Soul Fire

  ~

   

  I woke the next morning, feeling light headed but not too bad, considering. I remembered the night before and groaned at the memory of Eleanora and Phoenix at the bottom of the stairs. I found the memory of saying goodnight to Dustin very interesting too. I realised that I had quite enjoyed the Knight Ball, and it would be interesting to see the aftermath.

  I hauled myself from my bed and found more clothes in my dresser. I dressed in brown breeches and a baggy green shirt, enjoying the looseness of the shirt after the tight school shirts. I rolled up my sleeves, pulled my boots on and pulled my hair into a ponytail, determined to have today off. After marching downstairs to find Jett, I found the castle completely empty and realised everyone had the day off anyway. I met Dena on the stairs going back up to my room.

  “How you holding up?” She asked with a grin.

  I smiled back.

  “Not too bad, considering how much I drank.” I replied.

  She laughed.

  “A few of us are heading down to a water hole that Rain knows about,” she said, and I perked up my ears. “It’s a nice enough day for swimming, do you want to come?”

  I grinned widely at her.

  “Of course,” I said eagerly. “Where should I meet you?”

  We arranged to meet at the bottom of the stairs and I barrelled back up to my room. I grabbed my bath towel and changed into soft cotton shorts and singlet, then almost fell down the stairs trying to run down them too fast. Dena laughed when she saw how excited I was and grabbed my arm.

  We both ran out of the double doors, through the grounds, and into the forest. We followed a trail a short way, soon hearing shrieking and the splashing of water. We came across a clear pool with a small waterfall crashing into it, and several of our classmates paddling around. Someone had found a rope and tied it to an overhanging tree. People were swinging themselves into the water, sometimes doubling up. I dropped my towel next to Dena’s and we ran to the rock ledge that surrounded the pool. There was no way of easing ourselves into the cool water, so I grabbed Dena’s arm and jumped. The water was cold, cold enough to make us gasp.

  “Sky!” Dena yelled indignantly.

  I laughed and swam away from her on my back, splashing her. She raced after me and leapt on me, pushing me under. We wrestled for a bit and then swam to the sides and heaved ourselves out onto the warm stone. We lay on our towels laughing as we watched Petre and Rain swing out on the rope and fall into the water.

  I was feeling a little lonely as I watched everyone with their soul mates, and was therefore relieved when Theresa pulled at my arm, asking me to swing on the rope with her. I did so, and found that swinging on a rope into water is more fun than it looks. After half a dozen of swings with Theresa, I took to jumping in again.

  As I balanced on the edge about to jump in, arms picked me up from behind, and threw me in. I broke the surface to see Dustin standing on the edge, roaring with laughter at my expression.

  “Jump in, you coward!” I yelled to him, grinning at him.

  “Nope, too cold for me!” He called back.

  It was an invitation I couldn’t resist. I climbed out of the pool and went running after him, wrapping my arms around his torso and getting him all wet.

  “Aw, c’mon, Sky, this isn’t fair.” He complained, albeit grinning at me as he tried not-so-much to pry my arms from him.

  I sighed.

  “Alright.” I let him go, only to shove him into the water that I’d manoeuvred him next to.

  He yelled when he hit the water, and then splashed me. Everyone on the shore shrieked as the water hit them, and Yasmin went running after him for getting her wet. Petre picked her up and threw her in and she plunged into the water for the first time, having been sun baking on the rocks. I grabbed Petre from behind and, catching him off guard, managed to shove him in. Rain then pushed me in, Dena pushing her in.

  All of us eventually ended up in the water, splashing each other and screaming. Dustin put me on his shoulders and jumped in with me, starting a round of shoulder wars. Dustin and I won before everyone else gave up.

  It was a new experience for me, having Dustin around. Every time he touched me, whether it was to push me into the water or pick me up, I felt exactly where his hand had made contact with my skin, usually coinciding with a barrage of butterflies in my stomach.

  As everyone sunned themselves on the rocks, Dustin and I climbed perilously up the waterfall, finding a ledge that over looked the water hole.

  “You miss him, don’t you?” He said quietly.

   “How can I miss someone who doesn’t like me?” I replied heavily. “Do you miss… her?”

  He nodded and silence fell between us.

  “It’s such a beautiful view from up here,” I said, looking around at the sunlit forest, the water sparkling below us and bubbling past us.

  “I would have to agree,” he said softly, but when I turned to look at him, he wasn’t looking at the view at all, but at me instead.

  He leant in to kiss me again, and I responded shyly, the butterflies going crazy. We would’ve stayed up there for hours, if I hadn’t heard Dena say in surprise below us:

   “Phoenix!”

  I broke away from Dustin and crawled to the edge of the waterfall, peering over. My heart did this funny wobble as I saw him emerge from the forest, only wearing shorts with a towel slung over his shoulders.

  “Can I join you?” I heard him ask Dena, who nodded mutely.

  I climbed quickly down the waterfall again, sending an apologetic look to Dustin, who just nodded, his eyes expressionless. As I walked towards Dena and the others, Phoenix looked up at me, and to my disbelief made eye contact with me.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “Hi,” I replied automatically, too stunned to say anything else.

  He dropped his towel on the ground and set off for the water before anyone could say anything else. As he jumped in, I turned to Dena and was met with the most gormless expression I’d ever seen on her face.

  “What?” I asked.

  Yasmin and Theresa also wore the same stunned expression. I turned and watched Phoenix climb out of the water as a new game of shoulder-wars began.

   “Wow.” I managed to say hoarsely.

  “Tell me about it.” They chorused back.

  His upper body was extremely muscular, and whilst that was what the other girls were admiring, I was looking at the assortment of scars across his body.

  Turns out Petre was correct when he said Phoenix had led a hard life.

  We watched Phoenix swim out to Dustin and Ispin, who accepted him into their game immediately. Petre was on the rope, watching Phoenix with distrust. Theresa motioned for Rain to come to us and she climbed out of the pool.

  “What?” She panted.

  I turned her around to face the pool, just as Phoenix climbed onto a rock ledge to jump on Ispin. Rain’s jaw dropped.

  “I know,” I said laughing, “I had no idea!”

  Even more surprising than Phoenix’s physique was his attitude. He was laughing and smiling, which lit his face up and made him even more handsome than before. It was as though an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  Petre approached us looking like thunder, but before he could say anything, Rain pushed him in. This resulted in all of us trying to wrestle each other off, and I managed to be the last one standing.

  “Ha!” I yelled triumphantly.

  Arms picked me up from behind again, and the person holding me jumped off the ledge. We both hit the water and surfaced at the same time, Phoenix grinning at me and my heart wobbled again.

  “Sky,” he said. “Do you want to have dinner with me tonight? I feel bad about the last time you tried to eat with me.”

  I opened my mouth to accept (and to ask if I was dreaming) but was interrupted by the one voice I didn’t want to hear.

  “Phoenix!” Someone yelled, and we all turned to the forest path to see
Eleanora standing on it, hands on her hips.

  “Phoenix, weren’t we supposed to be having lunch?”

  “Oh,” I heard him say. “Sorry, I was…”

  “I don’t care what you were doing,” She yelled. Everyone turned to stare at her. “You stood me up!”

  “Ellie, I was just—,”

  “Having fun,” I continued for him, still in the water next to him. I tried to ignore all the smart comments my mind was throwing up about him having a nickname for her.

  “Let it go, Eleanora,” I continued. “Get in the water yourself, have some fun.”

  Everyone waited to see what she’d say, and I swear the water got colder.

   “No.” She said finally.

  “No?”

  “No,” she repeated. “C’mon, Phoenix, we’re leaving.”

  He didn’t say anything as he heaved himself out of the water and wrapped his towel around himself again. I turned away to find everyone else looking at me. I just sighed and shook my head at them.

  After that, the afternoon lost something; a friendship that could’ve been made, a truce that could’ve been had. Even Dustin seemed to understand that his soul mate had ruined the afternoon. We splashed around in the water for a while, trying to recapture some of the earlier fun, but not even shoulder wars could bring back the joy of a few hours ago. When Yasmin and Rain began to complain about being sunburnt, we eventually headed back to the castle. It was dark when we got back, and I headed up to my room, getting changed back into my breeches and shirt before heading down for dinner. I scowled as I was changing, the pink glow of my skin itching and irritating. I hated sunburn, and no matter how many times I swore to myself that I would never let myself get sunburnt again, I always forgot and ended up getting burnt worse than last time.

  I headed back down to the mess hall, where we ate twice as much as normal; swimming always made me hungrier than normal exercise. Judging from how much everyone else ate too, I think it was safe to assume that they operated in the same way I did. We ate in silence, exhausted after spending the day swimming.

  Dustin accompanied me back to my room, holding my hand. We didn’t speak about the afternoon, instead choosing to discuss our classes. He kissed me goodnight at my door just as Larni came up the stairs. She waited for Dustin to leave before breaking into an enormous grin.

  I grinned back sheepishly and we entered my room together.

  “He seems nice,” she said slyly and we both giggled.

  “He took me to the Knight Ball,” I confessed. “Thank you for the dress.”

  “My pleasure,” she said happily. “It didn’t take me very long to stitch it-“

  “Hold on, you made that dress?”

  She nodded eagerly.

  “By my own hands.”

  “Larni,” I was swimming in disbelief. “It was gorgeous. I have to do something for you, to pay you back.”

  “No,” she said firmly. “It was enough to see you so happy. You’ve been quite miserable these past few days.”

  I didn’t know what to say to her, so I just handed my washing to her and she left.

  Despite what she’d said, I still felt awful knowing about her situation. We had yet to discuss her new found abilities, and I knew she was avoiding the topic.