Flames of Fury

Chapter 24

Happy Thursday!

You'll still get your regular update tomorrow :) 

**Warning: Brief conversation of abuse/ non-consensual acts**

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Xander

Well, that went as well as could be expected. I'm not dead...yet. The twins have gone after Mags, Incandis has gone after Kat, so I'm left in her office to wait. I wonder how long it will take the fire-healer to come back in here. I'm sure she thinks I don't know she's been out in the hallway all this time, but that's my job – to know things, to know peoples' whereabouts, especially around our Queen.

Of course, Mags doesn't make it easy on me. Nothing has ever been easy with her. From the day she was born Incandis and I knew she was the very definition of a spitfire, and the centuries have only proven that fact.

"You took the fall for him." The healer says from within the doorframe. "Why?"

There she is.

"Did you want to slap me first? It's all the rage today." Technically, Varian punched me, and Mags' slap was more symbolic than anything. She could have hurt me if she wanted, but I don't think that was her intention.

Ember's expression remains stoic, she's not responding to my attempts for levity. If anything her eyes narrow and harden further.

I give her a noncommittal shrug, "he's my best friend. That's what best friends do."

"No I don't think that's it." She moves through the room to face me properly. "You had the chance to live completely in the truth, but yet you chose another lie. Why?"

"The same reason Mags left on her own five months ago. Some truths do more harm than good. I'm her guardian...in all aspects of her life. I protect her life, her honor, her heart. So if saving her brother from her mates is what it takes to protect their relationship then that's what I do."

I pause for a moment and turn to sit on one of the couches in Mags' office. "Besides, I'm ultimately the one who wiped their memories. Regardless of whose idea it was, I was the one who did it."

"How did that protect her?"

I let go of a heavy sigh because this is the part I'll never fully understand. "I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but they're more than just sparks, they're mates, their souls are bound. The twins were...dying." I gesture for her to sit with me. "If she came home to find them dead, she would have blamed herself and she would have wasted away. Ergo, to protect her – to protect them for her – I had to pick between two shitty options. Wipe them or let them die."

Minutes pass us by in a thoughtful silence. "She trusts you," I say at last, softly so the silence cracks gently.

"What makes you say that?" Ember tips her head to the side in a very Mags fashion.

My mouth twitches into a smirk as the thought slithers across my mind.

"What's so funny?" Nothing escapes Ember, she picks up on everything.

My smirk widens. "Nothing," I chuckle. "I was just thinking of how much you remind me of her."

Ember looks perplexed, grappling with whether or not my words are an insult or a compliment. For the record, they were meant to be a compliment.