Despite his anxiousness to talk, Felix said nothing as he and Aiko made their way back to the room where she awoke. His silence was eerie, as was his single-minded focus on walking. One step after another, a determined, clipped dance with no free rhythm. At his sides, his fists constantly clenched and unclenched. Anxiety formed a tight knot in Aiko's stomach.

"I'm sorry about those men," he finally said as they turned into the east wing, startling her. He took her hand in his and spared her a quick glance. "When the castle and city fell, it became easy prey for thieves and other unsavory types. I've been keeping them away as best I can, but there's only so much ground I can cover by myself. I was focusing on keeping everyone away from this wing of the castle. From..." He trailed off, but the look in his eyes said all she needed to know. From you.

"It's okay, really." Aiko offered him a reassuring smile and squeezed his hand. The rough, calloused skin of his palm scraped against hers, but she didn't mind. She treasured the warmth and the comfort of his hold. "I guess the barrier went down with the Core?"

"It did."

Aiko paused as they passed a missing chunk of wall. Beyond, she could see the remains of Crocea. Blackened scars blanketed the face of what had once been her proud city. Now, it was a ghost of its former self. This was the curse, as the court advisors called it: the destruction caused by the Core at her failure to keep it under control. Her throat tightened and she turned away. "How widespread is the damage?"

"More than enough," Felix muttered. "We can't stay here. That's what I need to talk to you about." He paused. Then, with a sigh, he added, "I'm sorry, Aiko."

"It's okay." She lost count of the number of times those words had fallen from her lips; it was almost mechanical now, drawn forth before her mind had fully processed what she was responding to. "It's not your fault."

"Except that it is." Felix jerked to a stop, pulling her with him. His brow furrowed, glaring at the ground for a heartbeat before he lifted his head to meet her gaze. Frustration and anger swirled in the depths of his emerald eyes, as deep and drowning as a lush forest. "I brought Dinah here. I wasn't able to stop her. I used the Core's unstable magic to kill her when I should have done it with my own hands. Maybe then it wouldn't have discharged." Helplessly, he shook his head, raking his fingers through his tangled brown hair. "All of this is because of me. I should have stayed away from you."

"Felix," Aiko murmured. Hesitantly, slowly, she brushed her fingers across his cheek, cupping his face in her hand. He leaned into the touch with a heavy sigh. She skimmed her thumb across the curve of his cheekbones—her heart twisting at how prevalent they had become. "Please don't blame yourself. The Core was always going to explode if I... I couldn't cut myself free, and I couldn't. My time ran out. It's not your fault."

"Dinah," he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. He laid his hand against hers, curling his fingers around her palm. "She said... she said she was my mother."

"What?" Aiko jerked, her forehead crashing against his. Pain tore through her skull and she pulled back with a hiss. "Sorry. I'm so sorry. I need to sit down before I hear the rest of this."

"No, I'm sorry. I needed to—" He rubbed his forehead with a grimace. "Maybe you should try headbutting people in a fight. Seems effective to me."

She laughed. A dull throb lingered in her forehead and she pressed the heel of her hand to it. "As a last resort, maybe."

An inkling of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips, but it quickly rescinded as quickly as it had come. His eyes darkened once more and he turned without another word. Accepting that the moment was gone, she dropped her hand and followed him. Bitterness bloomed inside her—thorns that choked her as they made their way up to her throat. It's meaning escaped her, rooted in nothing that she could draw up.

But looking at Felix's retreating back was painful somehow.

She shoved that aside, burying it deep inside her where her flame could eat away at the thorns until they were nothing but ashes.

⇠⭑☾⭑⇢

A fire flared to life in the hearth at Felix's coaxing. It swallowed the fresh firewood greedily, crackling as it threw up sparks and nestled into its den. It was like a wild beast that they had caged; Aiko watched it, entranced by its lively pacing and hissing. Warmth settled over the room once again, penetrating the chill so easily. Aiko wrapped her arms around herself as she sank into the couch opposite the hearth. When he was finished with the fire, Felix sat beside her, dusting ash from his scarred, pale fingers.

"Sorry," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's gotten a bit dirty in here."

Aiko ran her finger along the back of the couch, pulling up a thin layer of dust. She raised an eyebrow. "A bit?"

"I was guarding, not cleaning." He leaned forward with a sigh and rested his elbows against his knees. His leg bounced, tapping an anxious rhythm against the floorboards. "Aiko... there's no better way for me to say this, so I'm just going to tell you the truth straight out. Niveus is gone—or Crocea is at least. The Core destroyed the city and much of the surrounding forest. I checked the area but there are no survivors." He inhaled sharply as he lifted his head. "I'm sorry. It's all gone. I... I don't even want to think about the state of the rest of your kingdom."

"Gone?" she echoed, feeling the word roll off her tongue and drop like a heavy stone. It was a truth she already knew—Crocea's fate was sealed the moment the Core was pushed too far. It was a truth she had already seen for herself from the windows she had passed in her walk. Yet, for some reason, her vision blurred with tears and her throat constricted. She jerked her gaze away, her fingers curling around the hem of her tunic.

"Aiko?"

"It was obvious," she muttered, cringing at the way her voice quivered. "I already knew, but hearing you say it..."

For so long, Cinere had convinced her that she didn't care for Crocea or for Niveus, despite that Aiko herself wanted to rule from her father's throne. Now free from the whispers of the Core, the pull it had on her soul, she couldn't even return to the dream she had been ripped away from. If she tried to rebuild, who would rally behind some girl they knew nothing of, who had been presumed dead for so long? As far as anyone would be concerned, she wasn't the Queen of Niveus. She was its destruction. Its cursed child.

She buried her face in Felix's shoulder, swallowing back a sob that rose to the tip of her tongue. Regret churned within her, choking like the scent of smoke that clogged her lungs. For once, she wished for Cinere's uncaring blank to smother her again.

Silence stretched between them. He slid his arm around her waist and tucked her head against his chest. The steady rhythm of his heart calmed the anxious prickle of her nerves and she drew in a deep breath, relaxing into his hold. His fingers combed through her tangled curls in long, gentle strokes. When the tips of his nails brushed her spine, she shivered. He stopped then and his hand rested against her shoulder instead.

"You can go on," she whispered. She curled up against his side, bringing her knees to her chest. It was cramped on the couch, but she didn't mind. With the fire dancing in front of her and Felix's arms around her, it was but a dull ache in her limbs.

"You're sure?"

"Nothing you tell me is going to break me, Felix. I'm not made of glass." Even as she said it, the words brought a teasing smile to her lips. "Besides, I'm with you now. Everything is fine."

"That's the thing." Again, his fingers slid through her hair. "I don't— how do I say this? The library is still intact. It was on the side of the castle that's mostly untouched by the damage."

"It was designed to withstand the wrath of the Core." Aiko shifted and rested her head against his lap, staring up at his face. He wasn't looking at her, however; his gaze was locked on his hands as the ends of her hair slipped through his fingers. Frowning, Aiko laced her own fingers together over her stomach. "Did you find something there? I'm not sure how much you'd be able to read but—"

"There was a book of myths like the one you showed me before. It was written in Common so I could read it—most of it. There were annotations in Nivean." He raked his fingers through his hair again, shoving it back from his face. The flames reflected in his eyes, giving him the look of a man with a soul for once.

Her heart snagged and she pushed herself upright. "You really took my words about suspense to heart, huh?" She chuckled, but it felt as hollow as the castle without its Ember Core.

"The Core Reapers, Aiko," he said. "It mentioned the Core Reapers."

A puzzled crease formed between her brows as she frowned. The name echoed through her mind, but it came up empty when she searched for a meaning to go with it. "What is that?"

Her confusion reflected on his face—even his forest-green eyes flickered with traces of it. His lips pinched into a thin line and he sighed, deep in frustration, through his nose. "I was hoping you would know so I wouldn't have to explain."

"I've never heard of them." She pressed a fisted hand to her lips as her gaze turned to the fire. It flickered and churned, spitting sparks as it swallowed the dry wood whole. Its warmth turned cold; goosebumps crawled down her arms. A familiar chill wracked her body and sank deep into her bones. "I think... my flame knows."

Felix sank against the back of the couch. "The short version is that they're creatures who punish a Core's bonded when they sin against it. When a bonded—a Bright Soul, as you call them in Niveus—cuts themselves free of the Core, the Core Reapers come and... punish them. If I understood everything correctly. It was very unclear, but I think you get the gist of what this is about."

The idea faintly struck a cord deep within her. Her chest ached with the memory and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. "Yeah. So how long before they come for us? Do we have time to prepare and fight them—"

"No. We're not fighting them." Felix pushed himself to his feet and whirled around to face her. At his sides, his fingers fidgeted with his cloak, wrapping his cloak in and around his hands. "They're magic, Aiko. I don't think we can fight magic."

"So what do you propose?" Aiko asked warily. She stood with him, searching his face.

He took her hands in his, squeezing them softly. "We need to leave this place."

Heat crawled through her cheeks, pulling a small gasp from her lips. She cleared her throat, schooling her expression into a playful smile. "Isn't this the second time you've asked me to run away with you? How persistent."

"Aiko, I'm serious."

"I'm serious, too." She lifted their clasped hands to her lips, kissing the scars that tore across the back of his palm. "You are persistent. After all, you're still here. You could have left me."

"I wasn't going to do that," he murmured. "I'm never going to do that to you, I promise."

Butterflies stirred in the pit of her stomach. The truth of their situation, the horror of their past, seemed to melt away beneath the touch of his hand against hers. Safety and security enveloped her, bringing in a feeling of contentment. "Okay," she whispered. "I believe you. Where should we go?"

Felix pulled away, his hands sliding from hers slowly as though time was attempting to stop. "My first thought was that we could flee to Furvus. Dinah isn't there anymore, so I originally thought it might be safe, but... I don't know the state the kingdom is in. And even if I did, Furvus has never been a safe place."

She watched his back as he moved into the next room, swallowed by the shadows that couldn't encroach upon the hearth's territory. "You said Dinah is your mother...?

He froze halfway through the doorway, his hand leaning against its smooth wooden frame. Though he didn't turn to her, she could see the hesitation in the way his shoulders stiffened. "That's what she told me," he muttered. "Even if it's true, I don't have claim to Furvus and I don't want it." His voice turned soft, barely audible as he continued, "My master was my only family; I want nothing to do with Dinah or her games."

Aiko nodded numbly. She couldn't imagine the feeling, but she could see how much it had shaken him. Four weeks had passed since their battle with Dinah; he had four weeks to process what she told him. Yet, his gaze was still empty. His mind was still clouded, it seemed. Her heart twisted and she couldn't help the way her mind wandered back to her family, which had been torn apart by the Core and power. Her parents, Mae, and even Ameris—all killed because of her.

She took a deep breath and pushed her shoulders back, lifting her chin. "Alright, no Furvus then. I'm assuming we can't hide away in Niveus?"

"They'll come here because of the Core's remains," Felix's voice echoed back to her from the bedroom. "We need to go someplace that doesn't have a Core."

Aiko gripped her tunic. "There's more than one?"

Another sigh from the other room. "You had all those nice books and you didn't read them?"

"I read them!" Indignant, Aiko marched into the bedroom. "I was a kid when I read most of the myths, so excuse me if I've forgotten some stuff. I was kind of busy focusing on the Ember Core and Niveus and... stuff."

Felix chuckled as he pulled himself from the closet tucked away at the back of the room. His arm was buried beneath coats, tunics, pants, and several other articles of warm clothing. A slight smile touched his face as he held them out for her. "There are three. Ieneaus is said to be one of the only nations with no gift from the gods. Furvus's Core died many years ago, dooming my kingdom to a life without magic. If we rule out Furvus, I believe the un-gifted nation of Ieneaus is a good place to hide."

Suspicious pulled her hope apart at the seams, leaving her stranded amid the sea of doubt. "How so?"

His smile stretched wider, confident and glowing. It struck her; she had never seen such an expression from him before. "It's completely devoid of magic," he said. "It is said that magic can't even enter its borders. Core Reapers are born of magic. They won't be able to follow us there."

A gasp slipped from her lips. She took his arm, pulling herself closer. "You mean... we would truly be free from it?"

"We would be free."

Laughter bubbled up from within her, light and easy as elation bloomed in her core. "Then let's go. Let's leave this place behind. There's nothing left for us but death and destruction."

For once, he laughed with her. The sound was pleasant like a faint, nostalgic memory that swirled in her mind. It brightened the room and lifted her spirits. She hooked her arm around his. With him by her side, everything would be alright.

Felix, asking Aiko to run away with him every chance he gets:

Aiko: Hm, I'm sensing that maybe Felix would like me to go with him