Page 61 of Beneath the Flames
Despite the anger that coiled my muscles into tight knots, I had to try my best to hold back a smile, lest she call me beautiful again.
We trudged along in silence after that, thankfully staying ahead of the lava for the time being.Maren’s trembling grew stronger and more pronounced the longer we were outside, her face pale and lips blue despite the enormous coat she wore.A pang of regret pierced through me.Maybe I should have done more to ensure her warmth.The curse would never be broken if she died from the elements.
Her feet suddenly stumbled over a rock, and she flew forward again.I acted without thinking, wrapping my arms around her waist, and halted her fall.Alarm bells clanged through my mind to find that there was no heat coming from her at all.
She’s going to die ifyou don’t get her warm soon.
“Maren?”I asked when, despite her stumble and my arms holding her upright, she didn’t react at all.
That was when I looked at her face and realized she hadn’t just stumbled—she’d fainted.She was now an alarming shade of white.
Maren needed heat—now.
I glanced around, frantically searching for…I didn’t know.What was I supposed to do?We were in the middle of the valley with no shelter in sight.We were too far from the castle to return now, and Mount Kharos would offer nothing in the way of a warm shelter—at least until we reached the top.Our only tent was gone, not that it had done much to warm the air anyway.
Putting one arm behind her and the other beneath herknees, I hoisted her into my embrace, hoping it would offer some reprieve while I wracked my brain to come up withsomething.If my accursed magic hadn’t vanished, then I could have warmed her up in a heartbeat.But I could barely feel it anymore.It was a light trickle in my veins, like a dying stream moments away from drying up completely.Nothing happened when I summoned it.
The landscape around us held nothing, nothing that would help.Maren’s breaths were short and quick, and I felt each one like a stab wound.
I’d felt a lot of emotions over the past decades with the curse and the endless, and hopeless, attempts at breaking it, but the terror I felt at Maren’s life slowly draining from her while I could donothingto stop it…
My legs ached as I burst into a run and desperately searched for shelter.If I could just get her warm, everything would be fine.Huge boulders and rocks and the only bushes that thrived in the cold and dark littered the landscape, mountainous terrain rising up on either side of me.If there were at least trees on the mountains, we could take refuge within them, but this curse-forsaken land had killed them all off long ago.Our only hope was to find—
My feet tripped to a stop when I saw it.Tucked in between a grouping of large rocks—a cave.
Tightening my arms around Maren, I jogged toward it, silently begging her to hold on a little longer.The moment we entered the cave, the wind ceased, though it continued howling just outside.It wasn’t much warmer here, but at least we were out of the elements.I set Maren on the ground, propping her head against the wall.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, though she was still unconscious.
Firewood.I needed firewood.I’d get a fire going and putMaren as close as possible to it.That had to help, right?
Since there were no trees, it was annoyingly difficult to find twigs and branches that would start a fire.I found a few here and there but mostly resorted to pulling lichen and branches from the winter bushes.When my arms were as full as I could manage, I hurried back to the cave and tossed everything on the ground before getting to work.The smallest twigs went down first, then I covered them with lichen.It was dry enough that when I rubbed two sticks together, a flame burst to life, quickly devouring the twigs beneath it.I continued adding bigger sticks and branches until a roaring fire filled the cave, slowly heating the air.
Maren remained unconscious as I carefully moved her next to the fire, making sure her clothes weren’t close enough to catch flame.
Then I waited.
Waited for the color to return to her face, waited for the shaking of her body to cease, waited for her to wake up.
Ten minutes went by with no change.Then thirty.
Putting my hand to her forehead, I tried to see if she had warmed at all but still found it cold.I bent over her face to feel if she was breathing and was relieved to find that she was.
Maren was alive—for now.
How did I get her warm if the fire wasn’t helping?
A thought came to me, and I acted before fully thinking it through.Maren would hate it.But she wasn’t awake right now, and if I didn’t, she could die.
Pulling open her coat, I gently pulled her out of it and then lay down next to her, wrapping her into my embrace.I left nothing to chance as I tangled our legs together and tucked her against my chest, holding her as tightly as I could manage, hoping it would infuse my heat into her.Then I tossed her coaton top of us for good measure.
I couldn’t speak for Maren, but I was instantly warmer as I shared my body heat with her, the coat trapping it against us and the fire lending even more.This had to work, right?She’d wake up soon.She had to.
While I waited for her to regain consciousness, my mind spun in circles.I’d never been concerned about a human before.Dozens had come to Eroth, maybe even hundreds, and yet I’d never cared what happened to a single one of them—at least not like I found myself doing with Maren.I didn’t understand.
Why was she affecting me in such a way?I kept reminding myself that she was simply a means to an end, the best chance at breaking the curse that I’d ever found.That was all it was.She was giving me hope, and that was why I suddenly cared so much.
And yet that reason didn’t feel good enough.
