Page 28 of The Incendiary

“What?” She playfully narrowed her eyes. “You’ve already turned this around on me once.”

I shrugged. “You asked me because you’re thinking about it, so I know you already have an answer.”

“And you don’t?”

“I do, but I want to hear yours before I risk embarrassing myself with mine.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “I would want a small house by the sea with someone I’ve… chosen.” She blushed. “And no one knows where I am, not because they can’t find me, but because they don’t care enough to try. Because I… don’t matter. Then I’d know that if someone cares, it’s because they love me, not my crown, my family, or my name.”

I committed every detail she gave to memory. Everything she wanted, I planned on giving to her.

“And you?” she asked, pulling me back from my sudden house plans.

“I don’t think I care what life I’d live if I had another,” I answered, praying she would hear my words and understand how important she already was to me. “As long as I knew you in that life too.”

My smile dropped when hers faded. Maybe because she looked at me like I always looked at her. Like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Finally, she muttered, “You sure know all the right things to say.”

I often said exactly what was on my mind, to my own detriment. I couldn’t reveal the filthy things in my mind, and I wasn’t about to say I love you before I’d even kissed her, even if it was true.

I simply stated, “It’s the truth, Ella.”

She pondered for a moment, then stood up and walked straight over to the roof’s edge.

What the fuck?

“What are you doing?” I leapt up. She wouldn’t walk right off, would she? No, she wouldn’t. Unless she’d been cooped up so long that she went insane. I know I would have. Panic choked me when she kept moving toward the edge and didn’t stop. “Ella, what⁠—”

“Do you see where that line of trees ends just over there?” She pointed south.

“Yes.” My gaze locked on the tiny bit of stone roof between her toes and the edge. “What about it?”

“That’s as far as I’ve ever been.”

Rage invaded me like living poison, just as it had when I saw the bars on her window. Still, that rage couldn’t overwhelm the soul-splitting fear I felt at the thought of her falling to her death. I felt like I was choking. The only way to breathe was having her safe in my arms.

“Let’s discuss that over here.” I infused false calm into my voice. “Away from the edge.”

She ignored me. “My mother used to take me there when she was in better health. Before my uncle decided I shouldn’t leave the castle at all.”

“Is this some sort of test?” I inched closer. “Do you want me to take you there? Because I will. And if you jump, I’m jumping after you,”

She laughed. “No, you won’t.”

“I sure as fuck will, Aryella!” I’d never been so sure of anything. “I’ll follow you anywhere, even right over the edge of this gods-damned roof.”

My aggression wiped that sly little smile off her beautiful face. I didn’t want to use that tone to get her to listen, but if it saved her life, I sure as shit would.

She rolled her lips together, eyes narrowing. “Am I Aryella to you now?”

The intimidation was clearly short-lived. “You are whatever name will get you to come back over here.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that you would jump after some girl you’ve known for a few weeks?” She leaned over the edge and looked down.

“Ella! Yes! Shit!” My hands shot up and gripped my hair, more terrified than I’d ever been. More so than when my childhood nightmares of flames and cinders in Isaac’s forge rose up like monsters to attack me in my sleep, or when I screamed for Eden because I was sure the shadows near my bed were beckoning me to join them.

“You have a very filthy mouth,” she observed. “Do you always curse when you’re stressed?”

“You’ll only find out if you live past today.” I inched even closer, hoping if I moved slowly and kept her thoughts occupied enough, I could get close enough. Grab her and run.