“She is freezing,” Kaif growls, annoyed.
I can see that – her breath is leaving little clouds in the air. Kaif presses forward before I even have a chance and turns my palm upright. His voice, a murmur as the words leave my lips, spoken in a tongue not my own, using power centuries old.
I feel it ripple through me like a pulse pushing outward, warm air moves around the room as the flame in my hand heats the air rapidly. With a flex of my fingers, it vanishes. The room is now toasty and warm, yet her shaking never stops.
Tormented by whatever plagues her, Kaif wants to see, wants to see what she is dreaming, curious if she dreams of us or of someone else. Moving beside her, I look down at her, huddled beneath my blankets. My fingers twitch before I stop, pulling my hand away. I know I have to remove her memories and make her believe the same as Rose will.
Kaif disagrees. He wants her to remember. He wants her to remember me. Curiosity gets the better of me when pain radiates through my chest, making my eyes snap to her. Her eyelids are moving rapidly. Before I can stop myself, my palm lays on her cheek, her dreams filter into my head as if they are my own.
She is dreaming of tonight, of the men she killed, the look of horror on Rose’s face, how she blames herself. She feels like she failed to protect Jonah’s sister while Kora’s voice screams for her to stop. Then, the images change, and her fears morph into something new, her dreams so vivid it is like watching a movie.
And suddenly, I am looking at myself. I become the thing that haunts her dreams, and Kaif whimpers, the noise so strangled it makes me jump. A noise I have never heard from him before. One of anguish, like he can’t bear for her to see us as a monster. The men’s faces morph into ours, to Jonah’s, as she kills us repeatedly. Her fear is so potent I can taste the bitterness of it on my tongue.
I shouldn’t meddle. I should let her dream whatever darkness her mind conjures up, anything to drive Marabella away when suddenly, I give some back, not nightmares, no fear, just our memories, ones I took from her, ones I kept close for fear she may remember. The nightmare twists to Marabella at Andrei’s place. We were still young, and I watched Jonah, Marabella, and Rose roll down the hill, racing each other to the bottom.
She had no fear then; she was free of everything that had suppressed her, her laughter was contagious as all three of them became covered in grass. Marabella was eight, Jonah thirteen, and I was sixteen. Both girls laugh before climbing back up the top of the hill. Marabella bounced on her heels as she skipped over to me.
“Roll with me, Kye, please, please,” she begged.
“No, I will get grass on me. Look at your dress; you are covered in it,” I tell her, wiping the grass off. Jonah flops down beside me; Rose clings to his back after she makes him carry her back up the hill.
“You’re up, I need a break,” Jonah says as Rose slides down his back on the grass.
“Roll down by yourself,” I tell her, and she pouts, yanking on my hand.
“Please, Kye,” Marabella keeps begging.
“Yeah, please, Kye,” Jonah mimics her, and I shove him.
Marabella starts bouncing, refusing to let go as she tries to haul me to my feet, “Please, please,” she repeats, and I roll my eyes with a sigh before climbing to my feet.
“Just once,” I tell her, looking at the grass-covered hill. It made me itchy, just looking at it.
“You coming too, Rose?”
“I’m tired,” she says, sprawling across her brother’s lap like a sloth and poking him in the face. Jonah kept swatting her hand away as she annoyed him before rolling her off, only for her to jump on his back. Rose loved annoying him; she was wild.
“Stop Rose, or I will get Casen,” he scolded her. Shaking my head at them, I lay on the grass.
“Ready… set… go,” Marabella called out before she took off down the hill. Her laughter was contagious as I rolled beside her. I reckon we rolled down that hill twenty times before she made me piggyback her home. I was itchy and filthy as we got back home to Andrei’s and covered in grass.
I had no idea why I did it, and it was probably foolish of me, selfish, yet every time Jonah said she was staying at his place, I always found myself there as well. Andrei and Sage always welcomed me with open arms. They never feared me, and I had become a permanent fixture in their house for a time. It was my second home.
Lucas and Andrei were close, Andrei being the closest person I saw him to in all the years Lucas had watched me. Half the time, I never even had to ask, Uncle Lucas would tell me Marabella was visiting Jonah and Rose, and he would have my bag packed, knowing I would want to go.
As she grew older, the pull toward her got stronger. Every chance I could, I visited her there, she loved camping, she loved my magic, and it loved her. Hours spent for it to end the same, I always took it away like I was never there and it was only Jonah.
Memories were shared with Jonah, but as she grew, so did her resistance to forget. She fought harder to keep the memories, and some would linger but eventually fade.
“Please.” I blink, coming out of my daze, out of my memories to find Marabella awake and staring at me. Her face moves beneath my palm, and I hesitate as her eyes meet mine. I need to knock her out, so I can take the memory I gave her back, remove this night from her too.
“Please don’t,” she whispers as her hand grabs mine that lays on her cheek. Sparks rush up my arm, warming. I suppress my reaction, giving her none, trying to remain indifferent, yet it is becoming harder.
I want her. I told her on the way here that I love her, then climbed out of the car before she could react to the words, yet I wonder what her reply would have been if I had remained. What would Marabella say if I didn’t turn my back on her after I dropped the bomb on her…