There was silence for moment, and then Asher shifted and cleared his throat, “I should probably let you get some sleep, it’ll be a busy day tomorrow.”
Panic flashed through me at the thought, “what time should I get up? How do I get to the training room? What do I wear to…”
Asher held up both hands, “woah, it’s okay. Don’t worry about any of that. You sleep as long as you like tomorrow. Right now you’re our only new recruit, so Juku will just have to wait for you, he won’t mind, he’s always training by himself when he hasn’t got anything else to do. As for clothes, the wardrobe against the wall has a bunch of stuff in different sizes, you can find something that fits, just press the buzzer when you’re ready,” he climbed to his feet, heading for the door, “I’ll tell the servants to come get me, I’ll take you to the training room so you don’t get lost.”
“Okay thanks,” the butterflies seemed to fade a little, “that’s a relief. I don’t have the best sense of direction, and this place is…”
“Maze-like?” he offered.
“Pretty much.”
“You get the hang of it eventually. It takes awhile,” he hesitated, “if you stay…I’ll…I’ll write you out a map.”
I couldn’t help but smile, “Well thanks, that might help.”
“I’m not trying to pressure you into staying,” he said anxiously, “don’t think that’s what I’m doing…’cause I’m not.”
“It’s okay, I’m not pressured.”
“Alright,” Asher ran his fingers through his shaggy hair, eyes darting between me and the door, “I guess…I’ll say goodnight. So…goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” I fought back a smile. He looked really reluctant to leave. Finally he edged his way out of the room with one more “goodnight!” and the door clicked shut behind him.
Sighing, I unfolded my legs, peeling my dirty socks off and curling my toes in the shag carpet. The fire was warming up one side of me, so I turned slightly and let it heat my back up. Why had I froze up like that? Asher wasn’t Trent….
Why had my brain automatically gone to that awful picture? It had ruined everything. Groaning, I let my head drop down onto my knees. Idiot.
I shouldn’t have pulled my hand away. Asher was sweet and sincere…and really good looking. Some mean little inner voice reminded me that I had thought exactly the same thing about Trent not too long ago. Stupid inner voice.
It didn’t matter, I told myself. There would be more chances with Asher, wouldn’t there? I would get to see him tomorrow, he’d take me to training in the morning…
Training. My mind instantly took me from worrying about Asher, to worrying about training tomorrow. What would it be like? I could think of a million horrible scenarios. What if everyone watched me and I couldn’t get the fire to work for me? What if I burned this Juku guy, or what if he hated me and thought I was an idiot?
Finally I got up and made my way over to the set of drawers that Asher had pointed out. If there were clothes there, there might be something to wear to bed too. Hopefully, since sleeping in jeans for the second night wasn’t really appealing at this point.
Rummaging in the drawers I found a soft cotton t-shirt and a pair of pink shorts with the word “Cancun” written on the bottom. Trying to picture the frost and fire jotun lying on the beach in Cancun sent me into a fit of giggles. I stopped laughing when I realized I sounded more hysterical than amused. Clearly I was really tired.
YOU ARE READING
Fire
Fantasy**Completed**Can smoldering resentment and attraction exist at the same time? Jess Parker has made a number of mistakes. The first was burning her school to the ground. The second, getting caught by the handsome, yet maddening boy who calls himself...
