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I pushed her to what?
“I know that, and so does she.” Tarian did not rise to Cyrus’s tone, “But that will not soothe her right now.”
“I didn’t know she was this powerful,” The sound of a chair creaking under someone’s weight came next, and I tried to focus on that, rather than the painful spread of creams across my chest.
“No one did. Especially not her.” Tarian sighed, and a sharp pain in my arm made me cry out weakly again, but as the comforting grip of sleep pulled me down again, I heard Cyrus once more.
“I worry that she will never forgive herself if he does not make itthrough this.”
27
Kira
Gracie watched me as I paced back and forth across my small living area.
Scorched hand prints covered the backs of my couches, and the now signed curtains were crumpled on the ground at every window I had. The windows themselves had been flung open to let in as much cold air as possible, and ash flurried around on the cooling breeze.
My bed had taken the brunt of the damage. The duvet had to be thrown away completely, and the wooden posts still smoldered where I had grabbed them during the most recent of my panic attacks. It had been almost twelve hours, and my hands were still submerged in hot, orange flames. The golden veins running up my arms pulsing as they fueled the flames on.
Cyrus had knocked on the door again, his voice filtering through the white-hot fire that filled me, just to let meknow that Maeteo had woken up again, and when I was ready, I could go and visit him in the hospital wing. Gracie had looked at me expectantly, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as she chewed on it anxiously, but I shook my head. She had called out to Cyrus, but I did not hear what she said as I went into the bathroom.
I looked down to my hands, the orange flames still licking along the skin of them and up my arms. My heart hammered in my chest and my pulse raged in my ears, and I wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep.
Gracie had poured over books as we had been locked in here, trying to find a way to get the burning to stop. Finally, when we had exhausted every other option, and destroyed some expensive works of art in the process, she suggested filling the bathtub in my bathroom with nothing but cold water and getting into it. It was a last resort, but until I knew how to get this under control by myself, I was willing to try it.
I stripped myself of my singed clothes, throwing them into the corner of the room and stepping into the freezing cold water.
A shriek left me as I dropped down to a sitting position, and I grit my teeth as I submerged both of my arms and hands. The water came up to my neck when I was fully in, and I fought hard to breathe through my nose. My teeth began to chatter, but I let myself soak in the uncomfortable chill.
I felt in my stomach when the fire went out, but I did notmove from the water. My hands and feet had gone entirely numb, and even after Gracie had urged me to get out, I shook my head.
Guilt was eating me alive.
Maeteo was awake, and the relief that brought was unlike anything I had ever felt, but it did not rid me of the guilt I felt for putting him at death’s door in the first place. Seeing him crumpled on the ground, screaming as his clothes burned away from his body haunted me every time I blinked, and I knew it would until I saw him recovering.
I did not know how long I spent sitting there, but it was long enough that the skin on my fingers had started to prune. I moved my hand through the tepid water — it had warmed since I had gotten in it, the heat from my skin turning the water from freezing to an almost comfortable warm.
A slight knock on my chambers door made me turn my head, my eyes focusing on the only part of my living area I could see from where I sat in the water. The back of one of my couches and a destroyed pair of curtains looked back at me, and I cringed slightly, dropping even farther into the bath.
“Kira?” Gracie called out, and I hummed in response, “Leo is here to see you.”
I frowned, watching the water as I swirled it around with my fingers. I had not sent for Leo, nor had I heard Graciementioning him. I wondered if she had sent for him in an act of desperation.
“He can come in.” I called, sitting up and pulling a towel from the floor, draping it over the top of the bath in an attempt at concealing myself.
Leo’s boot steps were heavy as he made his way towards where I was, and I looked away as his towering figure appeared in the doorway.
I was embarrassed. I was scared. I wanted nothing more than to hide away from the magic that I could still feel coursing through my veins. If anyone understood it, it would be Leo, but I could not bring myself to look at him in case there was pity in his eyes. In case he thought less of me for losing control like I had.
He cleared his throat as he stepped into the bathroom, making his way over to the small stool in the corner and pulling it into the middle of the room. I watched him as he sat down, bringing one leg up and crossing it over the other, his hands clasped together as he lifted an eyebrow at me.
“I messed up.” I sighed, looking away from him again, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Leo, to my surprise, laughed.
“You did.” He nodded, a smile on his face, “but so does everybody at some point, Your Majesty.”
I frowned, bringing an arm out of the water, andinspecting it closely. There was absolutely no sign that, less than an hour ago, I had been burning my way through everything that came near me.
“You should have never given me magic.” I sighed, letting my arm drop back into the water.
