Dust to Dust | ✓

5.2 || Promise Me

Felix's brow furrowed, lips pursed in a frown. Confusion cracked his empty mask, revealing the flicker of his weak flame beneath. It melted the ice that coated his expression. "You're sorry?"

Aiko nodded fervently—the motion pulled sharply at her neck and sent a dull throb through the base of her skull. "Yes. Yes, I'm sorry. I know that—" She cut her words off with a sigh and dragged her fingers through her hair, throwing her gaze to the ground to avoid his face. Her ring snagged on her tangled curls and her chest tightened. "I know that I was being unfair. That I was wrong. I shouldn't have... I was just—I don't know. I was..." Her words dissolved into a strangled groan; she buried her face in her hands, nails digging into her skin. Tears pricked her eyes again and she cursed them. "I don't know, Felix. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I don't mean to hurt you."

"Do you truly not understand what went wrong?"

Ice shot through her veins. She jerked her head up. "What?"

It was painful to meet his empty gaze, but she forced herself to. He gritted his teeth, his jaw working to keep his tongue locked away. Though his expression was unreadable—foreign and distant—she could tell he was thinking. There were words he wished he could say that he wasn't saying. Shaking his head, he jerked his gaze away and raked his fingers through his tangled, dirty blond hair. She bristled, waiting for his response.

"You say you're apologizing, but you're removing the blame from yourself while you do," he explained. "You're doing it again. You haven't really figured out what the problem is, have you?"

"I just said I was wrong; what more do you need from me?" she snapped, throwing her shoulders back. Her spine straightened on instinct, chin lifting to level her gaze with his—though the top of her head barely reached his shoulder.

"There you go again." He pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "You just want to say exactly what I want to hear so that I'll drop it. You don't know what you did wrong and you don't even care to know—the only reason you came all the way out here is to win me over again!"

Aiko recoiled, cheeks stinging like his words had snapped against her. "That's not true. I'm trying to make this right."

"For what? So that you can control me? Because I'm just a weak flame to you?" he hissed, dropping his hand to his side. "I thought you were better than that, but it's still true, just as it always was. You're still using me. That's your problem, Aiko. You're a selfish, controlling brat." He turned his back to her, fingering the hilt of the knife he had pulled from the tree. "I want nothing to do with you if that's how you feel. I'm not going to be a tool anymore."

Nails dug into Aiko's palm, pressing stinging crescent marks into her skin, digging into the scars from repeating the same action over and over. The marks burned like her flame, roaring in her core and filling her lungs with smoke. It choked her, and yet she didn't care. "How dare you!" she hissed, storming over to him and grabbing a fistful of his coat. She yanked with enough force that he whirled around to face her, eyes blazing with the beginnings of rage. But she didn't care. Her heart ached and he was only making it bleed with the cutting edge of his words. "I'm trying to make things right. Why can't you see that? I'm trying to apologize to you and you're insulting me!"

He slapped her hand away and reached for his blade, a flicker of violence in his eyes. "Oh, are you going to command me to accept your apology, Your Majesty, Bright Soul of the Ember Core?" His words came out in a hiss, full of venom that would melt her skin like acid.

Unease and regret stirred beneath the embers of rage that consumed her. Like rain, they quickly suppressed her flame, dulling her insides and leaving the ice that filled her to do so once more. Beneath his accusing, ivy-colored glare, she could do nothing but open and close her mouth, waiting for the words to come. He heard me. He heard me. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, roaring with the force of the storm that welled up inside her. She ran her tongue over her dry lips. "I–I didn't mean that either! I was just upset—I swear, I wasn't going to do anything. It was just..." It was just Cinere. She shook that away before it could take form, springing from her lips untethered. "It was stupid."