Page 81 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“Why? Because you could take what you wanted anyway?”

His hand disappeared through the shadows of his hood, and she imagined his exasperation. “I’m no stranger to having people think the worst of me with my ability,” he said coldly. “I get it. Yes, I could take anything I wanted right now. I could hold you hostage and make you watch as I did it. You would be helpless to throw me out. But you already know that, and I didn’t have to force my way in here tonight—it was like you opened the damn door and may as well have offered me tea when I arrived. Say it right now that you don’t want me to come, and I won’t. You were only an intrigue. You need me far more than I need you, and I know that’s not something you like to hear. I can feel your protest, your defense, all from a past that has clearly taught you the only trust you can have is in yourself. I’m not going to waste my time and lose sleep convincing you of what I have offered you. Take it, or tell me not to come back.”

Zaiana was stunned by the reprimand. In the real world, she might have walked away. She never wanted to depend onanyone. Help became a debt; a weakness that would be held against her.

This was different. Right now, she didn’t want to walk away. She could wake up and pretend it was a dream. She had some piece of him, and she didn’t know how the certainty settled in her that this wasn’t a trick.

“I don’t know what to show you,” she said in defeat.

“If you’ll let me, I can try to feel for the most prominent lead to figuring out your subconscious storm.”

“What about my ability?”

“I think we need to go back further. While it may seem like it’s come from some traumatic event, a block like this to take your whole ability has to be tied deeper, held hostage by something else. It won’t be easy to confront, and I’ll have to see it all. I promise you, anything that happens in here will remain in here.”

There was no point in asking how she could trust that—she had to find it out for herself. Did she really have anything to lose now anyway?

“Do it,” Zaiana said, even though those two words gripped her with a fear so great she wanted to dissipate into the storm that raged, never to emerge to face the worst of her fears…

Herself.

She turned away as if she could avoid seeing it.

“You have to be ready to face it, otherwise you could hurt us both with your reactions.”

He came closer. Zaiana shouldn’t be this unbothered by his company, but he was soothing the rage of emotions around them. She couldn’t explain it.

“I can handle it,” she said, but it was pointless to lie to him.

“Just give me a forewarning if you want us to retreat from the memory.”

Zaiana could only nod, sliding her sight to him. She still had no face to mark him. Occasionally, she would catch his mouth, but it was little to identify him by.

“You’ll feel me reaching. It will be like a pressure, and it might grow more intense the further I reach. This is your first chance to trust me. I promise to retreat if it’s too much. Just say the word.”

With a long breath, she spun around. She had faced far worse torture than this. At least, she thought she had.

“I’m trusting you.”

Zaiana focused on her breathing when the first prod of her thoughts spiked her immediate need to defend herself.Nothing to lose.And hopefully, her lightning to gain back. Her eyes flexed at the building pressure. Deeper and deeper.

Colors flashed, as if he were touching many years, decades, filing through her memories, and she wondered how he knew what to look for. How he would know where to begin.

Farther and farther back.

Regret began to grow.

“Almost there.”

“Where?” she snapped in her panic.

“The place where it all began.”

Zaiana gasped as it was like a thread of her mind had been plucked suddenly.

The kaleidoscope made its final turn from a mosaic to a clear image, and Zaiana wanted to retreat. To cast him out and never come back here again.

“Him,” the male said, with a low, dark edge she didn’t expect.

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