My Darkening Ember

Chapter Seventy

"Now guide it around your body. Let its lightness become acquainted with your strength."

We had been at it for hours. Mayra gave up at some point retreating to somewhere. She promised to get us something to eat but I figured she got distracted by whatever because it had just been me and Xander, alone.

I didn't mind that because even if I couldn't see him, his presence was just what I needed.

I let the staff dance around me, trying to find balance in the dark and with my movement, but I kept stumbling, so insecure about my footing.

I dragged out time too. Wanting to fail on purpose just so I didn't have to leave, so I didn't have to confront anyone. Aleron had asked for me, many times. Wanting to know if I was alright and if he could see me.

I knew because I had asked Xander if he had heard anything. I knew he had. He always knew things he shouldn't.

But something in his tone suggested he was very displeased I had asked him about it.

Xander had remained in the palace, because Aleron had requested it, for what purpose I had no idea, but I was happy he had.

Still, Xander hadn't wasted a second, interrogating servants, or sneaking around in the dark. I would have loved watching him creep around the palace like a sly cat. It wasn't like him to care much, but still, he had.

"What if he asked about me because he knows?" I questioned, letting the staff hover over my head.

The sweat from my forehead had started making tiny strands of my hair stick to my face.

Mayra had put my hair up before she left, now that she had successfully ambushed me into training she could fully prepare me for the lesson. The binds of the blindfold had been used to tie the hair.

"He doesn't," Xander responded somewhere to my side.

"He will find out. He has a way of finding out things, like you." I added the last as a little dig at him on purpose. I heard him shift and clear his throat. It was fun teasing him.

"Do you think I'm like him?"

"In some ways you are similar," I responded bleakly, trying hard to hold back a smile. I stepped forward, holding out a hand for balance, and held the staff at my front.

"What ways are those?" His voice simmered annoyed.

"You're both scheming, cold on the outside and soft on the inside."

"I'm far from soft."

"You're both also very hard to read."

"You read me just fine."

"I don't know much, if anything, about you honestly."

A slight pause.

"Ask then. You know I'll tell you anything."

"Alright. Have you never truly felt anything? For anyone?"

"No."

"But you do for me?"

"Yes."

"So when you...entertained women, you never felt...attached?" Was I being jealous? Or just crazy...

My thoughts stalled on the woman in the bar, on his lap, her hands on his...

"You mean when I've taken a woman into bed, did I care for her?" He asked coyly.

I sucked on my cheeks, feeling myself heat.

"I've never breached any border that would demand such feelings." He finally added to my silence. Of course, he hadn't. He wouldn't even be with me, but then that meant...