"Trust me, you shouldn't want anyone like me on your back."
"Maybe I don't want anyone like you on my back," His eyes darkened as he stepped closer, confining me tighter into barely any space as my back pressed against the wall.
"Maybe I want you. U...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
MY EARS RANG PAINFULLY as I tried to make sense of my surroundings—as I tried to make sense of my senses. There was weight, over me and underneath me. My body felt like a doll's, thrown aside and twisted in odd angles that incited immense pain as I tried to shift under jabbing points of matter pushing against my skin. My eyes saw darkness and I knew I was buried in rumble. I knew I wasn't dead, but it sure felt like it. Gosh, if being buried alive felt like something, it was this.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you speak of," A voice wafted in my ear, a fragment of a clear conversation happening in the distance.
I stilled. It was the old wandmaker Gregorovitch's voice. He was alright. But who was he speaking to and why hadn't he bothered to look for me in the rubble of his house? Or better yet, who in ten hells, had blown his house apart?
"You test me, wise wandmaker," A thin, piercing voice responded, a sharp tone that was slow yet sliced through air. "You distract me and you stall me."
"I do no such thing," The old man spoke, but the tremor in his voice was evident, and my heart wavered for him.
No further response from the mysterious stranger came, until a sharp whimper sounded in Gregorovitch's voice. The whimper morphed into agonized grunts and my heart constricted. This someone was hurting the wandmaker, and I can't just lie around and listen to it.
I tried to move again, and suddenly, I was grabbed by the back of my elbow. Fingers clamped around the sleeve of my uniform, the warmth seeping into my skin as I was pulled out like a marionette. I winced as stones and harsh edges of wood scraped against my skin at some areas, and I knew my uniform had gone through irreparable damage. Once a dim candle light flooded my vision, did I think to snatch my form away from the hand who had pulled me out. I was disoriented from being thrown back, and my effort was sloppy at best. I fought to focus my eyes on the person who had pulled me out, and under this dim flickering candle light in the distance, I managed to make out the features and a gasp broke through me.
