Smoke and Mirrors (29)

Twenty-Nine

The Monster and the Nightmare

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Isn’t it strange how our own dreams can hold us captive?

I was falling. My heart plummeted into my stomach.

Portraits from the Hall of Shadows swirled around me, laughing. Seraphina was in one of those portraits, holding yet another mirrored box in her hand.

Then the ground was suddenly before me, but the moment I hit it, it broke and I plummeted into fire. The fire burned, like it used to when I was little, before my Talent developed enough to defend me against it.

Fire was everywhere, like a blanket that enveloped me.

“Tessa, wake up!”

My eyes snapped open and I was suddenly aware of hands on my shoulders, shaking me awake.

I sat up and realised Sterling was awake, his sharp eyes frantically searching my face. His were the hands that shook me.

That was when reality hit me.

Fire danced in tall waves around us. The camp fire I built had gone out, but it seemed to have widened to create the walls nearby, leaving us trapped in a circle of fire.

“You have to control it!” he shouted over the sound of crackling wood.

My heart raced and I stood, my palms tingling and ready to absorb the fire.

I inhaled and calmed my nerves, then began to pull the fire away from Sterling and towards me. The circle of fire broke open and began to shrink, filling me with a warmth that made my heart feel lighter. I smiled as the fire danced along my skin. This was how it should be, not like in my dream.

I stayed that way for a while longer, even after the fire disappeared. Relishing the warmth inside me, just letting it find its way through my body.

Then I remembered something that brought me back to reality.

Sterling was awake.

I exhaled and opened my eyes.

Sterling was staring at me, his expression unreadable. His silvery eyes were so much brighter in contrast to his dark hair, as if they were cutting into me. I looked away.

“So. . . you’re awake.” I shuffled my feet awkwardly. Smoke filled the air.

“Just in time, it seems.” He turned away and kicked dirt onto the charred marks where the fire was, then coughed. “I need water. Badly.”

I rubbed my wrist. “Yeah. Uh, sorry about that.” I brought him the canteen of water from the horse. Come to think of it, I was pretty thirsty as well. Absorbing fire was a dehydrating business.

He didn’t respond for a while, just drank and shuffled dirt onto the charred marks in the ground. Finally he handed it back to me.

I took a swig and busied myself with putting up the water and the package of dried fish.

“How long was I out?” he asked suddenly. He stared at the dirt a moment longer before looking up at me.

I blinked, trying to remember. “About three days. Adrian. . . said you had Shadow Fever.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled. When he opened them again, he asked, “Where is he?”

“Adrian? He. . .” I turned away to hide the way my eyes began to water. Somehow acknowledging what happened made the loss feel greater. I cleared my throat. “He was taken. By Fire Talents.” I quickly blinked away the tears and turned back to face him, schooling my features.

He froze in the middle of dusting off his arm. “Taken? When?”

“Yesterday.” This time my voice cracked. “After we were attacked by Shade bandits, we made it to the capitol. We stayed at a friend of Adrian’s.” I gestured towards him. “They put some kind of salve on you to draw you out of the Shadow Fever. While we were there. . . people broke in. They set everything on fire and kidnapped Adrian.” I swallowed back a lump in my throat. Get a grip on yourself. “We left this morning. I, uh, thought we’d go back to my kingdom and let my father know what happened so he can help search for Adrian.”

He closed his eyes and inhaled. “We can’t go back. Not yet.”

Anger flared up inside me. “Look, just because you don’t have a heart doesn’t mean you get to dictate things. Adrian could be injured right now! Or worse–” I cut myself off as a tear slipped down my cheek. I angrily wiped it away.

He shook his head. “No, you look. That’s what they’ll want us to do. You don’t think it’s suspicious that a band of Fire Talents kidnapped their own prince? Your own mother could have–”

That did it. I clenched my fists as tears clouded my vision. “--My mother had nothing to do with this. She would never kidnap someone!” I ignored the fact that she had kidnapped both Sterling and the king of Time, all within the first day of showing me her home. “We have to go back! Adrian is my cousin–my friend. I won’t just stay here and not do anything for him!”

His eyes flashed. “You’re so–irrational! You can’t just walk into my world and act like you’ve lived here forever and freely decide whatever you wish! If you knew how to be a real ruler, you’d understand that sometimes you have to decide what’s best for others, not yourself!” He paused and, in a slightly quieter tone, added, “We’ll get Adrian back, but right now this is more important than your own selfishness.”

I huffed and crossed my arms. “I’m not being selfish. I’m looking out for Adrian.”

“Adrian knew the risks of guarding you and he chose to anyway. That’s on him. We’re closer to the horn now and Seraphina is trying to slow us down, don’t you see that?”

I shook my head at him. “You’re really heartless, you know that? You don’t give a flying snickerdoodle about anything or anyone. Well I’m not like you, okay? Unlike you, I know how to care for others!”

He turned on me sharply and glared down at me. I knew then that I’d gone too far. His dark hair clung to his forehead with a thin sheen of sweat and his eyes bored into mine with an intensity that scared me. I tried to step back, but my back pressed into the tree behind me, trapping me like a rabbit to a wolf.

“You don’t know anything about me or who I’ve cared for.” I felt his breath on my face, warm and harsh.

I swallowed and tried to rein in my anger before it got me killed.

Then in a moment it was over and he stormed off into the woods.

I hugged myself and let my tears fall.

***

Later that day, Sterling and I were back on the road with way too short a distance between us on the same saddle to be comfortable.

Remember how I said the silence was deafening in these woods only yesterday? Yeah, well, scratch that. Apparently it’s a fact that if you and another person aren’t talking to each other, any silence that was already there gets magnified. Seriously–I felt like whistling or something just to break it.

Sterling sat in front of me, which meant I had nothing left to do but stare at his back. All day. It was almost easy to pretend it was someone else’s back since his hair turned black, but unfortunately, my brain couldn’t keep up the illusion for too long before reality broke in again.

I sighed and reached into my drawstring bag, then fumbled around for the mirror box. Now that he was awake, he could finally get our next clue.

I stared at the box for a moment, then reached around Sterling’s shoulder and handed it to him.

He ducked his head away from my hand at first, then noticed what I had and accepted the box.

“What’s this?” he asked. “Is this that same–”

“--Nope. New box,” I said with a clipped tone. I still wasn’t talking to him technically, so I wanted to use as few words as possible.

He hummed and I heard the lid clatter as he opened it, then his back tensed. The horse stopped moving.

“What is it? Why did we stop?” I asked. I gave up on my vow of silence.

“Tessa, what color is my hair?”

I swallowed. I didn’t even think about telling him about his new. . . change.

“Ah, that would be black.”

In the silence of the forest, I heard his breathing. It was paced evenly at first, but now it grew shallow and fast.

“It’s–it’s alright,” I said quietly, noting the obvious way this upset him. “I mean, you still have hair at least. That’s more than some people can say.” I awkwardly patted his shoulder.

He inhaled a deep breath and released it, calming his breathing. “It’s just hair. It’s not like I lost an arm or anything.” But I could tell it somehow impacted him, even though he tried to be flippant about it. The horse continued walking.

I kept the comment to myself, but I couldn’t help thinking how vain he must have been. I mean, it was just hair. He should be grateful he even woke up with his mind intact! Well, actually, I wasn’t sure he ever had much of his mind intact to begin with. But still.

After a moment longer he groaned. “Blast it all. This is just lovely.”

I sat up straighter and peered over his shoulder. “What is it? What’s lovely?” Yup, my goal for not speaking was definitely over now.

He handed me a piece of paper over his shoulder.

The Mermaid’s Mirror at the Bottom of Aquilai.

I frowned. “Wait–Aquilai? Like, my kingdom?!”

“The Mermaid’s Mirror is a tool used by the royal daughters of the merfolk. That means. . . we’re not going to your kingdom.”

“Wait, where are we going then?”

“We’re going to the kingdom of the Merfolk.”

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Author Note: Should I have another meme contest for Smoke and Mirrors? The last one was a bit impulsive and not many people knew about it XD If you'd like to participate, leave a comment below!