(A/N: THANKSSS FOR READING)
Chapter thirtytwo~
“Up!” He shouted urgently, but I was too shocked from his last sudden attack to move. I was quickly hit by a fairy-made gust of wind right in the chest. I was winded within seconds and when I opened my eyes after a short blink I was on the floor.
“I told you to bring your hands up!” Eelii wailed and fell to his knees. He looked at me with a glint of worry shining in his eyes, but the expression on his face was clearly disappointment. I rubbed my arms and sighed.
“I know! But I can’t do it!” I moaned, pulling myself up. “I’m not like you. I wasn’t brought up learning how to fight. This is all new to me.”
Eelii was stood opposite me again and he readied his hands to attack again. I mentally groaned.
“All the more reason for you to try harder.” His hands were flung into the air.
“I am trying-” The ton of water fell onto me like a pile of bricks. I fell to the floor again and lay my back down. The water seeped through my clothing and sent a chill down my back but Eelii didn’t look guilty. I bit my lip and contemplated whether to try and get him back. He’d just soaked me.
I flung my hands up from by my sides to in front of me in the air. I focused all my sense on Eelii and getting water, hoping this would work.
“Argh!” He squealed. I didn’t look but I knew the water had hit him, and hit him hard. Maybe not as hard as it had hit me but still… hard.
Eelii rolled over to me and planted a kiss on my cheek, a nice soaking wet kiss.
I laughed and pushed him away.
Eelii was fun. I’d give him that. He never seemed to take anything seriously until I needed him to. He might not be the best teacher or the most amazing person in the universe but he was perfect right now. And he would be perfect until the day I’d enter the arena.
No one would be perfect in my eyes then. Not Eelii. Not Leo.
It was the only way.
“You know, if it comes to it and you have no other choice,” Eelii was suppressing a laugh, “You could smother Leo in love and kill him that way.”
I laughed awkwardly, because smothering Leo with love was all I wanted to do right now.
Eelii noticed how my body tensed and I suddenly happened to be so interested in the amount of grass growing under my palm. His little giggle died down and he rolled onto his back so he was looking at the sky too.
He wouldn’t talk to me now about Leo. He knew that it’d only end in an argument. And we both knew that we couldn’t afford an argument right now.
“Right. Back to training. Can I try fire now?” I suddenly jumped up. Eelii didn’t move though, he seemed to be concentrating on the clouds. I had to nudge his motionless body a few times before he responded.
“You want to play with fire?” He raised an eyebrow at me and rose to his feet cautiously.
“Yes. The Trys know how to use fire so I need to know how too.” I nodded and swayed slightly on my feet. Eelii looked at me curiously but he didn’t argue. “Fight fire with fire.”
In his hands, a tiny flicker of fire started to jiggle around.
Every few seconds it would grow, bigger and bigger until it was a ball of heat surrounding his hands.
“Is it burning you?” I gasped, not managing to see his hands anymore because of the flames. Eelii stared at the fire and took a while to respond.
“No, I created a protective layer of air between the fire and me.” He said in full concentration. “It took me years to master.”
My hopes fell. Eelii, one of the most powerful power holders here took years to learn this. There was no way I’d learn this.
“So I might as well give up now on my hopes of being able to use fire in the fight already.” I mumbled, disheartened but so enchanted by the flame that the thought of not being able to do it made me want to curl up and cry.
“No. You don’t necessarily have to learn how to handle fire to use it.” He let his arms dance around the air, making the flames flicker and join in with the ball.
“What?” I frowned, too confused to understand anything he was saying. He laughed a little and then the flames went dead at his palms.
He looked at me and raised his hands. A light wind hit me. “You can use the infernos Leo throws at you combined with your wind powers to use the fire. That way you don’t have to focus as much because it’s not your fire power, but you still have to be skilled in the wind department first.”
I crossed my arms and pouted. “So it’s a cheap way of having fire?” I didn’t like the sound of not having fire to use myself and that I could only use it if Leo did before me, but I guess it would be better than trying and failing to create my own flames.
“Basically.” Eelii chuckled. “Now, arms up. Pass your wind.”
I let out the giggle I’d been holding in. My immaturity was quite hilarious. He rolled his eyes.
I raised my arms like he had told me too and focused all my energy on the palms of my hands.
“Wind.” I whispered. And as always, on command of my voice, the wind swept my way. I closed my eyes and pictured it visually in my mind, swaying forwards and backwards and whipping Eelii’s hair around his face.
I heard a little cough from the boy opposite me and I knew it was working. The wind whipped past me.
“Now open your eyes. You won’t be able to close them in the arena, you do that, you’re dead.” I took a deep breath and kept my concentration on the images of the wind as I opened my eyes.
With the picture gone from the back of my eyelids, the wind faltered and wobbled without command.
Then it faded out slowly and I sighed in failure. “I can’t see it with my eyes open!” I whined, dropping my arms down in disappointment.
I didn’t expect him to do what he did next.
He disappeared and reappeared behind me. His hands slid down my arms and slid over my fingers. He brought them up. “Close your eyes.” He whispered into my ears. I did as he said.
I felt the power surging through his fingers and through mine too. He was making the wind, I was just the hands in front of his. “Take my wind.” He said calmly, and I did so, trying as hard as I could to take over the flow of the win. “Open your eyes now.”
I opened them and I felt the wind starting to fail. Then Eelii took it over again, making sure the wind didn’t vanish. “Take it again,”
I took it, and I could feel the wind started to get lighter. I couldn’t disappoint him. Not again.
I kept my eyes open firmly, while trying to imagine the wind as a colour. I imagined it swirling around us, but it didn’t seem to move. I moaned but Eelii shushed me.
I felt him taking control again, but this time he stopped halfway through the take-over.
He moved his hands, giving me no choice but to move mine too. I felt the wind at my fingertips, it was faltering slightly but it was strong and heavy.
Then suddenly, like I’d been hit by a cruise ship, I saw the wind. I saw it. It was as blue as Eelii’s hair. It was swirling dramatically around us in the most perfect curls I’ve ever seen. It danced up and down on the ground and teased the leaves on the trees until the eventually fell off and joined the wind in its splendid dance of ecstasy.
It looked like water, just more transparent and flimsy, willing to bend and swirl in any way possible just to impress you. I let out a breath of delight and then realised Eelii’s hands were nowhere to be seen. Still holding my hands up, I turned around to see a grinning boy.
“You did it!” He clapped looking proudly at me.
“I can see it!” I beamed, urging the wind to attack Eelii. He was taken aback and he fell on his bum.
I laughed, dropping the wind and tumbling down next to him.
We were both still a bit damp from the water, but when Eelii’s arms engulfed me, I wasn’t cold anymore.
“When you first came to Myllic, if someone had told me a few months down the road you’d be queen and learning the powers, I wouldn’t have believed them.” He chuckled, messing up my hair. I shook my head out of his reach and smiled playfully.
I was about to say something about being queen but then a depressing thought stopped me. The only reason I’m queen is because Leo killed my mom. And the only reason he did that was because he saved me. And the only reason he did that was because I’d persuaded him to care. And the only reason I’d done that was to get Tristan safe.
If Tristan had never come to Myllic everything would be fine. I wouldn’t be queen, I wouldn’t be fighting to my death, I wouldn’t be helplessly using Eelii for my own selfish need to be loved.
See, there I go again. Trying to blame Tristan, when the only reason he came to Myllic was to see me.
If I had said goodbye to him or maybe left in a calmer manner, he wouldn’t have come.
Eelii saw how my face dropped. His fingers were under my chin and he tilted my head upwards for a second. “What’s wrong?”
He cared about me, it was plain to see. And yet I was using him.
Guilt overrode the selfishness now and I jumped to my feet.
“Everything. Everything’s wrong.” I whimpered before vanishing to my bedroom.
(A/N: Don't forget to comment, vote and add to your libraries!<3)