Free Elemental Fire by Maddy Edwards Page B

rising up around us. I looked around,
bewildered, as the sun was blotted out by clouds. I held on more tightly to
Keller.
    “I’m sad about my mom,” I told
him. I could say it to Keller. I could say anything to Keller. “And I don’t
sleep as well when you’re not next to me.”
    “I know you’re sad about your
mom, Heartsweet,” he murmured. I scrunched up my nose as he scrutinized my
face, then he gave a joyous laugh. “Was that too much? I know Lisabelle would
hate such a term of endearment, but I like to describe how I feel about you as
accurately as I can. It’s just hard to find the words.”
    I smiled and ran my fingers
through his hair again, enjoying touching him. Sometimes it filled me with
wonder that I was the one he had chosen to allow to touch him in such a
personal way.
    “I’m sorry you can’t sleep,” he
said, giving me a squeeze. “I wish I could help.”
    My back straightened. “You can
help,” I encouraged, getting excited. “Come back to me.”
    He stared into my eyes and shook
his head. “I want to make one thing very clear,” he said, his voice low and
urgent. He paused, looking around. “We don’t have a lot of time, but I want to
make one thing very clear. I never left.” He held my gaze with his. “The sweet
smell on the wind, the warmth of the sun on your face, the spark in a friend’s
eyes, those are me, telling you I love you. I will always love you, and as long
as you have those things I will never leave you.”
    He pressed his lips to mine. I
clung to him as if it was the last thing I would ever do. I clung to him as I
was pulled away. The shadows had lengthened and stretched. Our time in the
sunny place had come to a close.
     
    I woke up still in chains, roused
by daylight. I felt my wrists clink together. I was lying on my side in mud,
the wet earth pressing into my hip and shoulder. Carefully I raised my head. I
was alone, but where? I raised it a little more and realized that I was outside
Astra, of all places. Dimly I could see the lights from the camp in the
distance.
    I glanced at the sky, but it was
one hazy gray cloud. The air was cool and my wet body shivered from a night
spent outside. Astra looked dead and the thud of my heart was the only sound I
could hear. The Mirror Arcane was inside. If that was truly what Ms. Vale was looking
for, she was very close. I wondered if she really had multiple agendas or if
she had said all that nonsense about the greater good to cover up her tracks as
she kept looking for the map.
    I was so used to waking up to Sip
and Lisabelle’s racket, or even Ricky’s, that waking up to silence made me feel
utterly alone. Keller and I had started sleeping, emphasis on the sleeping,
together last semester, but that was when I had been safe in Astra, not when I
was in danger. It was strange to wake up, groggy, bleary-eyed, and not knowing
whether my loved ones where alive.
    I glanced back at my dorm,
desperately wanting to go inside. When I tried to take a step, I heard the
chink of metal. Looking down, I saw that Zervos’s black chains had been
replaced by a thicker pair of red ones, the color of cakey blood.
    “Great,” I muttered, tugging
uselessly. I squinted up at where I thought the sun should be, but I could get
no clear what time it was. I wanted to yell out but decided against it, hoping
that maybe I could figure out a way out of this mess before any of the Fire
Whips came to check on me.
    I looked around and calculated
that I was about ten feet from the Astra wall, lying on the ground in the front
of the house. Between me and the house were the flower beds, now just brown
dirt, that Mrs. Swan had planted and helped grow. I followed the snaking red
chain to the house, where it was firmly attacked to a ring sticking out of the
wall. The ring was also red, which meant that it was new. There definitely had
not been anything like that when I was last here. Astra still looked inviting,
but I could easily see that Ms. Vale had