AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shade pressed her hands to her hips. “Then why did seeing you bring him such pain? That’s definitely a broken heart.”
“He isn’t suffering a broken heart forme,” I stuttered even as my own broken heart prickled with hope at her words.
She was pensive a moment. “If I remember correctly, you were weaving partners for nearly six months. I’ve known him much longer than that.”
How much longer? I ached to ask before I realized I didn’t really want to know.
“I’d never seen Darius as happy as he was during your partnership,” Shade continued. “Nor have I ever seen him as depressed as he is now that it’s over. What happened between you two that caused you to look at one another as if you’ve been granted food after a famine, while also looking as if you’ve just experienced a nightmare?”
Why had Shade chosen this moment to become uncharacteristically observant? Her ill timing would certainly entangle me in a spectacular mess. When I didn’t answer, Shade stepped closer, her surprisingly fierce expression demanding an explanation. I sighed, relenting.
“Our relationship ended after I was suspended from the Dream Realm. During our partnership we became...friends, but that friendship shattered because I believed he betrayed me and gave the Council the information to suspend me.”
Shade shook her head. “Darius is too loyal to ever betray anyone, especially one he cares for as much as he cares for you. He was devastated to lose you.”
I snorted. Dariusloyal? Could she truly claim that after learning of his disloyalty to their relationship during our weaving partnership?
Maybe things aren’t as they appear.
I frowned, considering that thought, and Shade took it for doubt. “He’s unwaveringly loyal,” she insisted. “I promise he’d never hurt you.” Despite her reassuring words, her brow puckered. “Yet I do wonder...if he misses you so much, why is he avoiding you?”
Shame burned my cheeks. I lowered my gaze to the forest floor, kicking my toe in the dirt. “Following my suspension, I not only accused him but pushed him away.” My delayed guilt slipped from its prison and washed over me, sharp and burning. “I now wish more than anything that I hadn’t. I miss him, Shade.”
Sympathy filled her eyes as she rested a light hand on my arm. “He misses you, too. I know he does. You two need to talk.”
Tears prickled my eyes. I frantically brushed them away, even while I struggled to shove these aching emotions back into my heart where they belonged; they didn’t go easily. “I can’t.”
Perplexity filled her expression. “Why ever not?”
Because he hadhernow, making it impossible to rebuild whatever had once existed between us. Longing for what had once been was too painful.
Chapter 12
My conversation with Mother swirled through my mind as I trudged behind Blaze and Trinity to the Weather Shaping Studio, in the end having been unable to escape the outing Mother had arranged. Blaze and Trinity walked several feet ahead of me, holding hands and swinging their arms back and forth, as usual lost in the world that consisted only of one another.
As I watched them, I couldn’t help recalling Mother’s views on the paired relationship. I couldn’t believe that she not only viewed the deep, romantic connection of Pairs with disdain, but that she would actively forbid me from seeking my own heart’s match. I felt as if I’d already found my missing half; whenever I thought of Darius, it felt as if my heart was reaching for him across whatever distance separated us. It wasn’t a horrible sensation like Mother believed, but wonderful.
I eyed Blaze and Trinity. After Mother’s cynical opinion about the Pair relationship, I was urgent to hear their views on something they obviously cherished. I took a steadying breath and hurried to catch up with them. “Can I ask you two something?”
They turned towards me, Trinity with a furrowed brow. “What is it?”
I hesitated, unsure how they’d perceive my inquiry into something obviously quite special to them. “Can you tell me more about being paired?”
As one they both smiled—Blaze with the first smile I’d ever seen from his usual stoic expression and Trinity with her first sincere smile towards me. “Pairs are wonderful.” She cast him an adoring look.
“They’ve alwaysseemedwonderful, but Mother said...” I swallowed the rest of my words, fearing repeating them would offend them.
Blaze scowled and Trinity rolled her eyes. “Ebony finally gave you her ’Pairs are the darkest form of magic’ spiel? I knew she would eventually. Frankly, I’m surprised it took her so long.”
“Ebony doesn’t understand,” Blaze said. “How can she when she’s never experienced it? She ranted about the unnaturalness of Pairs countless times after I met Trinity in an attempt to dissuade me from pairing with her. She still disapproves even now. It’s the one thing we’ve never agreed on.”
“She calls Pairs a parasite to one’s power.”
Trinity gave me wry smile. “She’s not incorrect, though she’s looking at it the wrong way. When one Pairs, they bind their magic to one another. It’s a powerful spell that can only be done with one person whose magic matches yours. Once you combine yourselves to become one, you give yourself completely to one another, including your powers. But what Ebony fails to understand is that by selflessly giving all of yourself to one you love, you gain everything in return.”
I loved the image she painted with her words, especially since I did feel my heart drawn to one in particular. Yet even if he felt the same, I didn’t deserve him, not after the crimes I’d committed against him.
We turned onto a weed-lined path that twisted towards a towering silver building in the distance shaped like a lightning bolt, the Weather Shaping Studio. I knew once we entered it my opportunity to interrogate Blaze and Trinity would end, and I still had a few more questions.
