Page 35 of Fire Touched

Elijah takes a patient breath. ‘Look, being locked up in her room, alone, isn’t doing her any good. We still don’t know what happened to her, but I think it’s pretty clear someone did this to her. She must be scared, Killian. Why are you out here with me instead of comforting your mate?’

‘Because I don’t know how!’ I shout, the words tearing from me. ‘How can I comfort her after what I did?!’

Elijah blinks.

Shit. I wish I could take the words back.

A hand on his burn, he narrows his eyes. ‘What do you mean,’ he says slowly, ‘what you did?’

Somewhere inside me, a wall goes up. ‘Nothing,’ I snarl. I throw another wall of fire at Elijah.

Instead of ducking or rolling out of the way, my friend waves his arms, and a slab of dirt rises from the earth, creating a wall that absorbs the heat and flames. When he lets it fall, his green eyes are piercing. ‘Killian.’ His whole demeanour has changed. For the first time, he resembles his father, all authority. ‘What did you do?’

I turn to leave. If he’s not going to provide a distraction, I don’t want to be here.

He catches my arm. ‘Hey.’

I spin out of his grasp and end up shoving him away. I don’t need this. A sharp hiss of pain sounds as Elijah stumbles back. His eyes are wide. I look down at my hands and realise they’re flaming, and I’ve just pushed him.

We’re both shirtless, so he doesn’t even have that to protect him. There’s a deep, red mark on his shoulder and his forearm from my fire.

My wall falls down. ‘I’m sorry—’ My fire dies as I reach for him. To my shock, he doesn’t pull away.

‘If you are feeling something so deeply you cannot control your power, you must do something about it.’ Calmly, Elijah detaches himself from me. ‘Before you hurt someone else. And I don’t mean me.’

I watch him walk away. The only person I’ve begun to think of as a friend. Walls back up, I grit my teeth. I didn’t mean to do that. I stare down at my hands, my insides churning painfully. Moira is going to set me on fire when she sees what I did to him.

And I’d deserve it.

I lower myself to the ground, running my hands roughly through my hair, trying to get a handle on this.

‘There are a lot of ways to hurt someone,’ comes a voice, ‘but I hadn’t foreseen this.’ Elga, the Starlight High Priestess, stares down at me, silver eyes sharp. Does she not have anyone else to pick on in this whole place?

‘It was an accident,’ I growl out. Like I would ever intentionally burn Elijah.

The old witch shakes her head. ‘That is not what I refer to.’ Her gaze bores into mine. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, Killian.’ She half-turns, staring up at the higher level. ‘As though Katherine hasn’t suffered enough.’ Elga crouches to me and grips my face with a surprisingly strong grasp. ‘You broke their bond. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?’ she hisses.

I don’t bother trying to yank away from her. My jaw works. ‘She’s mine.’

Elga looks as though she’d like to slap me. I can’t say I’d blame her. After a moment, she releases my face. Instead, she stares down at my chest, then traces a vein near my heart. ‘You cannot feel every vital piece of you individually. Every muscle, every tendon. But they’re there.’ Her sharp nail digs in. ‘Do you know what it would feel like, to have someone break one of your veins?’ Her nail wiggles deeper into my skin. ‘That bond was an emotional, physical connection both Katherine and Carter have had their whole lives. Without even knowing, it’s kept them both alive and sane during their trials and tribulations. When you would run across the beach every day, ignoring the girl you now call “mate”, when Carter was enduring a beating from that uncle of his, do you know what kept them going?’ She removed her nail, letting a trickle of blood escape.

I swallow thickly. ‘I thought it was a mistake. A second bond—’

‘No,’ Elga says fiercely. ‘You knew. You knew it wasn’t a mating bond, and you ripped it apart, anyway. You selfish bastard. You think your mate hasn’t been through enough, the witches of her own kin trying to drown her, and you go and amplify her hurt by a thousand-fold. I have seen many things, wolf, and this was not one of them.’ Her silver eyes glint like knives.

I can’t breathe. ‘I…’ Suddenly, every reason I had for doing this is gone. Evaporated. I open my mouth. Close it. I never imagined… Tears well in my eyes as I shake my head. How does this keep happening? How do I keep causing such pain? I reach out and clasp Elga’s wrist, her index nail still coated in my blood. ‘Fix it,’ I rasp. My hands are shaking. ‘P—please. I’m sorry. Please fix it.’

Elga tears away from me. ‘I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to, you stupid wolf.’ She returns to her full height. ‘Think of the Water wolf. What he’s done for you, for all of you. You betrayed him. Dosing his drink in a toast of thanks and friendship. Perhaps it’s you who should be locked up. You don’t deserve a mate, Killian.’

With that, she turns and walks away, her long, violet robes sweeping the fallen leaves, and disappears into the foliage.

**scene break**

I feel like I’ve just had my heart ripped out, and I’m not sure what to do now. In a daze, I get to my feet and end up in the guesthouse kitchen.

Carter is bent over the island, eyes squeezed shut.

He doesn’t seem to hear my approach. He has one hand over his chest, massaging some pain, the other clutching his head.

---