Page 104 of He Who Ignites The Flame
Because if I acknowledged it, it would be real.
Micah’s fingers interlaced with mine, drawing me back, and I looked down at my bonded, chest swelling at the look of endearment in his eyes. “Damien gave me something when I went looking for Barrett at The Complex.”
“Oh?”
“A box. With your name on it,” he said, and I frowned.
“What’s in it?” I asked, my mind wandering to all the possibilities.
“He doesn’t know. They found it in one of the chambers beneath the Archivallia. It’s small, and your name...” His gaze wavered. “It’s written in Lucia’s handwriting.”
My heart fractured at her name.
He gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’s waiting for you at home.”
After so many decades had passed since her death, I was almost nervous to see what it contained. If it was from Lucia, it must be important.
“I am sorry for skipping out on you today,” he said, running his thumb over my hand in tender strokes. “I tried to call The Outpost, but no one answered.”
I let out a sigh. “I guess I can’t get your calls if I’m not inside.”
“Does that mean I’m forgiven?” he said with a sheepish grin.
“That depends... You said something about making it up to me,” I said, arching a brow, the corner of my lip curving into a flirtatious half-smile as I stepped between his legs and leaned against him. I ran my fingers through his shaggy brown hair, and his head tilted back as he stared up at me. “Make it worth my time, and not only will I forgive you, but maybe I’ll help you with training tomorrow.”
The soft sounds of Micah’s easy breathing left my chest filled with warmth as I watched him sleep later that night. His soft, shaggy waves dusted cheekbones, and I brushed them away from his closed eyes, resisting the urge to lean down and kiss him—to drag him from his restful sleep and pick up where we had left off just an hour prior.
My skin tingled in the wake of his touch, a deep hunger still heating my blood.
Carefully, I slipped from beneath the blanket and rose from the bed, freezing when he stirred before settling back into a restful slumber. My eyes landed on the box atop the dresser‚ the one Micah had spoken of. There was no mistaking it. The box was ancient looking, the fabric edges worn and raw, as if it had been tossed and jostled around while in the Astral Sprites’ care.
I lifted it, fearing it might crumble under my touch with how fragile and worn it appeared. My name was written in black ink across the top; and despite the decades since her death, I could still recognize her handwriting. Other scribbles and inscriptions in the old language littered the box with dates that spanned the last five hundred years, with paw print signatures of the astral sprites next to each date.
Five hundred years. My mind raced through the centuries, retracing the dates. That would have been around the time they had freed me from The Pits. My heart fell into a frenzy, my chest swelling with anxious anticipation, and I carefully lifted the lid. Nestled within the box was a bed of silken fabric and a single envelope with my name written in neat letters.
My pulse thrummed in my ears, my heart galloping as I lifted the envelope from the bedding of delicate linen. I pulled a small piece of parchment from the envelope’s protection that still faintly smelled like her, a hint of jasmine and the citrus soap she loved so much, despite the musty scent of time that stained the paper just as the ink did. Her soft scent still somehow managed to calmme after all these decades.
Tears welled in my eyes as I began to read.
Dearest Thalia,
If you’re reading this, it means I am gone. Forgive me for not returning this to you earlier, but you were not ready for it. If you are reading this, The Fates have deemed it time for you to receive it once more.
I’m so sorry.
Lucia
I frowned, my fingers trembling as I read the letter over and over again, picking each word apart like the puzzle it was. What did any of it mean? How could she have known she would be gone when we found this?
My eyes fell to the linen in the box, my pulse roaring in my ears, drowning out my surroundings. I set the letter aside before reaching in to lift it away and my heart plummeted at the familiar gray scrap of tattered fabric. It was what remained of the coat the boy had gifted me all those centuries ago. I’d thought it had been lost in The Pits, that I’d never see it again. Its very existence had slipped from my mind in the centuries of its absence.
I wondered if the boy still lived, or if he had been lost during The Fall of Kingdoms...perhaps even before that. My hands moved of their own accord, muscle memory bringing the fabric to my nose to breathe in the familiar scent I had almost forgotten, one that had brought me comfort in many nights of despair?—
I froze as the scent of smoky oak filled my nose, as the familiar scent brought images of Barrett to my mind. His steel eyes had felt so achingly familiar for so many centuries, burning into me like a brand,like a distant memory rippling beyond recognition on the surface of the pool of my childhood.
I’d written it off as nothing, but they had always been in my memories, had been there since the beginning.
The hardened steel eyes faded to the softened steel of a boy. Not a boy, buttheboy of my childhood, the one who had cared for me, gifted me his coat to keep me warm...
