Page 5 of Six Burning Candles

Then he put his hands on me and frost ran up his arm. All his clothes turned into an icy stone as Keida put herself between us. It was so incredibly attractive until she socked him.

“Keida!” I barked.

“What!” she roared right back. The fool on the ground said something but I didn’t catch it. The sound of my heart racing filled my ears and drowned out the world. Keida cocked back her fist, the man squealing like a pig in her hands.

“Keida! Stop! You already broke his nose!” I pointed out the obvious but was helpless to do anything else. My mouth moved of its own accord. “I’m not going to stand here and watch you break his face in.”

“You’re more than welcome to sit if you like,” she huffed shortly before she spun the man the last few inches needed until he was face first in the dirt. I squeaked, hands rushing to cover my face. Only to have my hands forced down to my sides, Keida’s face incredibly close to mine. “But you are going to watch. This isyourmess I’m cleaning up.”

“I didn’t ask you to—” The scrunch of Keida’s nose made me halt my complaints.It is my mess.In the heat of the moment, I ran my mouth.Again.I whispered, “I just wanted him to back off.”

“So, insulting his pride was the way to do that? Come on, Trouble, you’ve done enough damage and people will start to talk.” She snatched me by the arm, dragging me away from the huddled crowd. Between people jumping out of the way of us and the light whispering, I felt my pride go up in smoke. My cheeks were scorched and I shrank internally as Keida shoved me under a cobble stone bridge, headed back to the cathedral.So much for fun.She was doing so well too!

Come on, Trouble.I stopped in my tracks as she situated the cloak still wrapped around my shoulders. She dusted snow off me with sharp swats of her hand. The words tumbled out of a dry throat, “Trouble?”

“Yes, trouble.” She shook her head, letting all that loose, platinum hair flop left and right. I didn’t realize until thenthat frost crept out of her scalp and formed a tiny crown of stalagmites in her hair. My hands moved of their own accord, the intrusive thought winning, and touched one. It sizzled instantly under my fingertip and melted. Keida swiped the water dripping down her face, then my hand out of her way. “Quit that.”

“What is that?” I breathed.

“A defense mechanism. Something you do not seem to have equipped,” she hissed as she tightened the cloak around me like it might choke me. “I concede. I am not fun. Let us return to the cathedral where you’re safe.”

I couldn’t stop the eyeroll even if she were holding me at wand point. It came from deep in my soul. Keida stared through me into the pits of my brattish being. With a pout, I muttered, “I have a defense mechanism.”

“Sarcasm does not count, Melrose St. Augustine.”

Was it wrong to shiver at the way she said my name? My breath formed a hazy white cloud in front of my face. Cold prickles ran up my arms and down my back as her hands lingered on my bicep. Even through heavy wool and two layers of silk separating us, I could feel the bite of her magic against my skin. My nipples ached suddenly as I imagined her brushing her fingers like feathers across my bare skin.

I returned to a fantasy in my head a few times a month where Keida eventually gave into my whims and pinned me to one of the altars in the cathedral. I dreamed I could see the moon through the stained-glass window and there was no other light but candles as she touched every inch of me. In that moment, staring up into her frosty gaze, I replayed the fantasy over and over. It hurt to breathe until her hands slipped away.

“Let’s go, Trouble,” she murmured.

“Am I reallythat muchtrouble?” I arched an inquisitive brow as she pivoted from me. She stormed further away, forcing me to jog to catch up. I snatched her sleeve and tugged.Touch me again!My body begged for her to handle me again, to tug at my clothes and throw me into a wall.Kiss me!And yet, instead, I was picking a fight. “What do you care if I get into trouble?”

Keida pushed aside the dangling branches of the Elder Mother Tree, a weeping willow that lived within the castle since before the walls went up. Its roots went so deep, they had to build around it. There was a myth that when the Elder Mother Tree bloomed, if a flower fell on a person’s head, they would soon have another addition to their family.

I’ll never forgive it for all the flowers it drops on my head and not once have I gotten anything out of it.

Keida’s pushed aside more branches with one gloved hand as the other motioned for me to lead the way. Her face was pinched in fury. “Because you are in my care for the afternoon—”

I scoffed, “Oh please!”

Stomping through the branches, I weaved toward its thick trunk instead of following the path back out toward the kingdom streets. Keida’s frustrated snarl filled my belly with angry moths.Stop playing with fire, Melrose St. Augustine.

“I am entrusted with your safety!” Keida followed me under the dancing willow tree branches. A stiff, cold breeze made all them sway. Tinkling bells of glass wind charms, all with special holes to play music with every puff of air, swirled around us. I spun slowly in time to its ethereal sound.

“You’re entrusted with the safety of the order. I am simply entertaining you for the afternoon, Keida, so the hierophant can have peace and quiet before the festival. You thinktoo highly of me. I am simply just another girl picking a fight with a stupid man.”

Keida stopped me, grabbing onto the only piece of me she could touch.My hand.My heart skipped a beat, eyes widening as she dragged me away from the branches and back toward the thick, gnarled roots of the tree. The bark was a dark chestnut, almost black during winter, and the branches were nothing but obsidian strings. Thick and strong from years of bracing the bitter winter with pretty trinkets to keep it company until its leaves and flowers came back in the spring.

“You are the daughter of the Hierophant Rex of the Order of Avaris, you—”

Not this again.

“Yes, yes, papa is a very important man, and I should think twice about besmirching his name.” I shook my head.It’s always this.Leonardo, the Hierophant Rex, was an important man. Every tutor I grew up with, every lesson I was reprimanded with, every councilor’s sneer was about how important he was, revolved around it.It’s never me they worry about.They asked why I misbehaved. They berated me for liking dresses and jewels. They mocked me for not choosing to marry.

“What?No—I mean, yes, I would encourage you to think twice before putting a bad reputation attached to your father’s name. But what I was saying, Melrose, before you interrupted me, another bad habit you have—”

“Just spit it out, Keida. I am in no mood for your lectures.” I tried to rip my hand out of hers. All it did was show how much stronger Keida was than I. Her grip barely adjusted even though I tuggedhard. I furrowed my eyebrows in shock.