Page 4 of A Blaze of Fire
Without thinking twice, I whirled around to face him. Unfortunately, I forgot just how close he was to me. We stood chest-to-chest with my hand still holding the mayo-smeared knife. “You’re not helping,” I grunted, “and you saying that is only going to produce more fear.”
“It’s reality, Vi.”
“Well, reality sucks.” I lowered my head, my gaze falling onto his sculpted chest.
Alec took my chin and tilted my head up to meet his gaze. “It does suck. But will that stop you from doing what you have to do? From keeping everyone safe?”
“No,” I muttered.
“I didn’t think so,” he whispered. “The only way you can keep Ansel safe is by keeping him out of this. As long as the Seelie Queen doesn’t find out about the two of you, he’ll be fine.”
“How can I trust you?” I whispered back with narrowed eyes.
“Shall we make a deal?” Alec lowered his head for a kiss.
I leaned back, my eyes wide. “No!” I shrieked. “My lips are off limits!” To punctuate my statement, I held the mayo covered knife to his throat.
He grinned. “For now.”
I dug the knife deeper into his skin, knowing the dull edge wouldn’t pierce. “No. Never.”
In one smooth movement, Alec disarmed me, leaving just a swipe of mayo on his neck and the knife now in his hand. “Never say never, Violet.”
* * *
We spentthe next week training, but infuriatingly for both of us, made no progress. I couldn’t produce a single element, and we tried them all. My powers were so dormant, they were practically in a coma at this point. Nothing we tried worked. Even worse, tomorrow Kazimir was paying us a visit to “value my worth”. Frankly at this point, I wasn’t worth five cents.
Each night when I finally crawled into the narrow cot, exhausted, sleep eluded me. I was consumed with thoughts of Ansel, wondering if he was alive or not. If he was, was he okay? I assumed he was alive. I mean, Alec didn’t strike me as the type to kill his own brother. In fact, when he found out what I was, Alec became very protective of Ansel, which took me by surprise at the time, but now that I’d had time to consider his motives, struck me as surprisingly sweet. But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt Ansel if he got in the way, and that worried me. If I could just speak to him once and let him know I was okay, I would at least be able to sleep at night. But Alec would never allow that.
Each time I shifted and turned, the cot squeaked. Finally, Alec walked into the small room where I slept. “I have an idea.”
I sat up and brought my knees to my chest. “Shoot.”
Alec leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Since your powers are dormant, there’s no point in us trying. They’ll appear when they’re ready. We just have to wait. The only thing is that we’re short on time.”
Captain Obvious. “Okay …”
“But you’re able to handle my fire,” he continued matter-of-factly. “If you can do that, I’m sure you’ll be able to do the same with the other elements.”
I frowned. “I’m not following.”
“Instead of having you do a little show and tell for Kazimir to prove you can control all the elements, we’ll ask him for a test of the elements instead.”
“What’s that?” I asked with a frown.
“During a test, each element is presented to you to see if you can handle it. Like when I transferred fire to you and you were able to bear it, that was proof you were a fire elemental. Anyone else would’ve been burned. In a test of the elements the same thing would occur, but with all the elements, one at a time.”
I raised a disbelieving brow. “You think they’ll allow that?”
He shrugged. “It’s a Hail Mary at this point.”
“I guess we don’t have many options left,” I agreed. “Is there anything I can do to prepare?”
He shook his head. “Just know you’ll be traveling to the Unseelie Court for the test. That means you’ll officially be in the heart of the Fae realm.”
I shot up from my cot and ran up to Alec. “If that’s the case, I just have one favor to ask.”
“No,” he answered quickly.
