Page 44 of The Last Aether

Then the fire around me was gone. The sounds of grunts and fighting had me peeking around the tree. Riven leveled the assassin with blow after blow. The man hardly stood a chance.

The assassin raised fire around his hand, but Riven was too quick. In one swift move, he pulled a knife and dragged it across the assassin’s throat.

The man fell in a lifeless heap.

Riven’s gaze scanned the forest, looking for any other attackers before landing on me. Soot smeared his face, his blond hair turned a gray color from the ash in the air.

Something about that image as he strode towards me had everything inside me revolting. A cascade of memories unlocked in a single breath. A truth I couldn’t unknow.

“You. You saved me from the fire.”

24

The screaming from above had stopped. But it only made the fire around me sound louder. The pain inside me intensified.

I couldn’t suck in air. It hurt too much.

And then it was as if the pain stopped. Everything inside me went still and the world around me blurry. I welcomed that little bit of nothingness after the agony I’d been swimming in.

A cool breeze shifted around me. Cool? It had to be a trick of my mind.

Maybe I’d died and this was the first step to Heaven. I didn’t even care that I might not be alive because that cool air felt so good on my skin.

And then it was as if there was no air at all. Everything went quiet around me. The fire blazed above, but around me it was silent.

I watched in awe as the fire closing in died away to smoky ash. A figure moved through the smoke. A boy. He was bigger than me. Years older.

Soot streaked his face and ash covered his hair. But I could tell it was blond underneath. So light it was almost white. But it was his eyes that held me captive. A light blue that reminded me of the calmest water.

Yet some part of me recognized the panic in those eyes. He hurried over to me. “Are you okay? Can you move?”

I tried to get the words out, but I couldn’t speak. My throat was too fried from the smoke and fire.

The boy cursed and reached for the beam. He grunted, unable to move it. Then closed his eyes and breathed deep. A moment later that cool breeze swirled around me again. Then the beam was gone.

He bent, slipping his arms carefully under me. I moaned in pain.

The boy’s face contorted as if he felt everything I did. “I’m so sorry.”

I didn’t have the words to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, to thank him. Unconsciousness was already pulling me under. Muted voices occasionally broke through. The boy’s voice was the last I heard. “You have to hide her. The only way she’ll be safe is if he thinks she’s dead.”

I blinked again and again, clearing away the memory. Riven’s face came into view in front of me, the rest of the guys charging into the forest behind him.

“Y-you saved me from the fire. You told someone to hide me.”

The guys froze, only their eyes moving in question.

Pain carved itself into Riven’s face. So deep and raw it nearly stole my breath. “I got you out.”

“Did we know each other?”

He swallowed, shaking his head. “No, we didn’t know each other.”

“So, you were just strolling by, saw a house on fire, and decided to help?”

Riven ran a hand through his hair, pulling on the ends of the strands. “No. It’s…complicated.”

Rage lit somewhere deep inside. “Isn’t it always with you? It’s always lies and half-truths. This is my life and you’ve had a part in it for longer than I ever knew. Don’t I deserve to know what happened to me?”