Frost Fire

Chapter Nine

                                         Chapter Nine

Allai opened her eyes. She hadn’t realized she’d closed them in the first place, but color and harsh fluorescent light flooded her vision as her eyelids fluttered open. Drake stared down at her, his fingertips still gently pressed against her cheek. A frown pulled at his lips.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly. His lips remained tight, his voice strained.

Allai swallowed hard. “What… What was that?” Her heart still raced, and flashes of the vision played at the corner of her mind; the sharp tang of blood, the pounding of approaching footsteps, and silver eyes. Her silver eyes.

Drake trailed his fingertips down her jaw, and then down her neck, until they once again rested on her scar. “That was a memory. My memory.”

“But… how?”

“Magic,” he answered simply.

Her head spun. Magic? Drake couldn’t have magic; he was a Demon. But maybe he was telling the truth, and maybe it was magic, because the vision she’d seen had been so real.

The vision. Images from it continued to rush through her mind, and she closed her eyes to block them out. It didn’t help. In the darkness of her closed eyes, she heard Drake’s words again: ‘I swear, I don’t want to hurt you. I just need your blood.’

Her mind still spun, but she finally understood the meaning of the memory. Drake hadn’t tried to kill her. He hadn’t even wanted to hurt her. He’d just needed her blood to save his mom.

“You never wanted to hurt me,” Allai whispered.

Drake just kept frowning. She waited for it to lift away and reveal relief, content, joy. Well, maybe not quite joy. That emotion didn’t seem to fit Drake. But the frown just remained on his lips, pulling his mouth into a serious and somber expression.

“I said you didn’t want to hurt me,” Allai repeated. “You didn’t try to kill me. I believe you.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I thought you would.”

“Then why are you frowning?”

Drake looked down to her scar and lightly traced his fingertip over it. He was gentle, his touch delicate and careful. “That night. It… It’s just not a good memory.”

“I’m sorry,” Allai said, although she didn’t understand what she was apologizing for. There were so many things she didn’t understand. How could Drake have magic, how could she have mistaken his intentions, why was he even showing her this memory? One question at a time. That was how she was going to get through this. Just one question at a time.

“How could I have thought you tried to kill me?” Allai asked quietly. She didn’t try to hide the guilt in her voice. It belonged there.

Drake shrugged, but he looked away from her. She wondered what emotion he was hiding. “It’s understandable, little Nox. You were in shock. All you heard or saw was me cutting your neck, and then you blacked out. You drew the obvious assumption, and your dad backed it up.”

“But why would my dad do that?” Allai demanded. “I mean, if he knew—“

“He didn’t know,” Drake said. “The guards came in and found you bleeding and me standing over you. They jumped to the obvious conclusion, and Shieldak believed it.”

“But then how did you escape? And why did my dad tell everyone I was dead? And—“

Drake shook his head, cutting her off. “We don’t have enough time for all these questions.”

Right, they only had ten minutes. Well, less than that now. How long had the memory taken to transfer? How long did they have left?

She laughed a little, because just minutes ago, she’d been counting down the seconds until she could escape the dungeon. Now she wanted to stay down here longer. She wanted—no, needed— more time and more answers.

“I still have one more memory to show you,” Drake said.

“Only one?” Allai asked.

Even she could hear the wistful tone in her voice. Drake smirked a little, but it was more amused than sarcastic, and it made Allai smile back. “Yeah. There’s only time for one more,” he said.

She nodded, aware that his fingertips hadn’t left her neck. They drifted over her scar one more time, and then Drake cupped her chin in his hand. His skin burned against hers, reminding Allai just how powerful he was. It didn’t scare her. It probably should have, after all those years of fearing him. But with his hand gently cupping her chin, and his eyes staring right into hers, she just couldn’t feel any of that fear.

“Alright,” Drake murmured. “Just close your eyes. This one won’t hurt as much. I promise.”

She obeyed, closing her eyes and waiting for the memory.