Fanemies {Coming... Later?}

2 || Fanning the Flames

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝔀𝓸
𝐹𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐹𝓁𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈

Despair was an all-consuming entity. Garrett had known this. Known how the Daeyas used it to manipulate and bend weaker humans to their will. But Garrett, naïvely he now realized, always believed he would be immune to their ploys.

Wrong. He had been so horribly wrong.

"Garrett!"

Alysia's voice reached him through all of the carnage and war. He raised his head to see her running toward him. Blood streamed down the right half of her face and splattered across her armor. A magical glow permeated from her. So thin, but the only gleam of light in this darkness.

She fell to one knee beside him, brilliant blue eyes frantically searching his face. "Please, don't tell me they've taken your mind."

No, not his mind. Only his spirit. "Alysia," he murmured, and relief swept over her. At least until his next words. "It's Zekel. I saw through the Link. He tried to take on Valherus, and... and..."

Pain. Fear. Both so strong they'd forcibly severed the Link. What was being done to Zekel now?

"Look at me." When Garrett didn't move, Alysia snapped out, "Gods above and below, Garrett, look at me!" She placed a hand on each side of his jaw and forced him to face her.

Her warm touch did something to his nerves that he somehow managed to notice beneath the dark wave of emotion swirling within him. It was foolish. Idiotic. Utterly selfish. But something about the fervent fire in her eyes, the glow of light, and the warmth of her touch working together to burn away the icy dread overtaking him stirred a desire deep within that had no place on the battleground.

Still, he couldn't stop himself from glancing at her lips.

I sit back. I know what comes next. I've outlined this moment multiple times, constantly trying to find a way that satisfied me. I can't say that this way does, but it's the best I've created.

Garrett tries to fight off the need to kiss one of his best friends, but as she talks him out of his despair and inspires him to keep fighting, to search for Zekel, to push the growing invasion out of the country, he cannot do it. He kisses her. She kisses him back. They break apart, and with a reinvigorated spirit, Garrett sets back out to battle his way into the sieged castle.

My editor loved the idea when I showed her. My hands refuse to return to my keyboard, though. They steeple in front of me instead, in strict rebellion.

Seconds tick by. My hands don't move. The words stare back at me from the screen. The cursor blinks, taunting me in its continued position.

According to the laptop's digital clock, three minutes pass before I release a deep sigh.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're in deep lament over a relationship gone wrong."

My eyes lift enough to peer over my laptop while still seeing the accursed screen with the accursed novel that won't write itself. A bitter smile quirks the edges of my lips. "It's something like that, I guess."

Vivian Ross stands in the doorway of the little office area where I've hidden away. A knowing smile lights up her face as she nods to my laptop. "No luck with the book, huh?"

"I am convinced that my precious child has grown up into its rebellious teenage years."

Vivi's smile only grows. "Well, if it helps, you're about to have plenty of distraction."