Heart of Ice and Stone

Chapter 15

 I wake up, a hazy field surrounding my vision. Two girls from Pinata Academy rush to my side, helping me sit up. "What happened?" I ask, rubbing my eyes. I'm asking this way too often.

Andre stands in front of the foot of my bed. 'You were sedated by one of the guards while Zander held you back."

"Where's Zander?" I scramble out of the bed.

One of the girls from Pinata says, "He's okay, he just collapsed on his bed." She moves, revealing a Zander sleeping on his side. I sit next to him.

Liang asks quietly, "Did you mean what you said before?"

"What?" I look up. Everyone's staring at me, practically flinching away.

"About us being human beings? That's we're like you?" His voice is almost shy.

I stare at them, confused. "Are you human beings?"

In the younger kids, I see eyes light up, but the older kids' eyes dim, as if in disappointment.

Andre pats Liang's shoulder. "Come on, it's time to go to dinner."

The girl from China comes up to me. Mei, I recall. "Are you going to come to dinner?"

I glance at Andre, who shakes his head. I tell her gently, "I think I'm going to stay with Zander, okay?"

"Do you want me to bring back some food?"

I blink. "Thank you."

She leaves, waving back at me. I wave back. When the door closes behind the other kids, I hit Zander's arm. "Stop pretending."

He rubs his arm, turning to face me. "I thought I was pretty convincing." I roll my eyes. "How's your leg?"

"Well, fighting you didn't help," I grumble.

His arm loosely wraps around me, his fingers drumming against my stomach. "Forgive me?"

"I'll think about it." He sits up next to me.

"Did you mean it? That I'm a human being like you?"

I say, incredulous, Why is it such a big deal? It's not like you all are robots or something-,"

His mouth finds mine, hot and feverish, his hands leaving a trail of wildfire as they skim over my skin. He presses me back against the bed, his knee next to my side as my arms loop around him. His kiss devours me before his lips trace a path down my cheek and throat. "Zander," I gasp, when his fingers dig into my collarbone.

He kisses the corner of my mouth. "Kirsi," he whispers, against my mouth. "Are you scared of me?"

My hands tangle in his hair. "No."

His eyes are frantic. "I am."

. . .

"He will arrive at the scene in about half an hour," Zander tells me. We're sitting on a rooftop with the city lights illuminating the dark. We're wearing black outfits with a bow and quiver of arrows lying in between us.

Zander drove us to the city and we checked into a hotel today. We're supposed to stay for the festival tomorrow before leaving the next day to divert suspicion.

"How often do these missions occur?" My voice is soft and light, trying to cover the dread growing in me outside.

He doesn't look at me, watching the city lights instead. "We only send someone when the Academy is discovered by a human. Otherwise, we usually destroy any evidence."