𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇, Fitz Vacker

V

The boat had most definitely triggered Amber's memories. That night, crushing black that smelt of salt choked her throat as she desperately tried to swim. Crisp air flooded into her lungs as she lay collapsed on the beach-but she didn't care about that. She pushed herself up, frantically looking around for Eva, but she wasn't there. Until...Amber saw a blonde head push slightly above the waves and cried out, standing up on wobbly legs.

She was about to swim back when she felt arms jostling her. "No!" She screamed. "I have to save her!"

Eva bobbed once, twice, and disappeared below the waves.

She surged up with a gasp.. Someone was standing by the bed and she struggled to sit up, wiping at her eyes, which had become bleary with tears. She couldn't save her. It had haunted Amber for years-but that wasn't even what had happened. Eight-year-old Amber had gone to the beach with her grandparents and her baby sister, Eva. The name sent a fresh stab of pain to her heart.

Eva had been barely turning four. She wasn't supposed to be in the water, but while Amber's grandparents went to grab icecreams, Amber wanted to play with her anyway. They hadn't noticed how far they had floated out. They hadn't seen the wave, hadn't heard the screams until it was too late.

The wave had crashed over them, drowning them. Amber would never forget the suffocation she had felt. She had struggled to swim back to land, only for her to realise her sister was still there. No one had stopped her diving back in, swimming desperately to find Eva. She had found her-but it was too late.

Eva had drowned and it had been Amber's fault. If she had been less selfish, if she had swum faster, if she had only noticed...she had killed her four-year-old sister.

It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault.

The sentence repeated forcefully. She ignored it, heart aching as tears slipped from her eyes. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault.

It took her a few minutes to recognise the voice. "Fitz?" she whispered, eyes flickering up. He had sat on the bed, teal eyes looking very concerned.

The soothing voice faded away with one last reminder. It wasn't your fault. "Don't ever do that," Fitz said, looking serious. "I could almost feel you slipping away. Don't you know that elves can't handle guilt?"

She'd handled it for the past five years.

"That doesn't matter," Fitz insisted and she frowned.

"Get out of my mind!"

"Fine." He raised his hands up. "I'm out."

"How did you even...?" Amber frowned.

"You were screaming," Fitz explained. "And my room is basically the closest one to yours."

Familiar screams taunted Amber's mind. When she closed her eyes, a face with green eyes and baby-pink lips smiled back at her. Until the green eyes dissolved into the dark, the face melting into waves that crashed straight into her and she was spiralling, spiralling, down, down, into the deep of the ocean and it was all her fault-

A stinging pain jolted her out of it and Amber held her cheek, staring in disbelief. "Did you just slap me?"

"I told you to get out of it!" FItz said, urgency underlining his tone. "You're lucky I was here. Guilt can break an elf's mind-shatter it beyond anything. You'd go insane. Don't think about it."

Amber shifted uncomfortably, but obliged, tucking Eva into a far-away box. "Fine." Fitz stood up, going to leave. "Fitz?" he turned back.

"Yeah?"