Close enough to burn
1218 Words
The mansion didn’t sleep anymore.
Since Zariah awakened, the walls pulsed with quiet energy, as if the place had waited for her all this time. Lamps flickered without wind. Doors opened when she passed. The halls whispered when no one spoke.
But she was changing too.
By the fifth day of training, she could feel magic humming beneath her skin no longer like fire raging out of control, but like a tide waiting to rise. Her fingers tingled with energy. Her body moved sharper. She slept less. Dreamed more.
And Raye… Raye watched her differently now.
Not with caution. With curiosity.
Sometimes, with something else Zariah couldn’t name. Something hot.
“Again,” Raye said.
The sun hadn’t risen yet. They were in the training chamber, the stone still cool with night. Zariah’s palms burned gold as she summoned her bloom energy, aiming it toward the target on the far wall.
But this time, she didn’t just release it.
She shaped it.
A golden vine spiraled from her arm, shot forward, and split the stone target clean in two.
Zariah let out a breath. “Told you I’m learning.”
Raye stepped closer. She wore all black again tank top, combat pants, her braid pulled tight down her back. A light sheen of sweat gleamed on her collarbone. Her jaw was tense, lips slightly parted.
Zariah tried not to look too long.
Raye walked around her slowly. “You’re not just learning. You’re adapting. Fast. Too fast.”
“Is that a problem?”
Raye stopped in front of her. “It’s a warning. Your body’s evolving ahead of your mind. That’s how mistakes happen.”
Zariah crossed her arms. “You sound like you want me to slow down.”
“I want you to survive.”
Zariah’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you care so much if I live?”
The question hung heavy in the chamber.
Raye didn’t answer.
Instead, she stepped even closer.
Their chests nearly touched.
Zariah’s pulse jumped. She didn’t back away.
Raye’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I told you before. You’re wildfire. Beautiful. Destructive. Unstoppable. But even wildfire needs something to burn.”
Zariah’s breath hitched. “And what if I burn you?”
Raye’s eyes didn’t leave hers. “Then I’ll burn with you.”
For one long, silent moment, neither moved.
Then Raye stepped back. The moment snapped like a pulled thread.
“Again,” she said.
Zariah smiled.
And lit the room gold.
They trained until sunrise.
Zariah’s power control improved drastically. She could now form shields, short-range weapons from vines, and hold her bloom energy longer without collapsing.
But the cost was hunger. Constant. Deep.
After training, Raye led her to the rooftop garden that overlooked the city.
They sat in silence, passing a bottle of water between them. Zariah leaned back on her elbows, sweat drying on her neck, her pulse still racing.
“You said this was your family’s home once,” she said.
“It was. Before it was erased.”
“Did they know? What I’d become?”
Raye was quiet for a long time. Then: “There were rumors. Of one surviving seed. But no one could prove it.”
Zariah stared out at the skyline. “Did you ever think it would be me?”
Raye looked at her. “No.”
Zariah smiled faintly. “Why not?”
Raye’s gaze was steady. “Because no one warned me you’d be this dangerous. Or this... alive.”
They sat quietly.
The sun crested the buildings in the distance, turning the sky gold.
Zariah turned to Raye. “I dream about her almost every night now.”
“The Bloom Queen?”
“Yeah. Sometimes she speaks. Sometimes she just... watches.”
“She’s watching to see what you’ll become.”
“You say that like I have a choice.”
“You do. That’s what scares them.”
Zariah met her eyes. “Does it scare you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Raye hesitated. Then said softly, “Because I want to see what happens when you stop holding back.”
Zariah’s heart thudded.
The silence between them thickened.
She reached out, almost without thinking brushed her fingers along Raye’s jaw.
It was bold. Stupid. Dangerous.
But Raye didn’t pull away.
For a moment, it felt like the city paused. Like even the sky was waiting.
Then Raye caught her wrist gently.
“Not yet.”
Zariah nodded slowly.
“But you want to.”
“Yes.”
Later that day, the mansion received its first visitor.
An old man cloaked in gray, hunched, eyes like smoke appeared at the gates without warning.
Raye was instantly on edge.
“You stay inside,” she told Zariah.
“I’m not hiding.”
“You don’t need to. He’s not here for you.”
“Then who”
Raye opened the doors before she could answer.
The man bowed low. “Warden Raye.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I warned you what would happen if you let the seed live.”
“She’s not a seed. She’s a flame.”
His gaze flicked toward the hallway where Zariah stood. “Then we’ll extinguish her.”
Raye’s hand twitched near her blade.
“If you try, I’ll burn your house to the ground,” she said coldly.
The man smiled. “You already did.”
Then he vanished literally. Gone in a blink of shadow and mist.
Zariah stepped forward. “Who was that?”
“One of the Circle’s hounds. Testing the fence.”
“So they’re coming.”
Raye turned to her. “They never stopped.”
That night, Zariah couldn’t sleep.
Her body ached. Her mind spun. Every word from the Circle echoed in her skull.
She walked the halls barefoot, letting the mansion’s whispers guide her.
Eventually, she found herself in the upper library. Dust clung to the books. Moonlight pooled on the floor. But the moment she entered, she felt it the hum of memory.
She crossed to an old painting.
The Bloom Queen again. But younger.
She reached out
Raye’s voice broke the silence. “Couldn’t sleep either?”
Zariah turned. Raye leaned against the doorframe, barefoot, wearing just a dark shirt and lounge pants.
It was the most unguarded Zariah had ever seen her.
“No,” Zariah said softly. “Too much in my head.”
Raye stepped closer. “The weight doesn’t go away. You just get stronger beneath it.”
Zariah looked at her. Really looked.
“You say you were raised to kill me. And now you’re protecting me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Raye paused.
Then closed the distance between them.
She didn’t touch her. Not yet. But she stood close. Close enough to burn.
“Because every time I look at you, I see the end of everything I was forced to believe.”
Zariah’s breath caught.
“And what do you see now?”
Raye’s lips parted.
“Someone I don’t want to lose.”
The air shifted.
Zariah reached up touched Raye’s hand. Just a brush. But it was enough.
Raye curled her fingers around hers.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
And for once, the silence was perfect.
- Writer
