Soul of Flame (Imdalind Series #4)(70)

“What?” she asked, obviously confused by the look I was giving her.

“You didn’t seem so adverse to the idea this morning,” I said, my eyebrows arching as I waited for an explanation. She, however, looked at me like I was crazy. “You came to our room, and looked at him like you wanted to eat him. Not like he was disgusting.”

“Now you are sounding a tad bit jealous.”

“No, I’m just confused. Last I heard, you didn’t like him and wouldn’t try to hit on him like you did this morning.”

“Hit on him?” she asked, her eye roll so exaggerated that I knew she was hiding something. “Whatever.”

She scoffed like it was some big joke, like I had just imagined it. I didn’t know why, but it cut through me. Who knew, maybe I was being a bit jealous. Jealous or not, it didn’t change the pain I saw in her eyes, the way she avoided me. It didn’t change that somehow, I got the idea she had become a different person when Edmund had captured her.

“I know what I saw, Wyn,” I said as I pushed into her shoulder a bit, hoping that the somewhat playful gesture would thaw the ice that had encased her.

Instead, it had the opposite effect, and she stopped, her jaw tightening as she held her breath. I didn’t know why, but I almost expected her to attack me. Right then, she felt dangerous. My pace slowed to a stop as I turned toward her, the dim light of the hallway making the valleys of her face darker. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled with fear for the briefest of breaths before her jaw loosened and her eyes softened.

“I just have trouble knowing who I am sometimes.”

“What?” I asked, the one word seeming to break the spell that I had somehow put over her, and her head jerked up, her face twisted into a mischievous grin.

“You tell me how good of a kisser Ilyan is, and I’ll spill.”

Even if I wanted to respond, I had no idea what to say. I had no idea how to explain what it felt like when Ilyan’s lips pressed against mine, when his hands pressed me against him. When everything became light, and the world stopped spinning. Every time, it felt like magic before I had known that magic was real, and I could feel the power of the world rejoice as if it was celebrating our union. It was perfect.

The words were in my head, but I knew they would never find a way out.

She knew it, too. She also knew I wouldn’t give in. I just stood there, my jaw working mechanically as the thunder from the storm continued to crash around us.

“Just what I thought,” Wyn said dreamily, a knowing smile on her face as she turned a corner into another dimly lit section of hall.

I fell into step beside her and she laughed, the sound claiming her supposed victory before she shoved me playfully into the wall next to her, her hand hot like fire against my skin.

With one touch, an inferno burned away the tendons in my hand. I screamed as pain spread through me, the sight of my fingers twisting into weird, broken angles only making the scream that much louder. I pulled my hand away as I tried to stifle my screams and control the nightmare that was threatening to take over.

I stumbled against the wall as the fire moved up my arm, my fingers clawing at the heated skin while the muscles continued to cramp and bend. I could hear the clanging of pipes in my ears, the madness getting closer. I couldn’t focus beyond the pain to chase it away, the loud scream that ripped from me only seemed to be bring it on faster.

I bit my lip until I could taste the blood in an attempt to stifle the scream, to keep the insanity from taking over. I felt my magic rush through me, trailing the burn with ice as it attempted to heal me.

Wyn jerked up to me when I yelled, the fear in her eyes almost as painful as the heat that surged through my hand. I expected her to apologize, but she only stared at me, her eyes wide as if she was trying to figure out why I had reacted the way I had.

I shook my hand as my magic extinguished the branding iron that had ignited inside of me, glad when the fire lessened to nothing more than an exaggerated heat and I could focus on keeping my mind intact. I gasped as the ice chilled me, keeping my eyes away from the blood-drenched wall across from me.

“That hurt,” I gasped as I closed my eyes, bringing back Ilyan’s dream in an attempt to keep the madness away.

“My magic hurt you?” Wyn said, the confusion I had seen on her face even more defined in her voice.

“Burned me more like,” I grumbled as I brought my hand up to eye level, almost expecting the skin to be charred away, yet it was smooth, like nothing had happened. Wyn ducked down in an attempt to see better, but didn’t say anything, her heart-shaped face screwed up in confusion.

“What happened? Your magic was so cold before.”

“It’s never done that, moved like that…” She spoke to my hand, her focus a million miles away.

“What has never done that before?” I was trying not to panic, but Wyn’s obvious lack of knowledge was not good for my nerves. That was, if I had any left. She may have just burned them all off.

I waited for a response, but none came, so I pulled my hand into my chest in an attempt to get her to stop looking at it.

I don’t know what it was about the way she was staring, but she looked lost in thought, her dark eyes haunted by horrors I had never seen before. Something was definitely up, and it worried me.

“Wyn?” I asked when she didn’t look away, the blank stare starting to bother me again.