Frozen Flames

Chapter Twelve

      “Jack, what’s going on?” I ask as soon as he closes the door. 

He pulls off his mask and looks me up and down. He takes a deep breath and looks almost pained to stand there. 

       “Jack—“ he closes the last few steps between us in seconds and kisses me on the lips, hard. 

One of his hands cups my cheek while the other goes to my waist, as he pulls me closer to his body. 

     He breaks the kiss first and rests his forehead on my own. 

We both sit there in silence for a few seconds; the only sounds are us struggling to catch our breath. 

    Jack pulls away. “I’m sorry.” He whispers. His fingers twitch for a second. 

And for that small second, I wish that he’d kiss me like that again. 

     “Carina…” he says, looking away. “From the research I’ve done, she’s King Castor’s older sister.” 

      “He said something about being on the throne for five hundred years. People just don’t live that long, do they?” I ask. I wrap my arms around myself to keep from reaching out and doing something I might regret later. 

      “He must have found some way to live forever,” Jack says. He begins to pace back and forth around the room. 

       I frown and watch him. “Are we still leaving the Kingdom tonight?” I ask finally after I can’t take the silence anymore. 

       “Yes, if you want to.” He says. He looks up at me. Even in the dim lighting of the room, his blue eyes are sparkling. 

        “I told you I was going to take you to your sister, didn’t I?” I ask. 

Jack nods a little and looks down. “Yeah, you did.” He looks back up at me. “Do you want to leave right now or wait a little bit longer?” 

     I look out the window at the dark sky. “Yeah, let’s go now. We should sneak down to the armory and get some weapons first.”  

     Jack nods his head. “Anything else we need?” 

     “Yes, you go down to the kitchen and try and get some food—healthy food. And I’ll go down to get the weapons.” 

I start to walk out of the room when Jack grabs my arm and pulls me close to his body. 

      “Before you go,” He whispers. He leans down and kisses me on the lips again. 

I wrap one of my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me before we both pull away. 

     “Don’t get caught.” He says. 

I nod my head. “I won’t. Same goes for you.” 

    Jack smiles at me, “Don’t worry about me.” He presses another kiss to my forehead and leaves the room.

I follow him out and watch him walk towards the kitchen before heading in the opposite direction to the armory. 

     The man in the blue mask who had brought me into the ballroom was standing in front of the door to the armory. 

His eyes looked up to me when I walked up. 

      “Eria, I can’t let you do this.” He says. 

I frown at him. “How do you know my name?” I ask, and I then shake my head. “Never mind, that’s not the point.” I go to walk past him into the armory but he grabs my arm.