Imdalind 01 - Kiss of Fire

glistening.
    Edmund, sharpening a knife.
    My heart caught and sputtered, my stomach threatening to turn out its contents. What had Edmund done to his son? Ovailia had said I could see how he really looked by seeing with my mind and not my heart, but when looking at the wet pools of blood, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see.
    “Ryland,” I kept my voice even.
    “Don’t hurt me!” He curled himself into an even tighter ball, his joints turning white from the tension.
    “I am not going to hurt you, I promise.”
    “You will hurt me! Everyone always hurts me!”
    “I won’t hurt you. I want to keep you safe.”
    His whimpering and terror lessoned, but his body stayed wrapped in a ball.
    “Everyone hurts me,” he repeated, but his voice wasn’t as terrified.
    “I won’t; I promise.”
    His body unwound from within itself, and he moved his hands from in front of his face to peek out at me. His blue eyes pierced me from behind dark lashes. He removed his hands all the way, looking at me from the ground where he lay. I tried my best to stifle a sob. The boy that lay on the ground was definitely Ryland, but not the Ryland I had shared a cheeseburger with, not the Ryland I last saw. I looked into the face of a much younger Ryland, a Ryland who I stole cars with and snuck into his parent’s pool in the middle of the night. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen. He looked at me in confusion, the lack of recognition evident on his face. My heart plummeted.
    “Who are you?” he asked, his voice catching in between tears.
    “Joclyn,” I answered honestly. “Don’t you remember me?”
    “Joclyn?” His face screwed up in fear. “You’re too old to be Joclyn.”
    I guess he was right; if he was sixteen, he’d remember me at about thirteen.
    “It’s me, Ryland, I promise. I just look a little different.” I gave him a little smile and his body relaxed a little more.
    “How do I know it’s you?”
    “Do you remember when I was ten and we stole the car? Or when I was eleven and we snuck into the swimming pool, and you tried to do a flip and split your head open on the diving board?” His body began to relax with each memory I shared, so I kept going. “Or how about when we first met and you said that my eyes...”
    “Looked like diamonds,” he finished for me.
    “Yeah.”
    “So, it’s really you?”
    “Yes.”
    “And, you’re not going to hurt me?”
    “Never.”
    He unwound himself from off the white floor and sat up, looking around with wide eyes.
    “Where are we?”
    I followed his gaze, wondering how to answer him; I wasn’t sure what to say or how to handle this. Ilyan hadn’t mentioned anything about lost age to me.
    “A special place only we can be...”
    “Where no one can hurt me?”
    “You’re safe with me.” I sat down near him, but far enough away I wouldn’t be tempted to touch him. He looked at me skeptically for a minute before sliding his legs around and bringing his knees to his chest; the movement left a giant smear of blood behind on the ground. I couldn’t take my eyes from it.
    “Why do you look so old?”
    I forced myself to look away from the blood and focus on his face.
    “Magic,” I stated simply. I felt like I was walking on eggshells trying to figure out what to say. But, at sixteen he would know everything, so much more then I even knew now.
    “Magic? What magic?” His voice gave him away. I knew him far too well to know when he was covering something up.
    “You told me about the magic, Ryland. You told me about your kiss.” I had apparently chosen to say the wrong thing to say because he instantly began to panic, his arm flinging around to cover the mark on his shoulder.
    “What kiss? I have no kiss; he took it away from me!” His voice was high and screechy again, the panic ricocheted off the white walls.
    “The kiss, Ryland. The mark on your shoulder. You showed it to me...” I tried in vain to keep my voice even but I knew it didn’t work.
    “He took it away from me!” Ryland screamed again like he hadn’t even heard me. “He called me unworthy! I’m unworthy to bare the kiss. See. See! It’s gone. All Gone!”
    Ryland removed his hand from his back and shoved it toward me, the fingers stretched out in manic desperation. I looked at the hand, at first seeing nothing but white calloused skin until it began to fade and change. I felt the change in me as my heart rate increased; my vision shifted and the fingers were no longer white and