House of Winter

Chapter 34, Part 2

Lumi didn't know what to think. She knew who she was. She was Lumiko Tsukasai. She was not her brother. But she was born from the same womb. Sired by the same father, the Burning King who had killed his own father to claim the throne. She could just as easily descend into the same evil path that her brother had so eagerly taken.

"You are not an empress or even a princess here, Lumi," Tom said. "You are a little girl pretending to be something you're not. You're in too deep."

There it was. The confirmation that she'd always known. It was the way Raphael had treated her. It was the way Tai had always treated her. And now, she knew, it was the way Tom thought of her. He may have told her, once, that he thought she was strong, but here it was. The confirmation that secretly, all along, he had considered her a weak little girl. He had thought she needed protecting, and he had considered himself her saviour, to protect her. He was no different from the others.

"I'm not leaving you out here alone, Lumi. So you either follow me back to the camp or I bring you kicking and screaming. And don't try to tell me you're an empress, because I have no qualms in throwing an empress over my shoulder. And you and I both know that if it comes to a battle of magic, I will win."

"You forget that I have the power of quelling, Tom," Lumi said. "You of all people should fear me the most. You've seen what I can do. You've seen what I've done. I can feel your magic beating in your chest, at this very moment. It would take nothing for me to pull it out of you. To pull the two stars that circle each other from your heart, and destroy you as I destroyed them."

Tom's face showed a flicker of fear, and Lumi knew that he was remembering what she'd done in the forest with Meiliu and what she'd done in the icelands with the Lombardians.

"You may be a kinncharging champion, but I am so much more dangerous than anything you've experienced on the arena," she said. "So I'm telling you again. Leave me alone."

"And I'm telling you again, I won't leave you here alone."

"I will pull the two stars out of your heart," Lumi said again.

"I don't have two stars," Tom snapped.

"You do," Lumi said. "The twins in Reunsgar said it first. You have two beating hearts. Two stars. They circle each other, the same way the suns in the sky circle each other. Some days one eclipses the other, and on those days it is cold. But some days they both shine bright, and it is warm. That's what's inside you. Two stars."

"You're crazy," Tom said. "First you drove Ari away and now you seem intent on driving everyone else away too. Who will you have left, Lumi? Will you rule an empire of people who loathe you?"

"My people will love me."

"Not if you are like this," Tom said. "Not if you are this," and he gestured towards her burns.

Lumi glared back at him.

This was the most painful argument she'd ever had. She had thought Tom was different. She had thought that he thought she was strong and brave. But she was wrong. He thought she was weak and he definitely didn't think she was capable of ruling an empire. She had trusted him as the one person who really truly believed in her. But she'd been wrong to trust him, or anyone.

"Go away, Tom. Leave me alone. I have Jinni with me now."

Tom heaved a breath. "I can't deal with you when you're like this. But I'm leaving Kobuk with you, because I won't let you run away, like you made Ari run."

Lumi glared at Tom as he turned his back on her.

He should have fought harder for her. He should have picked her up, kicking and screaming, like he'd suggested. He should have fought for her, but he didn't. He gave up.

Kobuk was staring at her.

Kobuk had given her so much comfort in the recent weeks because she hadn't had Jinni by her side. Now that she had Jinni, she realised she still loved Kobuk, and his big dark eyes staring at her.

Lumi burst into tears and hugged Kobuk. "He doesn't care about me," she said. "He just thinks I'm a little girl that needs to be protected. That I'm crazy. That I'm not good enough."

She turned to Jinni. "I'm not crazy," she whispered. "Grandmama gave me you, Jinni. She believed that I would be strong and powerful, as you are. She trusted me. She wanted me to go to Lombardia to make peace between Lombardia and Kakaio. She wanted peace. She never trusted Tai. Even when I thought she didn't trust me, she did. She never thought I was crazy. She knew who I was all along. Who I was able to be."

Lumi hugged Jinni harder. The burn on her arm was raw with pain and it hurt, but she liked it. She liked to imagine that it was at least some of the pain Jinni had felt on that horrible night when he had been attacked.

How could Ari have attacked him? She wasn't powerful enough to attack Jinni. Everyone knew that Ari's magic was not very strong. So how could she have created enough power to attack Jinni?

And in a second, Lumi realised the truth.

Ari hadn't created that much power.

Tai must have been there.

Tai had surged Ari's power so that Ari's magic had been strong enough that she'd attacked Jinni. Maybe Ari hadn't meant to hurt Jinni at all, but with Tai's surge it had caused her magic to be tenfold stronger than she'd ever been capable of before. Of course Ari hadn't done it on purpose. Of course Ari had never meant to harm Jinni.

And now Lumi had sent Ari out into the cold by herself, with only a dragon for company.

Lumi felt a tremendous amount of fear. She needed to rescue Ari, just as Ari had rescued Jinni.

Lumi walked back into the camp, only to find Tom and Katja in a discussion with each other. Their heads were bent low. And when Lumi walked into the camp, Tom looked up at her and his expression had none of its usual kind calmness.

"We need to find Ari."

"She's gone. You made sure of that," Sanna said cruelly.

"It's the middle of the night," Katja said. "When the suns rise we can search for her. She won't have gone far, she was as tired as the rest of us, so she'll have set up camp in the forest. Helvig is the best tracker. She'll find Ari in the morning."

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