The Nova Ranker - The Sword Almighty

Chapter 26. A Talking, Legendary Piece of...

After picking our way out of the ruined halls of Gideon's temple, we found ourselves back in the desert. It was midnight, according to Avi. We got into the car and Avi, with one thought, sent us hurtling through the desert, towards Tel Aviv.

As the car moved, Franziska made a big show of pointing to the seat beside me. "Mind if I sleep with you tonight?"

That may have come out differently than she intended but I just nodded and shuffled to give her more space. It was the first time since the plane ride to Israel where we got a chance to really sit together in relative privacy.

"I wanna talk to you about what happened at the warehouse." She cut to the chase quickly and turned to me, giving me the side eye as if she was expecting me to do something weird.

"A lot of things happened back there." I reminded her, looking down to my shoes.

"I'm talking about what happened before Olivia... did what she did to Calev." She turned to face me, raising her eyebrow a little. "What happened to you? You went ballistic. If I hadn't stopped you, you would've killed her."

I kept my eyes focused on the tips of my sneakers. At the moment I couldn't remember much of what had happened. I just remembered a seething fury, and my throat being raw from screaming. "I... I'm not sure. It's the same thing that happened with Loggins. I got so mad I couldn't control myself. It was like I went into a... murder autopilot."

Franny took a few minutes to explain exactly what happened. About my sword creating puffs of cold air, and the place getting significantly colder as I swung my blade. It felt unreal and far away but it did sound like something I'd do in a fit of anger.

By the time she was done, all I could do was stare at my belt and wonder, if I had done all that damage, if I had frozen an entire warehouse on my own... would I be even more dangerous with the Sword Almighty? The thought made me nervous.

"Something else happened with Olivia." Franny mentioned as she leaned into my shoulder, knocking me out of my worried state. She looked troubled, lightly drumming her fingers on her leg. "I think she got inside my dreams as well."

"What happened in your dream?" I tried not to feel nervous. I still felt bad for withholding information about the dream from Franziska.

"She told me she was sorry about..." she waved her arms vaguely. "Calev, the warehouse, everything."

"That's what she did with me." I confirmed, putting my arm around Franny and sighing. "And you felt almost too sorry for her, right? Like she wasn't a liar and a murderer?"

"... you're not reading my mind right now, are you?"

"Wouldn't dare." I promised, tapping my index finger to my forehead and nodding. "It's just what she did to me."

"... Did she kiss you too?" I tried to not appear frazzled by the question but I assume the look of panic in my eyes was enough of an answer for Franny. "Yeah... me too."

I thought about this for a moment. Then two. And then I frowned. "... she... kissed you? Why?"

"She said something about wanting to... try something different before she left." She looked away but I noticed her face had gone very red.

"... I think she was trying to pull something funny there." I looked through the window again. "She... it's no coincidence that she kissed us both right?"

"You think she might be trying to separate us somehow?" Franny put her hand on top of mine.

"Yeah." I nodded and turned to her, shifting my hand to hold hers. "Maybe she's trying to get us to fight."