Frost's Touch (Book One of the Eternal Warmth Trilogy)

XI. The Boy

                                                                                   XI

                                                                              The Boy

    He didn’t talk, so Iana looked him over.

    Midnight black hair, a strong chiseled jaw, straight nose, thin wide lips, high cheekbones.

    Oh, and those eyes. The most shockingly bright blue and green you would ever see mixed together but separate. Iana immediately fell in love with those electric irises looking down at her.

     She was calm and collected, until she looked at the rest of his body and saw he was floating.

     Floating.

    Iana’s throat tightened up readying to scream, but it immediately died down when the boy covered her mouth with his hand and put a finger to his lips with his other hand.

    “Don’t. Scream.” He whispered, his warm breath traveling over her face again, and a shiver racked her body.

     The boy floated higher above her, and she immediately sat up to cover herself more.

     Iana assessed the boy for a minute before speaking.

     “My mother tells me you’re my soul mate.”

     Wrinkling up her brow, Iana cringed.

      Why do I speak before I think, she thought.

      The boy laughed, a bellow that made Iana’s chest tighten in contentment to see him happy.

      “I think your mother is right,” the boy says, drifting toward the floor.

     “How can you fly?”

     Iana could tell the boy was hesitant to tell his secret. And she could also tell that he was hiding lots of things behind those vivid eyes. Years of being lonely helps you study the human being better.

     Though he didn’t look human.

     At any moment he could sprout wings and squawk like a bird, Iana thought, and she giggled from the image she got in her head.

     “A penny for your thoughts?” He asks. 

     “You know a normal person at this moment would be screaming bloody murder and trying to find anything to stab your eyes you, but I’m not normal. So can you please explain to me why I had a dream about my deceased mother whom explained to me that I was special and have a “soul mate’? And why did I find said soul mate floating or whatever over my bed watching me sleep?” Iana pulled in a breath of air and huffed.

     Just get it all out there, a tiny voice yelled in her head, it’s not like you have anything to keep like, let’s say, BEING THE OLDEST SOUL EVER!

    By the look on the boys face Iana could tell that he was shocked at her outburst, and she applauded herself in her mind.

    “I can explain,” he started, but she cut him off.

    “Oh, I’m sure you can,” she started, “I caught my supposed ‘soul mate’ watching me sleep when I don’t even know how you got in or can float or who you even are! So how are you supposed to explain that?”

     Jack could tell that she was going to be difficult with him. The stubbornness of her chin and eyes told him. And when he looked in those blue eyes he could tell that she was internally hurting, and he wanted to comfort in any way possible, if she’d have him, that is.

     Wrinkling his brow, he took a deep breath and started talking.

    “I know this seems a tad weird, a stranger on your property in your room watching you, but I’m here for a reason and you are a very, VERY large part of it.”

    Boy was she, Jack thought.

     “So, pray tell,” she said, getting out of her bed and walking toward a door.

     “What are you doing,” he asked.

     “Fishing for trout,” the girl said, a sarcastic flare in her tone.

     Jack didn’t know how to respond. He only rarely spoke with or to people and that was when he was stuck in a conversation he didn’t want to be in. But was she really going fishing?

      The girl smiled, “I’m kidding! I’m getting clothes. You’re not from around here are you?”

      “No, I’m not.”

     No matter how hard Jack tried, he couldn’t stop himself of matching her smile. She filled the room with her emotions, and he couldn’t help but feel them too. She fascinated him greatly, and he wanted to know why she qualified to be his other half.

     “Where you from?”

     “A place I don’t want to talk about.”

    The girl furrowed her brow for a minute, looking at the floor hard as if in concentration. And then, she looked up back at him and her features smoothed out into a soft smile.

     “I’m talking to someone who I don’t even know there name.”

     Jack laughed, this was true, because he was wondering what her name was too.

     “I’m Jack,” he said.

     “Jack? Jack what?”

     “Uhh,” he started, but she cut him off.

     “It’s okay. You don’t need to tell me right now.”

    Jack blew out a long breath. He was glad she didn’t push, but scared that once he told her she would run away scared.

     “What’s your name?”

     “Iana Straventi.”