Crowns of Flame and Ice - Book One

(45) The World Burns to Ash

A week later Quilo and I were once again walking through the forest. Birds chirped merrily in the trees above, gently swaying in the cool breeze. I got a strange sense of de ja vu treading through leaves and kicking stray branches to one side despite the fact so much had changed. No snow blanketed the ground now, the cold wasn't turning my skin blue. Our crowns now flickered overhead. I'd learnt that the only time it burned was if I wanted it to, the other times it was merely a flickering ring of flame-like light. They were strange I realised, more so than just the manifestation of crowns of light, but they did not cast any light into the dark. When you struck a match in a night filled room, you'd expect it to brighten the space as a candle or fire would. My crown did not. Despite Quilo's being equally as bright to mine, the occasional snowflake twirling around its peaks, his did not glow either.

He glanced at me over a shoulder like he'd been doing all week. I knew with a strange clarity that he was checking to see if I was okay, making sure I was still beside him. He knew I was okay through the tether like I knew he was, but it was still important to see it with our own eyes. To be able to see the physical evidence that the other part of our soul was still moving. He smirked at me before turning away and my cheeks warmed as heat pooled between my legs. I wondered if I'd ever find a way to get over my desire for him, I didn't think I would. "Not helping Lil Red" Quilo growled, no doubt scenting me. He was referring to the promise we'd made, the one that was quickly becoming the biggest mistake I'd ever made. He and I were to keep our hands off of each other until we returned to the castle due to, and I quote Quilo's words, "the tent not being big enough to properly fuck you. Especially not against the wall". I'd whimpered like a starved animal and he'd laughed. I studied Quilo, watching as his back muscles shifted with each easy stride he took. The confidence in the gesture, a confidence I wondered if he actually had. There was no one else around to see us and I really hoped he wasn't just putting on that show for me. Perhaps it was to make me feel more confident myself about what we were to do.

My flames flared around me, those did illuminate the slightly darkened forest floor sending small insects skittering, and then I willed them to disappear again. It was like a thread, different to the one Quilo and I had. A thread that controlled my magic, one you had to knot and untangle and tug just in the right way to get it to do what you wanted. A thud and a swoosh sounded as a nearby tree was submerged in snow, the gentle flakes cascading to the ground. I glared at his back. I had not been able to control where my flame burned, and what it destroyed. I'd tried a few days ago and a large selection of the forest had erupted into flames. It had taken him a mere second to douse the flames in snow, watching as it melted into the water leaving nothing behind but a soggy pile of ash. I felt ashamed over the fact I'd been given these phenomenal gifts and i couldn't understand them, couldn't figure out what their purpose was. Quilo hadn't tapped into his own full potential yet either. We knew Quilo's power wasn't just snow, it was ice and water and wind too, but the snow was just the one that came easiest to him. I felt slightly jealous about that too. The fact that he had four abilities and I only had one. I knew it was slightly childish to feel that way, but I was. I was so jealous of the way everything came so easy to him and all I could do was make myself burn and destroy dozens of trees in an instant.

"Quilo" I whispered down the tether. I felt him open an eye through the bond, willing me to continue speaking. We'd been practising with that too and we'd discovered that there was no distance too large that we couldn't communicate through. I was comforted by that fact because it meant he was always with me and I could speak to him whenever I needed to. "what does your magic feel like?" I asked, twiddling with the straps on my bag. I felt him ponder the question for a moment before he responded, "it doesn't feel like anything. just like a part of me deep down". I frowned, "nothing? There's no string holding you to it?" I felt Quilo's laugh in my mind and heard it ahead of me, "it's not a balloon Anala it's not going to float away". Scowling I pondered his words, picturing the magic as nothing but myself. I found that I couldn't, I found that I didn't believe It fit. How could magic be a part of me if I was just handed it? I hadn't earned it, I hadn't done anything to gain it, I'd simply just been born.