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“You are wrong,” Solin argued, his voice trembling with conviction. “I’ve seen with my own eyes that she carries a flame. Brighter than any in my clan. Brighter than even me.”
My eyes snapped toward him.
That wasn’t true.
I’d never conjured a fire or even heard the faintest whisper of smoke.
He met my wide stare. “I’ve seen it when you sleep. You glow. You glow like the brightest star.” His eyes glittered. “That is why I keep you near. Why I have claimed you. I don’t know why the fire has decided to forsake you, but I do know what I’ve seen. You are meant to be mine. I know what I sense and—”
“You meddle, Fire Reader.” The tree of fire twisted with whipping hot wind.
“She was brought to me for a reason,” Solin snarled, his tone black. “You showed me that very reason. She was guided to my people to be my acolyte.”
“What?” I breathed as the tree-fire crackled with deeper fury.
Solin didn’t focus on me. His temper arrowed at the flame-roiling world. “She needs training so she’s not a danger to herself and others. Perhaps that is what you saw, Quelis? You see her untrained and ill prepared. Her power could be seen as destructive if not honed.”
“You have let your heart tangle with hope,” the flames blazed. “Do not let mortal affection prevent you from seeing the truth.”
“The truth is, without me to teach her, the fire within her will eventually break loose. To deny her my teachings and guidance is reckless.”
“Your desire for an acolyte is clouding your judgement.”
“My judgement is sound,” Solin said coldly. “You are the reason I fight for this. You have shown me what she is capable of.”
“That was a mistake.”
“She is the one I’ve been waiting for,” Solin yelled, speaking over the roar of flames. “The one you promised would come.” Straightening his shoulders, he gathered up his temper and calmed his rage. “You requested I bring her to you. I have. Tell her what she should know.”
“She should’ve died when she walked alone with nothing.”
The fire’s truth slapped me with stinging fingers.
Tears shot to my eyes, sizzling with steam.
I trembled. “Who are you to condemn me when I’ve done nothing wrong?”
“We condemn you because you condemned yourself. You chose to forget because you know what you will do.”
“What?” I demanded, swallowing back tears. “What will I do?”
“A glimpse then.”
My mind suddenly filled with smoky blackness.
Of decimated grasslands and burning bodies.
The screams of younglings.
The howls of mourning as mortals became nothing more than corpses—
“Stop.” I grabbed my hair. “Stop—”
“Now you see.”
Tears gushed down my burning cheeks. “I would never do anything so monstrous.”
“In one fate you do this and far, far worse.” A shower of embers coated us, sticking to our shoulders and burning down to our bones.
The earth undulated beneath our feet, turning a luminous red, becoming a river of magma that flowed around our ankles, trapping us in its might.
“Your final chance!” the fire roared.
Despair choked me that I would always be lost.
I wanted to fight and kick and argue. To beg, plead, and promise to be worthy of a past that seemed destined to always be forgotten. I hadn’t taken a toxin and put both our lives at risk just to be told no.
I need to know.
Snatching my hand out of Solin’s, I held both up to the hellish sky. “Tell me who I am!”
“Don’t let go of me!” Solin commanded, reaching for my wrist.
But it was too late.
The fire crashed around me like orange-golden wings.
I didn’t fight it.
I welcomed it.
I didn’t want to be lost anymore.
Didn’t want to forget anymore.
“Tell me!” I yelled, tears raining with fresh steam. “Tell me who I am.”
“You are forgotten,” the fire mocked.
“I will remember eventually, with or without your help.”
“And the day you do, the world will quake. Life hasn’t twisted you. Love hasn’t corrupted you. Pain hasn’t shattered you. Yet.”
I hung my head, all my frustration gone. “What could I possibly do to deserve such a fate?”
“You made a choice.”
“What choice?”
“The wrong one.”
The fire licked around my mind, stealthy and smoky, keeping me trapped in its world. “Every living thing exists only to purify their Destini. You chose to forget to shield your Destini from the chaos you will reap and the chaos that will haunt you. By walking within us, you are now one of us. You may summon a child of our flames at will. Let it guide you. Stay in our light if you wish to stay true.”
It didn’t billow and bluster anymore.
I tasted its worry now, the thickening flavour of dust and char.
It made my fiery shoulders slump as an ache crushed my heart. “Are you saying I’m Quelis or that you’ve gifted me something I’m not entitled to?”
The fire took its time replying. “To tell you would be to aid your memories, so we shall say nothing.”
