Enflame (Insight #6)(36)

“How long do you think my sister can hold her back?” Landen asked Skylynn. “Rule number one: make no advance at me. Rule number two: never—and I mean never—insult her family.”

Skylynn locked gazes with me. “I have no fault with you or your family.” I gave no response. “And I have no regrets of my past, because of that past I will find the end you are blessed with.”

“I do,” Landen said before I could speak. “We crossed a line, and we will pay for it.”

“What line did we cross? They were blind to us. Mine is still blind to me. What were we supposed to do? Live in an eternity of loneliness?”

“It wouldn't have been lonely if we hadn’t forgotten. You know that.”

Skylynn looked down. “You never forgot, Guardian...maybe I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been fooled by the image of mine...if I’d ever found the real one.”

Something sparked in Landen. I could see it wash down him. He’d put something together, and whatever it was seemed to give him hope.

“You would not be fooled in today’s time. Trust me.”

“That is the problem. I do trust you,” she replied in a weak voice that somehow ignited jealousy deep within me. The breeze picked up speed, only to halt when I understood I was losing my control.

“Then trust me enough to give him his ashes.”

“No. I need them.”

“For what? I’m not a back up plan,” Phoenix seethed.

“I...I don’t have them,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she clearly was.

“What?” he and Landen said at once.

Skylynn let out a heavy sigh. “They’re safe.”

“They’re mine. Find them,” Phoenix said through gritted teeth.

She let her gaze rise to meet his and stepped forward as if she were approaching a regal power. “Your essence,” she whispered, “is helping another. You are not selfish enough to bring harm to them.”

He leaned down, letting the flames burn in his eyes. “Do not play me. What is mine is mine. Now, Skylynn.”

“Truth,” Landen said to Phoenix, telling him that wherever those ashes were, they were helping someone, that Skylynn was not grasping a weak bargaining chip.

“Oh, mate, she can manipulate her emotions for your benefit, no doubt. She is not playing me. Let’s move on to Sunshine’s witch,” Phoenix said, walking toward me.

Skylynn held out her hand to stop him as she glanced up at Landen. “You’re not going to leave me. You promise.”

The breeze was back, and it was a humid one. I could not handle this much longer.

“I know where he is,” Landen assured her, which led me to silently question who ‘he’ was.

She hesitated.

“All right then...Sunshine, lead the way to Hell’s core,” Phoenix said to me.

“Stop,” Skylynn said through gritted teeth. “Give me a minute.”

She vanished at that second, and a chilly silence took over as the dead around us shifted from side to side, anxiously waiting for something to happen.

I wanted to tell them just to let her be, for us to go and tell Perodine what they needed and it wasn’t because I didn’t like Skylynn. It was because I believed her. She was helping a stranger, and for all I know, Phoenix just demanded that Skylynn take back someone’s lifeline. I didn’t need any more guilt added to my plate.

Feeling my emotions and intent, Landen tried to persuade Phoenix to give in, at first with an endless glance that seemed to speak volumes, then he said, “She really was telling the truth. The ashes are helping someone.”

“Yep. She was, and that someone is her. Told you from day one not to trust her,” Phoenix muttered.

I guess Landen knew not to push him because he didn’t defend his insight.

Clarissa gripped my arm as the minutes ticked by, as I was given more time to absorb the past between the three of them. I slowly began to understand that I was in way over my head.

Skylynn appeared in front of him within the next breath. I could not hold back the sharp breeze that flew around the three of them. It was my compromise. They needed to know that even though I had not said a word, I was right here, prepared to pounce at any moment.

Skylynn was holding a small black scarf that was folded and tied into a wide bracelet. “I hope you’re happy,” she said faintly as she swallowed emotions that did not seem to match the moment.

When Phoenix reached for the scarf bracelet, the wind caused the folded pieces of the fabric to sway. He tensed as he breathed in deeply. I thought I saw relief in his eyes, but I must have been wrong because he charged toward Skylynn, yelling, “What did you do?”

Landen dove between them. A second later, he and Phoenix had vanished, only to appear a hundred yards from where they were. I could not hear their words, but the anger behind them was apparent.

Just as I went to ask Skylynn what was going on, she glanced in my direction.

“I have no idea,” she said.

I heard a quiver in her voice. That was a lie. Taking those ashes away from whoever had them was the hardest thing she had ever done, and now she was not looking forward to facing the two of them.

“Did you hurt someone?” I said through gritted teeth as the wind whipped around her.

“Not until a moment ago,” she said, swallowing her nervousness.