Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,21
of the hotel. But you weren't there. Only Varun...”
“You saw him again?” Chance evaded my eyes.
“Of course I did – he lives there!” But I knew that Chance's words were not rational. In his eyes I could see that he was jealous. Had he gotten wind of Varun's words to me by the linen closet? Had he gotten the wrong impression? “Things are a little awkward between us right now,” I said, trying to explain.
“I'm sorry to hear it...” This wasn't the Chance I knew. This was the arrogant, cold Chance of old. What had happened to make him change in this way.
“I told him I wasn't interested,” I said, trying to laugh – to make it all into a joke. “Don't worry. You don't have to be jealous. He knows I'm with you. He'll keep away from me now.”
“There's no need,” he said grimly. “You shouldn't have to worry about me.” His eyes were dark, almost black.
“What's going on, Chance?” I put out a hand, touching his shoulder lightly; he instinctively recoiled. “Are you angry at me or something?”
“No,” he turned away, saying nothing.
“Well, something's up!”
“What makes you say that?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You're acting strange.”
“Strange how?”
“Like you're angry.”
“I already told you I wasn't.” His voice told a different story. “Why don't you believe me?” His insouciant tone infuriated me. This was the Chance that drove me crazy when we first met – too proud to trust in feeling.
“Well, I'm angry,” I couldn't help saying, feeling the color come to my cheeks.
“Why?”
“Because!” I cried. “I came to see you and you're acting like you don't even know me! I'm your girlfriend, for goodness's sake!”
“Yes,” Chance said glumly. “You are.”
“And you don't get to turn the emotion on and off whenever you want to!” I sighed. “I thought we were past this, Chance.”
“I thought so too!” he roared back, and I saw the first spark of emotion in him. “Or at least – I hoped we were.”
“So what? Are you jealous of Varun?”
“It's not Varun...” Chance sighed. “It's...Misty...”
“Misty?” My jealousy of her friendship with Chance had evaporated the moment she revealed to me her true form: that of a wrinkled old crone. “What does Misty have to do with anything?”
“She had a vision,” Chance said. “A vision – and a warning. She told me that I was holding on to you too tightly, that my love for you...that my feelings....I'm putting you at risk, Mac. I'm holding you back from finding the stones.”
“How?”
“Misty – she told me. She said that if I loved you, I'd have to let you go. To risk losing you...to him.”
“To whom?”
“Varun,” his voice was ice-cold with hatred. “Vesta's clever, Mac. She hid the stones somewhere I'd never be able to reach. Somewhere only she could go. In the depths of the sea. Where her lover Neptune could go – and Mars could not.”
“And you think this means I love Varun?”
“I think it means that Vesta wanted him to accompany her – and not Mars.”
“I'm not Vesta!” I sighed. “I mean – if I am Vesta...I'm not the Vesta of a thousand years ago. I'm me. What I feel is my business, not hers.”
“I must let you go – fulfill your destiny. If you still love me...once you've found the stones.”
“I do love you.” I leaned in and kissed him – a soft, tender kiss. He relaxed into my arms. “That much I can promise you.” My kiss seemed to quell his fears. I stroked his ebony-black hair and held him in my arms.
He pulled away. “I know you say that now...”
“But you're still worried?”
He nodded. “It's dangerous, Mac. Finding these stones. In order to find the next one, you'll have to go to a cave so deep and dark in the ocean's depths – a cave protected by the Water clan. You'll need to go with Varun, Mac, or else you'll never make it.”
“And you don't trust me with him?”
“I don't trust him. I lost you to him once before; I won't do that again.”
“I’m yours, Chance,” I said softly.
“I wish I could believe that,” Chance sighed. “I'm jealous by nature, Mac. It's in my blood. And I've seen you vanish from me before. For him.”
“But if I am Vesta...” I whispered, holding his hand. “I came back. I left Varun – that's what Haven said. That Vesta left Neptune because she still loved Mars.”
Chance's eyes darkened. “Then where is she now? If she really came back to me?”
“I don't know.”
“If you start to feel...whatever