Page 93 of A Clash of Embers

I pinched my face together, pulling my head in defense of his words. “I’m just trying to help—”

He spun around with glowing eyes that were furious. Raging. “Stop. Stop trying to help. This isn’t something that should be fixed by you. It should be fixed by the ones who started it.”

I stepped toward him and he stepped back, distancing himself from me. I reached for him and he pulled away.

“I just can’t do this right now, Clara. I’m— I need some time to think.”

I blinked rapidly trying to process what he needed to think about. “What do you need to think about? You and me?”

I saw his face drop with clarity. “No. Clara. I—Fuck—I love you. You know this. I just need some time to think about Leo and this entire situation. And you make it difficult to focus sometimes. I just need a little time.”

He closed the distance between us and his hands reached up, cradling my face. “My gods, Clara. You are such a perfect being. I just need a little bit of time. All right?” He leaned forward kissing my forehead and whispering, “When our stars align.”

I closed my eyes, embracing the warmth of his lips on my skin and then he was gone. I quickly glanced around as I watched a few people standing around talking, and there was no Eros. I knew he needed some time to think and I needed to allow that to happen. For it to be okay. My eyesight landed on Leo. He was sitting on a broken log from a dead tree when he noticed me looking at him.

There was something pulling on me to go to him. It was different from the feeling I had with Ev. This was a natural pull. A balance of the broken and the healed. I didn’t know what I’d say, but I knew I had to try.

“Mind if I sit?” I gestured to the space next to him on the log.

He kept his stare forward, not turning to see me. His heart rate was steady and his feelings were sorrowful.

“Do you remember in the Wharf City when you saw me heal the Hybrid Chrysanthemums?”

He didn’t say anything, didn’t acknowledge my existence, but I kept going.

“I had tried to do that hundreds, maybe thousands, of times before, and I was never successful. I realized that when I was healing the flowers, I thought about the two people they represented. Susan and James Lockley. Their headstones said, a guiding light to all and an ember for our world. That’s you and me. My father told me that I was full of goodness and light. And you... You’re the ember. You are the piece that we need to keep going.”

He stifled a small laugh as he said, “You’re insane. I am not an ember for this fucking world. I’m a disease. I am the darkness. I’m hollow.”

I reached over gripping his hand, “Madok—”

His head snapped to mine and his amber golden eyes glowed faintly. Internally there was a pull to each other, and I knew he felt it too. “Earlier Luke told me that when I tied myself to this world, to the dreary willow, I became connected to the heartbeat of this world. He—” I smiled softly glancing at our hands. “He told me that I am now tied to every being and creature of this world and that I would have an innate ability to connect with others that I wasn’t able to before.”

The internal pain I felt from him was excruciating. I felt sadness for him. A part of me was broken with him. I knew what he wanted—he wanted to be free. He wanted to be in love, yet he felt incapable of it.

“Mads, I know what I need to do for you.”

He blinked quickly, trying to take in what I was saying.

“You’ll need to go into Tetharus, you need to enter the portcullis. You are the ember. I am simply the light that glows from it. Once you enter Tetharus, your bond to this world is broken and you will be free.”

I could see him processing what I was saying. Or at leasttryingto understand what I was telling him.

“You’ll need to find Lilibeth. She knows you. She’ll remember you. We need her to end the curse because Athiana thinks I will be the one to go into Tetharus, but it won’t be me. It will beyou.”

His body relaxed slightly, slumping over as he leaned his forearms onto his thighs. He laughed. “You really think this will work?”

I grinned, “I know it will work. Because Eros is going to go with you.”

He stood up from the log and started pacing, “No. No. He can’t come with me. We hate each other and you just got him back. You— He can’t—”

I stood quickly, walking towards him and gripping his biceps in my hands, halting him. He struggled against me but realized that he would have to listen.

“You can and he will. Deep down, he knows it too.”

The realization of what we would need to do coasted over his features as he flexed his hands by his sides. His eyes studied me hesitantly.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. I knew there was something bothering him.

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