Bleeding Ink

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The dark circles beneath Dessa's eyes only made the sapphire blue color of them brighter as she stared at herself in her bathing room mirror. It wasn't because she and Milena had stayed up until midnight talking and giggling and eating chocolate. It was because of a dream...no, a nightmare...she'd had just before she jolted awake, the sun barely peeking in through her half-closed curtains.

It was one she hadn't had since she was a child. Dessa, standing in what seemed like an endless night, with Cleo and another female beside her. The three of them were radiating with magic, both darkness and light, while a deep male chuckle echoed from seemingly everywhere. The male, though, wasn't Elys as he attempted to slow time around another, every second seeming to drain him of his unique magic more than more, which made Dessa's panic raise in her throat as she fought against her scream. Cleo's shadows were wreathed around them, trying to grab the unknown male, the other female's magic was trying to reach into the male's mind and torture him that way, and Dessa's...

Yes, Dessa had her magic in that nightmare. Magic she'd always wanted and yet seeing it made her very, very afraid when she was little.

Because it wasn't shadows she was surrounded by like Cleo was. It was what she could only describe as shadowflame – onyx flames that surrounded her glittering with silvery light, though were concentrated mostly at her hands. Flames which she could practically feel burning through every part of her since she woke up gasping, sweat trailing down her temples, the smell of smoke tickling her nose.

Now, Dessa was staring down at her hands leaned against the cool marble countertop, turning them slowly palm upward, watching her fingers flex and relax. She imagined that dark flame dancing through them, pooling in her palm and growing in intensity...

A knock on her bathing room door made her jump and spin around to meet Elys's concerned gaze, hiding her hands behind her back.

"You all right?" he asked her, brows furrowing as if he could hear her heart racing in her chest. "I waited a few minutes before coming in. Did you not hear me knocking on your room door?"

Dessa shook her head as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking him over in his tucked in white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black pants. "No, I didn't hear. I'm sorry. I...I was just lost in thought there for a little while."

He leaned his hip against the countertop beside her, staring intently. "Anything in particular?"

The question made her raise a brow. "Like you don't know already."

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't see everything all the time. I'm able to focus on specifics, of course, and get information when I need to. I'm all knowing and yet not at the same time."

"Seems like a waste of good magic."

"No, just have everyone's respect for privacy as I told you last night."

Dessa sighed and looked at herself in the mirror again, particularly the dark circles under her eyes. Elys continued staring at her, waiting.

"Do you remember that nightmare I used to have when I was little?"

Elys, it seemed, hadn't thought about it in a while, just as she hadn't until she had it again. "I do."

"You're still in it, too."

"And I will tell you the same thing I used to tell you when you were little. If and when it happens, you will be more powerful than you think you are right now. And I will be right there with you every step of the way, just like I've always been and will be."