Flame of Frost (The Caelestian Chronicles: Book #1)

Chapter 15 - Fighting Within Myself?

Everyone turns back to me after Alacritas slams the door behind her.
I open and close my mouth twice. "What just happened?"

Theora is the first to respond. "I-It's beautiful," she stammers, walking around me to observe. "Fire and ice... a combination of two powers. I have heard of it only once, a Caelestian named Maya had combined powers of day and night. She later became an ascendant of Solecia, goddess of the Sun." Her hand extends to touch the fire on my dress.

"No — don't!" I wobble back.

Her brows furrow as she moves forward to touch the snowflakes. Then she touches the fire. Nothing happens.
"They're real," she says, nodding her head. "But they are harmless to touch."

"Oh." I swallow. "What's wrong with..." I ponder if I should call Alacritas by her name but end up saying, "your mother?"

Theora frowns. "I'm not sure... I think the two powers took her by off guard or something." She shrugs.

I'm not even used to being a Caelestian but I already feel disappointed with myself.

Clara and Devin approach with their hands clasped together. "Exquisite!" She cries.
I debate whether I should say thanks but it's not like this is my own work and should be given credit.

Grace grabs my wrist and turns the palm to show the interconnected swirl of red and blue. "Whoa."

"That's something," Lupus says with raised brows.

"Do you feel stable, Lex?" asks Devin.

"Y-yeah, I think." I wince on realizing why he asked that. "Please don't put me to that suspended motion thing you did with Grace."

Grace gasps, forcing me to face her by my chin, pressing her fingers so tightly, my lips pout.

"Bot's wrong?" I ask.

"Your eyes..." she trails off, blinking in shock.

"Bot?"

"They are half blue and half red."

My mouth goes dry in an instant.
"What?" I scramble back from her grip as they all crane in their heads in front of my face to have a look.

"Yeah..." Clara mutters absently but recovers. "It's nothing bad, though! It looks beautiful in a strange way."

Right. Nice try.
I gather the skirt of the dress into my hands and sprint to the door Alacritas went through, cursing on realizing my feet are in heels forged of ice — but to my shock, they are as comfortable as sneakers.
The heels clack noisily as I race upstairs to my room.

My eyes are fixed on their reflection in my room. With the older iridescent sheen gone, both my irises, indeed, have changed the colors.
The upper half is crystalline, like a sky blue gemstone. The lower half, luminescent like fire.
Unconsciously, my fingers touch the mirror, making the image blur for frost covers the mirror. I step back, bumping into the study table and staring at my crystallized image.

My eyes were the only thing I liked about myself, now that's gone too.
I wonder if I should stop caring about everything I love, so whatever is after me stops taking them away.

I grab the spherical glass weight kept on my drawings and hurl it at the mirror with all my might.

Theora walks in just in time to see the shattered shards clang on the floor. "Lex?"

Grace, too, reaches the doorstep and gasps aloud. "I'm sorry — I didn't mean to make you angry!"

"It's okay," I breathe. "Doesn't matter."