Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,93

guest.”

Mathieu swallowed and cast a fearful look at Solomon who subtly nodded. Shaking slightly, he took a deep breath and lifted his hands to his hood, letting it fall back. His hair had faded by to its normal white and he looked at Enak’s saucer but didn’t move from standing by the window.

The boy stared at him for a long time, during which Mathieu didn’t move an inch. It was like Enak was pinning him with his gaze, keeping him rooted to the spot. “What is your name?”

Frowning, the answer seemed to come out without his permission. “My name is Mathieu.” He pushed his hair back and scurried to stand behind Solomon.

Standing and moving around the table, Enak touched Solomon’s shoulder to keep him seated and stopped in front of Mathieu. “Why wasn’t I told that you two had brought a third?” He asked, not looking at either man he was addressing. “I sensed him not long after you entered, yet you concealed him from me. Do you not trust me?” A spark of energy stopped Enak’s hand from touching Mathieu as it reached out, causing the boy’s eyes to go wide. “What a peculiar talent. I need to consider this development. See yourselves out.”

Solomon pushed Enak back and took Mathieu’s hand, dragging him out of the room. Mathieu cast a look back at the younger male who was still as a statue before the blond practically forced him to run out of the Sky Pillar. As soon as they were out in the fresh air, the blond stopped, looking around in a paranoid way.

“Solomon, what’s wrong? What happened?” Mathieu said, clutching the man’s wrist.

“Instinct.”

“That’s a rather unhelpful answer.” Mathieu huffed, nose wrinkled. But it did him no good. Solomon didn’t say a word until Nathan exited out the front door and mounted his tuvash. The blond grabbed him and forced him onto their shared stead and followed the redhead away from the tower at a breakneck speed.

~*~

The sun was setting over the mountain when they stopped in a gully for the night. Nathan started a fire and Solomon set up their bedrolls. Standing around awkwardly, Mathieu watched the other two. “I-I’m really sorry. It’s my f-fault that things didn’t g-go right, isn’t it?” Unwanted tears welled in his eyes and he had to turn away or risk showing them. It was so stupid of him to being getting emotional over this, but he couldn’t stop it. A few silent tears rolled down his cheeks before he could stem them. The one thing that they had asked him to do, stay hidden, he had failed at.

“I’m going to go check out the perimeter.” Solomon’s voice was as icy as it had originally been with Enak, only now it wasn’t aimed at anyone and washed over Mathieu as if directed at him. The blond walked away from their encampment, leaving Nathan and Mathieu alone.

With a sigh, Nathan sat on the ground beside the fire. “Don’t blame yourself, Mathieu. You didn’t do anything wrong. Solomon has an analytical mind, so when he overlooks things like your hair on his shirt, he rakes himself over the coals. He’ll be okay in a while.”

Mathieu nodded. somewhat thankfully, and sat beside Nathan. “He’s mad at me though, isn’t he?” He wiped his eyes.

“Hm, a bit, I think; although, I haven’t the faintest idea why.”

Looking away from Nathan, Mathieu let his hair fall forward over his shoulders. “Something kind of happened.”

“Oh?”

“He and I kissed while we were staying at the inn.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “I already heard. He was acting like he’d committed a cardinal sin. So you two are attracted to each other, it happens. Still doesn’t give him a reason to act like a child. If you killed Mina, I could see him being upset, but not over a kiss.” Nathan said the word in an overly exaggerated way, clearly mocking the situation.

Mathieu lay back in the grass and yawned. “I guess you’re right…” He said, closing his eyes. The stars were beautiful, but with the sudden rudeness of Solomon, he didn’t want to look at them.

Nathan left him alone for a few minutes before clearing his throat. “Hey, are you hungry?”

“Yeah, actually.” Now that the man mentioned food, he was starving. He hadn’t eaten since that morning. Mathieu sat up with a grunt, folding his legs under him. “We brought some stew, right? I’ll heat it up.” Going to the packs and digging through them, he got out a pan and set to