded throughmy body as my mind panicked, blood rushing to my face as I dropped to the ground, gasping for air.

“You want to learn this?” His voice purred as he stared indifferently, watching me collapse in agony.

After what felt waytoo long,he let go of the sheer grip on my body, letting air flow back into my lungs freely. Whatever exhaustion I had before vanished as my heart raced back to life.

“Yes. I’d like to learn that.” I hissed, my voice sounding hoarse, and I sent him a hateful glare.

“Okay, but with one condition.” He smiled at me aware that he held all the cards.

Such a dick!

“What do you want?” I asked, uninterested in throwing fireballs for the rest of my life.

“I want some answers first,” he said, crouching as he took a sip of water, watching me slowly get up.

“And you thought choking them out of me would work?” I snarled, but then gave in. “What are your questions?”

“You don’t get to hear them first. Do we have a deal?” he purred, and I wanted to claw the smug look off his face.

I hesitated for a moment… but I was done with his bullshit.

“You get three questions. Take it or leave it.” I took a sip of water myself, feeling it run down my sore chest.

“Deal.” The almost black irises of his eyes were intrigued as he asked, “What is your actual, full name?”

“That’s your question?” My eyebrows rose.This was going to be easier than I thought.He nodded waiting for the answer. “Finnleah, Daughter of the Dead,” I blurted out, and yet, as I said those words, it felt like I was opening a door to something bigger, something deeper. It was just my name, but all of the sudden it felt too intimate to tell him.

“Interesting...Finnleah, Daughter of the Dead…” he repeated, more to himself, eyeing me with odd fascination, as ifmy name was of importance to him. “My next question is, why do you flinch each time you summon fire?”

“Because it hurts,” I answered honestly. It hurt for many different reasons; for the painful memories that I carried hidden deep within me, for what these flames served as a reminder of, for the physical sting each time a flame came to the surface.

“It shouldn’t hurt you,” he countered, his face changing with an unclear emotion. “Destroyers and their flames are one, entwined together. In fact, it hurts when you hold in power for too long without release.”

“Well, it does the opposite for me. What’s your last question, Destroyer?” I asked, rubbing my aching wrists.

“I shall ask it later.”

“What?” I bunched my brows together.

But he had already turned away, and for the first time since our training had started, he summoned those silver flames, drawing a large, flaming circle, frozen in the air. I watched warily, fighting the loud terror within, my mind begging me to run as far away as I possibly could from the Destroyer’s fire.

“Stifling someone's fire is a skill only Justice Wielders possess.” He blinked, the flames disappearing on his command. “The skill itself is quite simple. Just as you summon the fire from within, you can call on it from outside. Try it.”

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