Flames

Chapter Thirty-Two

The woman smiled at him through teary eyes. "Happy birthday, my love." She whispered, placing a kiss tenderly to his forehead. He wasn't sure who she was, but she was beautiful. Despite not knowing where he was, he felt safe. He felt at peace.

As a cake was placed in front of him, an overwhelming amount of joy spread through him. The woman was now standing by a man that he didn't remember either, but they were smiling at him. They were laughing with him and calling him a name he couldn't make out. Most of their talking sounded like gibberish to him but it didn't take away from the fact that he felt loved.

The woman said something to the man, then leaned forward and held her hand out towards him with her fingers pointed towards the ceiling. One by one, each fingertip grew a tiny flame that flickered carefully. She was speaking to him but he couldn't make out what she was saying. She blew on one of her fingers, causing the flame to disappear, motioning for him to do the same.

When it was clear that he didn't answer, the woman smiled again and blew on all her fingers until the fire was gone.

"I love you,-"

"Nix?"

That wasn't his name, was it? It didn't sound like what the two adults before him were saying. What were they calling him?

"Nix? Can you hear me?"

Just like how the fire had disappeared before his very eyes, his dream began to flicker out and fade away until he was left in his own darkness.

Nix's eyes cracked open, slow at first to adjust to the light and began growing wider as he could manage. His entire body ached, his arms throbbing along with his head. His heart felt heavy as he recalled the woman in his dreams. She was familiar enough to him that he thought it would have been easy to remember her, but her name was falling short. He tilted his head off to the side, finding Cassandra seated directly beside him. "Cassandra?" He mumbled as the events of the explosion began returning to him, leaving his dream behind as the new thoughts took its place.

"You're awake!" She grinned, holding the cool washcloth to his forehead. There was a rag tied around her forehead, dried blood seeping through the fabric, and another rag tied around her arm with a similar problem. She had long changed her clothes, now wearing a shorter sleeve dress to accommodate the wound on her arm. "You had me worried for a while."

"Why?" Even in the bloodied rags, she was a sight to behold. He couldn't deny it any longer than he already had. He vaguely remembered how she had looked in the middle of the fire with the soot covering her face, mixed with blood and tears. Her beauty had appeared through that as well. Part of him was convinced she could wear torn rags and still appear that way to him. "I'm not wounded."

"You've been asleep for several days. Deletrear said it was because of all the adrenaline you faced when getting us out of the fire." Cassandra replied, offering him another smile. While it had been lonely without him around, it had been nice to have her own time. She was able to come and go into his room as she pleased, allowing herself to grow lost in thought in his company. She had done her best to not stare at him and this had allowed her to do just that. Nix was different. She had wondered if she had stared long enough that she might discover something about him that felt familiar to her, but she discovered nothing. If anything, he was more enchanting and mysterious than before.

"Days?" He slowly sat up, wincing as the muscles in his stomach suddenly tightened. He briefly wondered if the woman he had seen controlling most of the fire felt the same, or if he hadn't followed her steps correctly.

"Don't worry. Nothing has happened since then." She noted, removing the washcloth and leaving it in the bucket this time. Cassandra had been attending to him every few hours, wiping any sweat away from his forehead and triple checking him for any wounds that needed to be taken care of. To her surprise, there was never any. "I haven't gotten the chance yet, but thank you for saving me in the fire. I don't think I would have made it out without you." She admitted, a gentle blush rising to her cheeks as her eyes suddenly averted away from him.