Gaze of Fire: Sequel to Veins of Ice

by Melissa Kellogg

  “They’re stuck in the past, just like everyone else. Have sympathy for them,” Captain Valmar said, and departed as swiftly as he had come in.

  The house was finally quiet. Hadrian came up to her and nudged her.

  “Hmmm?” she asked. She was exhausted. The emotional and mental turmoil of that night had finally affected her physically.

  “It’ll be alright.”

  “Everyone is going to hate me.”

  “Except for me, and Rose. Captain Valmar is on our side too. Asher still loves you, I’m sure of it.”

  “I guess the world hasn’t ended yet, but it’s sure as hell going to be more difficult to deal with.”

  “After some sleep, you’ll feel better.”

  She agreed, talked with him a little bit more, and went upstairs to her room. Because of her actions, she had impacted Hadrian’s life, and soon, it would most likely affect Rose’s too. He couldn’t go to work now. It was unsafe to do so because of everyone’s attitudes and the hostility that they would have towards a best friend of hers after learning about her relationship with Asher.

  Karena collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep. Her dreams tormented her with images of Asher being taken away from her.

  Chapter 10

  Asher was too angry to sleep. The night had eased into early morning. His bruised body ached, but not as much as his heart. He slumped forward in his reading chair by the window and cradled his head in his hands. He couldn’t believe it; the worst had happened. Karena could’ve been killed in that confrontation with his father and the others, and he had no way of knowing if she was safe at the moment.

  The room sizzled with heat as his emotions freely flowed through him and triggered his powers into activating. Embers flew off of him and exploded like mini firecrackers around him. Flames sprung up around his feet. But despite this, his room didn’t catch fire. Everything was fireproof because magic had been infused into his house and belongings. He took no notice of his powers.

  His emotions had been tormenting him for hours. He couldn’t stem the rage that surged through him. He should be allowed to love who he wanted and not be prevented from seeing Karena. He didn’t know how they would be able to be together now. Their relationship had been exposed far too quickly.

  Someone landed on his balcony. He knew who it was. He had forgotten to lock his balcony’s glass doors. His hands curled into fists. Asher debated whether to confront Evelyn or not. She wouldn’t be able to come into his bedroom at the moment, not when his emotions seared the room with fire and heat. He could avoid her, and not see her, which was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life after what she had done. But Asher felt like he had to express his anger and disappointment to her, of course, in a controlled and civilized manner.

  The left handle of his balcony’s doors jiggled, but it was too hot for her to touch.

  “Asher?” Evelyn called from outside.

  Her voice made him seethe, but in spite of this, he extinguished the heat and flames from the room. His mind grabbed onto the air and lowered it in temperature. His attention went to the door handle. Because it was still hot, he was able to turn it and swing it back.

  “I bet you’re mad at me,” Evelyn said as she stepped in.

  He stood up from where he had been sitting. “That’s an understatement,” he growled.

  Her self-righteous face infuriated him even worse. She clasped her hands behind her back, as though she was guilty of stealing something.

  She said, “I did it for your own good.”

  “And how the hell do you know what is good for me? You arrived in Archelm City three months ago, and now you think that you know what is best for me? You’re just as bad as my family, and everyone else in this goddamn city. Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not the friend that I remembered you to be. You’re disloyal.”

  Her lip quivered, and her wings wilted. “This feud is dangerous, Asher, and so is she. She’s a Chaos elemental,” she said.

  “So am I!!!” he shouted.

  “You could get murdered.”

  “Not with her. I care about her, and she cares about me. Get it through your thick skull that she has had multiple chances to hurt me. She didn’t run when she was faced with that wyvern that my team and I encountered in a foundry. She could’ve, and she was still irate with me then, but she didn’t. You don’t know her. She has the warmest heart out of all the people that I know, and she is the least capable of hurting me. Who do you think gave me these bruises? Huh? Tell me!”

  Evelyn cringed under his tone.

  “Answer me,” he demanded. Embers lit up and exploded across his arms and neck. Ash blew off of him.

  “Your father and cousins.”

  “I pray to the gods above that she’s safe and didn’t have to face what I did after you told everyone about us. You led them right to us. She could’ve been killed in that confrontation.”

  “She’s no good for you! Why don’t you see that? It’s not possible to love someone like her.”

  “Says who? You?”

  “Everyone says that.”

  He shook his head and said, “You’re unbelievable, Evelyn. For how long were you spying on me?”

  “As soon as you got back from your trip to the mountains. You didn’t go to Jarsburg like you said you would.”

  “So you were stalking me?”

  She bit down on her lip. Her foot went out and her toes traced an invisible circle on the floor. Sweat trickled down her face, and her hair lost its volume. She refused to answer his question.

  Asher grabbed the travel trunk in front of his bed and threw it across the room. The release of tension helped ease his mood. He asked, “And when did you first see Karena and I together?”

  “When you entered the restaurant, and then I went and told your father.”

  Out of concern for Evelyn’s safety, Asher stomped out of his room. His emotions could cause his powers to ignite. He went downstairs to pace. Just as he went to retrace his steps back to the kitchen, he heard whispering from the living room. He went to investigate. What he found wasn’t exactly a surprise. Jinx and Blade had made themselves at home in his living room. They had not only raided his downstairs’ closets for pillows and blankets, but also his kitchen’s pantry.

  “Aren’t you two supposed to be asleep in your own beds?” Asher snapped at them.

  “We heard about what happened,” Jinx said, and yawned. Her ring-adorned hand went to her mouth and then to her eyes to rub them.

  “You can thank Evelyn for that one,” Asher said, hearing Evelyn come up behind him and pad over to the other living room entrance. Obviously, she wasn’t done arguing.

  “Nice going, Evelyn. I wouldn’t even rat Asher and Karena out, and here it is, I’m the one that is supposed to be slighted by him dating Karena,” Jinx said.

  Evelyn frowned. Asher leaned against one of the decorative, stone posts in the living room, and folded his arms in front of his chest. He stared at Evelyn, wishing that she hadn’t ever showed up in Archelm City because she had now ruined his life. When she had first arrived, he had been overjoyed to reconnect with her after so long and to hear her travel tales. But his joy had turned to regret that evening. He should’ve kept her at arm’s length, instead of treating her like the best friend that he had thought she still was from his childhood.

  Blade tucked his shoulder-length, black hair behind his ears in order to get it out of his face. He said, “Because you were absent from all of our lives for over a decade, Evelyn, I’ll update you on the fact that Jinx and Asher dated for a couple years.”

  “Even though I won’t admit it to anyone else, I like Karena. I think that she and Asher make a great couple,” Jinx said.

  “Evelyn is going to tattle on you now,” Blade said. He sneered at Jinx until she stuck her tongue out at him.

  “You’ve never met Karena, have you?” Jinx asked Evelyn.

  “I did when she shot me down from the sky,” Evelyn said. Her
face reddened, and the top of her wings rounded into arches above her shoulders.

  “Poor little birdy,” Jinx said. “But here it is, you’re still alive and well. Your wing healed. Oh, that’s right, you have regenerative abilities, so no big deal. It wasn’t like she killed you while you were flopping around on the ground, trying to escape with a broken wing. She is after all, a Chaos elemental, nothing lethal, right? I would’ve killed you on the spot after what you did by going to Canicus. I don’t think that I would’ve had the same control as Karena did.”

  “Same here,” Blade agreed.

  “I did it because I was concerned! Wouldn’t you be?” Evelyn shouted at them.

  Jinx and Blade looked at each other, then at her as though she was crazy.

  Blade said, “We’ve been around Karena, you haven’t. I thought that Karena was going to prove to all of us that she was evil, and be like the other Waters and Earths that I’ve talked to.”

  “But she didn’t,” Jinx said.

  “I think that something beautiful could’ve happened between her and Asher, but who knows what’s going to happen now.”

  “They would’ve been found out at some point,” Evelyn argued and fumed.

  Asher watched the verbal exchange smugly. Evelyn couldn’t gain any ground and was becoming frustrated as a result.

  Jinx gave a forced smile. She said, “Of course, but it would’ve been months down the line. They would’ve been more prepared for it after they had solidified their relationship and made sure they really wanted to be together. Asher would’ve been able to break it to his family in an easier way. Karena would’ve been able to do the same. Everyone would’ve had time to process it, instead of going into a panic.”

  “I don’t get all of you. How could a Water elemental, such as Karena, be better than other Fires or Airs?” Evelyn said.

  Asher sighed. “You’re like everyone else, pig-headed. When it comes to love, do you honestly think that it can be determined by elemental abilities? I thought you were smarter than this, Evelyn. You’ve traveled throughout the Sundarin Nation, you’ve seen and talked to people from all sorts of backgrounds, and yet, you can’t see past elemental abilities and this feud.”

  Evelyn argued, “Wait, that’s not fair.”

  Asher continued, “You’re beyond stupid. You’re a waste of your dad’s time. He was wrong to think that you would gain anything from traveling. Your dad is a remarkable person who believes the best in people, who believes in raising people up and improving life. You’re the opposite and a disgrace.”

  Evelyn burst into tears and ran out of the house.

  “That was a little harsh,” Blade said, cringing a little.

  “I don’t,” Jinx said. “After what she did, how is Asher going to see Karena?”

  “Evelyn thinks that she can waltz right in, and start making decisions for everyone because she thinks she has worldly knowledge,” Asher said. He hit his fist against the wall.

  “What are you going to do now?” Blade asked Asher.

  Asher threw up his hands, and paced. “I can’t go over there to the Water district, not with everyone on the alert. I probably won’t be able to for at least a couple of weeks. No one will be able to. I have no idea if she’s okay.”

  Blade offered, “We could go over there.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous.”

  Asher listened to the silence in his house. It would now be his prison. He had been dismissed from work due to fears of retaliation against him and the hostile atmosphere he would create just from showing up. He would be ostracized by mostly everyone, laughed at, and even be the target of their aggression. He hadn’t wanted this, not this early. He didn’t know how Karena was faring, or if she would fare well under such circumstances. The future looked uncertain, and like a long fight just to stand his ground.

  Jinx ran her fingers through her blonde hair, trying to ease the frizziness. “We’re here for you,” she said.

  “Yup. We’re not leaving,” Blade said. He leaned back into the couch’s cushions as though he was going to stay for good.

  “I can’t let you hang out around me,” Asher said.

  Blade said, “Who said anything about you letting us?”

  “We invite ourselves over whenever we feel like it. I hope you didn’t eat the snacks I brought over yesterday. I was saving those for later,” Jinx said.

  “In the tin can?”

  “Yes. I ate one of the pretzel bars, but nothing more than that.”

  “He sniffed them out,” Jinx said, and narrowed her eyes at Asher.

  “How is that possible? He’s not a shapeshifter,” Blade said. He imitated Jinx’s look.

  Asher snorted, and felt some of the tension loosen from his shoulders. He hadn’t lost everything yet.

  Chapter 11

  When morning came, Karena woke, but instead of getting up, she put her blanket over her head. She stayed in bed for another hour or so because she didn’t want to deal with what life had in store for her that day. She hated the sunlight filtering through her window, Evelyn, the feud, her parents, and everyone else.

  There was a knock on her door. She hoped that it wasn’t one of her parents. After last night, she felt as though she would jump out the window just to avoid them, or freeze the door to give herself enough time to change out of her pajamas and into something before she did that.

  The person opened the door.

  “Rise and shine, the saga continues,” Hadrian’s voice said.

  Karena peeked her head out from under her blankets. She said, “It’s not funny.”

  He walked over to her bed’s side and held a newspaper up for her to see. There on the front page was the title “Fire and Ice in Love?” She glanced down, saw her name and Asher’s, and a summary about what had happened in the Fire district last night.

  “You’re popular now,” Hadrian said with a laugh.

  She went to punch him, but he dodged her fist.

  With a maniacal look on his face, he said, “Imagine how thrilled Captain Vally is right now because I’m not at work.”

  “Ha! I bet. He might even forget to put you on a team when hiring month comes around. Did anything happen to the cars or house yet?”

  “No. There were probably too many Nightguards around last night for anyone to try to vandalize any of those. Oh, and someone brought your car back, in one piece too.”

  “Good, but I don’t think I’ll be able to go out for a while, not with everyone looking at me strange.”

  “As though you have a disease?”

  “Something along those lines.”

  “Get up and eat something,” he said and left.

  Sulking any longer wasn’t going to help and would only make Hadrian worry. She pulled herself out of bed, into some clothes, and dragged herself downstairs. The table still had breakfast stuff on it. Rose looked up at her from the table, having just made herself some oatmeal.

  “Haven’t you two already eaten?” Karena asked. It was mid-morning.

  Rose said, “We were waiting for you.” She had braided her hair in such a way that it looked like she had a wreath around her head.

  Karena sat down and put together some cereal with sliced strawberries on top. Hadrian joined them.

  “It could always be worse,” Rose said.

  Karena gritted her teeth, and said, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore than I have to.”

  “It’s not like you have too much to worry about,” Rose said. “That’s the good thing.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Karena asked, because there was a lot to worry about and Rose was starting to annoy her with her flippant attitude.

  “You’re a Chaos elemental. There aren’t many of those around, and it’s not like a regular elemental is going to mess with you.”

  Hadrian tore up some bread and swiped it through the butter. He said, “You’re right. There’s a Chaos Water and an Earth. There would’ve been another Chaos Earth if Sean’s sister hadn’t d
ied. The Water is Nerine, and then the Earth is Eden.”

  “He’s a powerful one,” Rose said with a nod and a widening to her eyes.

  “I’m envious of his abilities. All of the trees bend towards him, and animals love him. It’s like when you put Karena up in the mountains in the middle of winter, everything reacts and the energy is dense due to her connection with the ice element.”

  “What about on the Fires’ and Airs’ side?” Karena asked.

  Hadrian replied, “They almost have the same number of Chaos elementals over the age of eighteen. There’s Asher of course, and then Erion, who is a Chaos Air elemental. As far as those underage, there’s no way of knowing until they are old enough to become registered.”

  “There’s too few of them. There should be more Chaos elementals. Haven’t quite a few died even after reaching adulthood?” Rose asked.

  Hadrian said, “Yeah. A lot of them have died due to accidents or illness, or moving elsewhere and then something happening there. It’s called the curse of the Chaos elementals for a reason, though it seems to strike minors more so than adults.”

  Their eyes shifted to Karena and darted back to their breakfast.

  Rose said, “I don’t like it. Chaos elementals are just as invincible as sorceresses and sorcerers. We should have the same number of them as sorceresses and sorcerers, but we don’t. There has to be about a hundred sorcerers and sorceresses living in Archelm City.”

  “At least. I think there’s more than a hundred,” Hadrian said.

  “And we have only five, adult Chaos elementals in the city. It doesn’t feel right. We need Chaos elementals because there are some creatures only they can kill because those creatures are resistant to magic.”

  “Almost all of the murder victims from the feud are Chaos elementals. They should be the most able to defend themselves.”

  Karena set her spoon down in her bowl. It clinked against the side. She said, “This isn’t making me feel any better. It makes me feel as though I’ll be next or something.”