Chapter 1:
Mare POV
Ash and spark- One of us will be reduced to cinders. The Silent Stone gnaws at my chest, making each breath an effort that I might not have to draw for much longer. His knife glints silver, no red... Yet. His eyes are sapphire pools and he makes me drown in them, he makes shivers shoot down my spine and goosebumps blossom over my flesh. His weapon or his eyes. I can't decide which is worse. He never ceases to drink me in, running over my head to toes and back again. Perhaps he is trying to capture me in the moment before this ends. Before he kills me.
"I run and you follow. You can't help yourself, can you? Admit it, Mare." His voice is oddly soft, slow and yet unmistakably sharp, a tiny flame. It glows with enticement and yet possesses the power to burn. He sets my every nerve on edge and leaves my heart pounding against my ribcage. The very chords of his voice are tactical, playing them like an instrument. My mouth wants words in it and yet my mind can't summon any in the mental storm. Admit it. Admit what? Those are the words that I want to say but I can't give him what he wants... My attention. Instead, I act as if the quality of my nails are of more significance than this moment of finality between us. I can see his fists clench at the silence that is my retort. I'll admit nothing. At least, that's what I tell myself. My hands fall.
Being so close to him makes my eyes water with the salt of tears threatening to sting. I feel one fall and I focus on the sensation of wetness against my left cheek with the weakness eating at my bones leaving my hands at my sides. It's the only distraction I have right now, a small speck of cold to drown out the invisible flames that circle around us. He doesn't even need his powers to summon the heat he leaves me in. My eyes flicker downwards to the floor of onyx. All I see is blackness. No, I swallow hard against the knot that tightens in the very pit of my stomach. And boots.
Don't look at him, my mind screams furiously.
"Look at me, Mare." The behest dribbles past his lips as a whisper. So light that it almost tickles. I want to vomit, I want so desperately for my empty stomach to choke something up. But nothing happens. Nothing comes. My insides turn to a cage of butterflies, violent butterflies that flutter and make me want to fall to my knees from the disgusting sensation. This is what he does to me. But maybe what I do to him in return. He's too close. My instincts know that as they squirm beneath his heat and gaze.
His knife falls.
His touch is fire. His index finger trails down the path of my single tear as if he can burn it away the trail that he follows until he reaches my chin. My chin that he shoves upwards- Unexpectedly hard. A panicked gasp escapes past my lips and I'm forced to see the way his lips turn upwards. Handsomely.
"No electric torturing bastard here anymore to stop me. Hmm, you like him too?" His fingers dig into my chin as he holds it in place. The stench of envy. Misplaced envy, of course. "No matter, I'll have him killed by sunset. We can't have the little lightening girl upstaged. Stronger than you, you said. No, that won't do."
I can see him calculating. What I cannot be sure. He speaks about me as if he'll let me live. I know that is a lie. He longs to see me dead.
"J-Just kill me, Maven. T-tell Cal that I love him, p-please. Just end this! Tell my mum and Gisa and Tramy and-" My tears burst open and my breath stutters. If the Silent Stone melted away, my lightening would explode and electrify this whole God damn place. My veins flood with a hunger for one last spark that will never come. It consumes.
His tongue clicks and his head tilts with those dark doe eyes. A grin creeps across his face. As if he's made a decision.
"You think it'll all end like this? Oh no. Perhaps you're more stupid than I thought, darling."
Darling, my skin crawls, just like his fingers as they move back and forth over the bone of my jaw gently. "You think so little of me." He breathes against my neck so softly that it could be a kiss. "I was thinking of killing you, Mare. You have no idea how many times I considered it at night. But the thing is. I went to your scum of a house, I burned your curtains, I burned your books, I burned your tatty furniture. Then I led on your bed and saw it on the ceiling. I suppose you never thought I would." My heart is hammering as an ice consumes my body.
Shit.
My eyes fall back downwards, anywhere but his eyes, anywhere but his smile.
"My face stared back, Mare."
Ever so slightly, his feet tiptoe forwards and only oxygen separates us. My instincts tell me to run but I can't move from the weight of the words and the stone and the distance and the feel of his chest against mine and his breath on my skin. I can feel the abs beneath his thin grey clothes and it kills me. I want to die more. His lips are so close to mine and our noses touch. I could close my eyes and pretend it's Cal.
"Why did you have a poster of me, Mare? Hmm? Go on, pretend you don't like me. Pretend we were never meant to meet?" I breathe deeply and quick. I struggle to suck in as much air as I can with my heart beating the fastest it's ever been in my entire life. His handsome grin widens as he watches me panic about my past and our horribly too close proximity.
"G-Gisa." That's all that I can manage to get out. I expect silence to reign over us but instead, I'm hit with laughter, a light laugh that is a knife in my chest. It digs and digs.
"You're a good liar, Mare." He pauses a moment before the next words tumble out of his mouth, caught for a flicker of a second on the way I swallow hard and then bite my lower lip. An irritating betrayal of myself. "Isn't she, Ruth Barrow? Gisa?"
No! No! No! How!? No! Oh Gods no! My eyes dart wildly trying to find them until shadows sneak out from doors that had been drenched in darkness. Sentinals flank my mother, sister and two brothers, gagged and crying. They're screaming words that I can't and don't have time to attempt to decipher. I don't need their words, I need to see their faces.
"NO! MAVEN! MAVEN!" My fingers crawl to the collar of his shirt with his head over his shoulder. I drag his attention back to me forcefully with a desperate shake and trembling fingers. "Maven please- please! D-Don't. Whatever you want to punish me for- For taking you prisoner, I-I get it but not them. They were safe in-"
"They were never safe, Mare. But they are now, if you obey. I have spies on you every second of every day. I told you I don't use them to track your emotions, remember?" He lets my hands rest on his collar, knowing they'll never dare to reach for his throat with all these guards. "Well I lied. You see, your little Kilorn has switched sides. He told me where your family were- Whilst you were with me on our little prison game, my nobles got them out and brought them here as I planned when you spoke on tunnels. They were on that train half an hour ago Mare. You didn't even notice. Kilorn told me about how your little Scarlet Guard were going to kill you after you'd won the war for them. You're too powerful Mare and they hate it. You're so predictable, sweetheart and you just followed my plan. I've saved you."
My lungs want to scream and my knees buckle beneath me. Pain shoots through bone as they smash onto the hard earth but I can't summon the will to care. I can't summon the will to care about the way Maven looks down at me, leering and then lowers himself to a crouch. His eyes lock onto mine and he cocks an eyebrow, waiting for something, licking his lips hungrily.
"Say thank you, Mare. Come on, I know you haven't forgotten all of the etiquettes. When this damn war is over, when Cal is dead and we're the last ones left standing, I'll book you some more lessons so that we can negotiate with Iris' sister after her and her mother are dead. You'll make me good again and I'll make you Queen Mare Calore. We will be a fire storm."
His breath dances, seductive and warm. "Iris was a mistake, Mare. I only married her to make you jealous. But no need to be jealous anymore, hmm? I only have a fondness for lightening. For you. Mare Barrow, I offer you my hand in marriage when this war is over and the storm has passed. This nation is behind me and I'll burn the rats out, darling."
His hand cups my cheek, waiting for my nod of approval with a flick of his fingers leaving my family with knives at their throats and guards ready to march.
"F-Fuck you." I breathe. His eyes smolder and Gisa screams are muffled beneath cloth as her once broken arm is grabbed by a damned sentinal. Maven's eyes burn brighter, threatening to consume me, waiting. "Make your choice, lightning girl."
"I agree to be Mare Calore. To give my hand to you."
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