Chasing Embers | 1

17 | R a g a n

—

When I woke up, Wren was flooding the floor. I guess he had enough of the stickiness from yesterday. I climbed down from the support beams and landed lightly on my toes. I had barely gotten any sleep last night. My thoughts on the future haunted me every second of every day, leaving me occupied.

"Sorry about the mess, Wren."

He glanced at me as water rolled off his arms. "You? Ragan Hatis? Apologetic?"

I slapped his head, causing water to spew out of his ear. "Shut your trap, Peros."

He snickered, forming a large ball out of the water on the floor and sending it flying through one of the broken windows.

I looked around. "Where is everyone?"

When leaned back on the wall, crossing his arms. "Hunter and Ember went for a walk, and I'm pretty sure Ada is on the roof."

I shook my head. Of course, she was. Adara loved to be as close to the clouds as she could get. I worried about her on my roof, though. It wasn't the most stable structure. I didn't even want to think about how she got up there.

She came down soon after, pulling herself through an open window, and gracefully landed on her feet. Adara pushed her light hair out of her face and smoothed her lavender colored shirt.

"You almost made me fall off the roof when you threw the water out. It scared me to death!" she scolded her brother.

Wren laughed and hugged her around the waist, lifting her off the ground. "Love you too, Ada."

She pushed his face away and flicked his nose. "And I was in the middle of a conversation."

"With who?" I asked, tensing.

Ada smiled. "The sky."

"Ah."

She looked around as if the answer she gave was completely normal. "Where are Hunter and Ember? It's quiet without them."

"They went on a walk," Wren and I answered in unison.

I stared at him. "That was weird. Don't ever do that again."

He bowed. "As you wish, Your Majesty."

I rolled my eyes and turned to walk out. "I'm going to go look for them. Join me if you want. We've still got a lot of work to do. There's no time for them to bat their eyelashes at each other."

With that, I walked out, Adara and Wren not far behind.

"Which way do you think they went?" Adara asked once we got moving.

I turned around to face her, walking backward. "Well, I doubt they went towards the slum. Maybe he took her to the market again."

Wren scrunched his nose. "You think he would use the little amount of drinia he has on her?"

Adara sided with me. "Where else would they go, Wren?"

He shrugged, and we continued forward. An unsettling dread began to build in my stomach, though I didn't know why.

It took us a while to find the pair. We finally ran into them near the edge of the market. They were holding hands and laughing. Ember's backpack bounced on her shoulders as they neared us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wren cross his arms and frown. A smirk floated across my face. The boy was totally drooling over Ember.

"Alright, lovebirds, playtime is over," I mused.

They waltzed over, hands still locked. The relationship between them had started to get on my nerves. One moment it was like the world could burn and come to an end, and they would be fine. The next, they were giving each other the cold shoulder. I didn't understand. They didn't seem compatible.