The Midnight Guard [TMG Book One]

Part V: Trust

Flames blazed as they flew through the open air. The world passed by in an amalgamation of colours that sparkled and danced like those within far away galaxies.

Time was moving faster.

Sound burst and exploded from everywhere yet it was gone too soon. The wind whistled and beat against her skin like the clamorous wings of crows too unnatural to be of this world.

Tiny crystals of ice kissed her skin, her arms and face, so cold that it burned.

Or maybe it was the raging inferno that trickled through her body and threatened to drown her.

She could hear a voice calling her name.

It sounded urgent, concerned.

Her eyelids flickered -

She awoke.

"Wynter?"

Wynter blinked. She was lying on her back in a room that was oddly familiar. Her throat felt raw, her body bruised and sore. Above her was Eiran, his face lined with distress. She sat up slowly. Eiran had been kneeling beside her, the floor was dotted with waxy candles that added a rather gloomy atmosphere to the already decrepit room. She remembered then.
They were back in the mountain ruin.

And she was alive.

Wynter pushed stands of hair away from her face and went to speak. Immediately a searing pain pulled at her throat like a noose, choking her. Eiran hushed her startled gasps.

"You're going to be okay," he reassured her. "Stay still for me now."

Wynter sat motionless as Eiran plucked from the ground a thick, leather bound book. He flicked through it.

"Just as you reached the rift," he explained gently, "one of the Guards tried to stop you. It nearly had you Wynter, I had to reach through and cause a distraction but it still managed to graze your neck with a weapon." Eiran had stopped on a page.

"The weapon, whatever it was, carried a poison. I managed to get you out and start work here before it spread. I'm afraid you will experience some discomfort for a little while but apart from that it will heal." Eiran turned his eyes to watch her from beneath long dark lashes. "For now it would be best if you rested."

Wynter searched her neck with careful fingertips. She trailed the scars that burned as she touched them and a small tear seeped down her cheek.
She turned away embarrassed and wiped her eyes. A hand gripped her shoulder.

"It's okay to be afraid," said Eiran softly. "Everyone feels fear every once in a while, we're only human."

Wynter coughed.

"It hurts," she remarked hoarsely.

"So try not to speak."

The room glowed around them. Wynter watched Eiran as he read beside her. His eyelashes cast shadows across his pointed face as his grey eyes explored the written words before him. Upon his neck was a long, thin scar that Wynter had never noticed before now; it glistened in the yellow light that surrounded them and lay just as Wynter's did. The book was held within long elegant fingers that appeared even whiter than his face, though Eiran's hands looked different somehow. Wynter frowned. Perhaps it was the flickering shadows playing mind games with her.

Suddenly the book fell from Eiran's grasp and hit the floor with a thud.

"Are you okay?" Wynter spluttered in shock.

He had followed her line of vision with his own wide eyes.

"My hands," he marvelled as though seeing them for the first time. "Usually I wear gloves to cover them up but..."