Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

75. Curses and the Light

The numbness of terror dispersed from her in clouds. The thick stench of smoke and burning flesh flowed into her nostrils as the incubated wind infested with dancing embers touched her skin. Against herself, her fingers loosened, and Elaine dropped her wand. Without thinking, she bolted for Kliff as fast as her fragile legs could carry her, not stopping until she all but collapsed into his arms.

He appeared weak himself as the force of her colliding with him nearly brought them both to the ground, but Kliff managed to maintain his balance, taking a step back to steady himself. In an instant, all the emotions she had been holding back poured out in a torrent of tears. She buried her head in his chest, the warmth of a blush creeping up the sides of her face. And despite how disheveled she felt, Elaine was nonetheless thankful that Kliff allowed those tear-filled, wordless moments to pass without judgment.

"...Kliff...I...I thought..." Her uncontrollable sobs made it impossible for her to articulate even a single coherent sentence. The more she tried, the more challenging it became to find the right words. "I thought he was going to kill me..." she managed to squeak, burrowing deeper into his chest. "I thought I was going to die!"

Carefully, Kliff wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for an even tighter embrace. "Ssh, it's okay," he reassured her, soft and kind. "Everything is going to be okay now."

The fabric against Elaine's face had grown damp from her tears, and only then did she muster the strength to pull away from him, though his muscular arms kept her locked to him. "If you hadn't come along...he might have..."

"It doesn't matter," Kliff said fastly. "I'd never let a maniac like him hurt you."

Elaine sniffed, brushing her wet cheek with a wrist. "How did you find me, anyhow?"

"You're not the only one who had a brush with death today," Kliff chuckled awkwardly, though his expression maintained an air of grimness. "Elaine, don't freak out or anything, but right now, all of us are in real danger. Forget our Midterm Exam; this forest is filled with rogue sorcerers, and they're all doing everything in their power to capture us. I haven't figured out the specifics of their plan, but it can't be anything good, and with the barrier they placed over the forest, it'll be difficult for us to—"

"Kliff," Elaine said, gently resting a hand against the side of his face, interrupting the boy mid-sentence. "You're injured." the heat of his flush spread across her hand, and the combination of his widened eyes and trembling lower lips left no doubt about his newfound embarrassment.

"Pl...Please, don't worry about me, it's nothing," he said through a broken smirk, though the cracks in his voice weren't very reassuring. "I heal quick, remember?"

Lost in her tears and delayed emotions, Elaine had utterly discounted Kliff's condition. His clothes were tattered and charred, with his red tie having burned away completely, almost as if he'd emerged from a harrowing tussle within a raging fire. 

And then there was his face. Putting aside the swollen and purple bruises littering his cheeks and chin, blood was draining out the top of his scalp as a red line over his left eye. As she was pressed against him, she felt how ragged and disjointed his breathing was, a fatigue heaving driven from more than just the tiredness of running. With her hand still on his cheek, Elaine peered deep into his bluish eyes speckled with yellow, trying to uncover the lies he defended. "What exactly happened to you?"

"Like I said," Kliff exhaled defeatedly, "I was attacked. Hell, the oaf who I dueled nearly ended up killing me. But I managed to escape him with my life. After that, I figured his associates would be targeting everyone else just as they had me, and so, I came searching for you. Luckily, I can distinguish your Essence Signature, so you weren't too hard to find. From the looks of it, I came right in the nick of time."