Now, We Burn

Chapter 21 | Ember

Chapter 21
November 13, 2104

The edge of the knife slipped from Ember's hand where she held it against the wheel of the sharpener, blood spilling from the slice on her thumb.

"Harking mother of--" Profanity spilled from Ember's mouth as she leapt up from where she had been kneeling, sucking her bleeding thumb.

"Dragon balls," she finished.

Normally she would have thrown the knife at something, preferably the leader, Thane, and go into a rage before stomping off in a huff. But nothing could turn her good mood sour today.

She was relieved.

The wonder that had shone in Hugo's eyes replayed in her mind, the usual mischievous grin replaced with something real -- something more raw, more vulnerable.

Something human.

The thought crossed Ember's mind so fleetingly she almost didn't notice it, almost didn't pause as she went to examine her sliced finger. But then she thought back and that notion consumed her.

Why had she thought that? What was she thinking? Human! Of course Hugo was human. That was why she liked him so much, wasn't it? Or maybe it was just because he completed her, two fires burning together in a raging inferno.

Ember shoved her sudden thoughts back down into the hellhole that they came from. She was too happy to be questioning Hugo right now, too happy to remember Eliza's last cold words to her.

Unfreezing from her uncharacteristic moment of stillness, Ember flipped the half-sharpened knife in her hands and slid it back into her belt before examining the clean cut on the pink skin of her thumb. Then she heard a voice from behind her.

"Ember!"

Heart speeding up a pace, Ember turned, scanning the bustling working grounds of the gang's headquarters around her. Hugo was striding toward her. His face lit eerily by a torch as he passed by, the smile from before gone.

Ember frowned.

Something was different about Hugo, the energy that had seemed to grip his entire being from the dragon ride was gone, replaced with something colder, fiercer.

"What's wrong with you?" Ember asked as he reached her. "Ya grump."

Something flickered in Hugo's dark eyes. Then a smile spread across his face.

"Sure, I'm the grump," he smirked, snaking a hand around her waist and making her skin shiver, aching for his lips on hers.

Hugo placed a kiss on her cheek, before Ember batted him away, sucking on her cut finger again.

"Seriously though," Ember said, "Where did you go?"

After Hugo had ridden Rage, the dragon had quickly flown off, and she and Hugo had shared a kiss that had chased all the cold from her bones before he ran off, saying he had to go before Thane missed him, leaving her alone in the snowy forest. The fire the kiss had ignited in Ember's stomach still hadn't faded as she wrapped her own arms around Hugo's solid waist.

"Just doing something for Thane," Hugo said, pushing a piece of Ember's short hair from her eyes. "I'm too crussing distracted, though."

"You're not the only one," Ember purred under her breath as she rested her head on his shoulder. His body felt so startlingly real against hers.

Hugo laughed, the sound reverberating against Ember's chest.

"I am pretty harking handsome," he said, and Ember could hear the grin in his voice. "But I meant the dragon. I can't stop thinking about it."