Read Online Embers & Ice (Rouge) by Isabella Modra - Free Book Online Page B

What’s your power?”
    Hunter
told her about the fire. Benji put his book down slowly with his lips parted in
awe.
    “It
must be frustrating to have a raging fire burning inside of you and not have
the ability to set it free,” said Ryo almost sadly.
    “What’s
your story Benji?” Hunter asked, craving a change of subject.
    “I’m
f-from Sy-Sydney, in Australia.” He dog-eared the already creased page in Peter
Pan as Ryo climbed over the back of the armchair and took a seat at their
table. “I used to live with my f-family outside the city in a place called
Liverpool. M-my family was big and my parents worked two jobs to k-keep us fed.
They didn’t care that I was being b-b-bullied in school. One time I was walking
h-home and… this group of year six kids started chasing me. I was running and…
I don’t know h-how it happened but suddenly things were flying past me and then
I was… home. My legs ached, b-but I’d just made five k-kilometers in fifty
seconds. I outran the bullies.” Benji was smiling at the memory, until he
dropped his head and all joy was lost in his tone. “That’s actually when my
parents started noticing me. ‘Wh-why don’t you have any bruises on you Benji?
Wh-why are you home so early Benji?’ So I t-told them. They didn’t know what to
do. My d-dad started telling people at the office, and pretty soon the Agents
arrived. My p-parents sent me here on a contract basis of one y-year, meaning
they could v-visit me when they needed to. I was six.”
    “Did
they come back?” asked Hunter.
    Benji
fiddled with the corner of his unbuttoned sleeve. Hunter had to lean forward to
hear what he was saying. “Once I was g-gone, my parents found it easier to
live. They didn’t have to pay for my education or f…food or other things. They
saw it as a b-blessing. So no-” He looked directly into her eyes and whispered
in an empty tone, “They haven’t visited me since.”
    “I’m
sorry,” said Hunter almost automatically, her heart breaking for him. Benji’s
soft blue eyes were wide like a small child needing hope. “Your parents will
realize what a big mistake they’ve made leaving you here, if they haven’t
already.”
    Benji
started to smile, but then his shoulders slumped. “I wish I knew somehow.”
    Hunter
wanted to be honest with the boy, to tell him that she wasn’t psychic or that
his parents might not even miss him at all. They were all abandoned, just like
her. But Benji was young, and that meant he still had innocence and joy hidden
somewhere in his heart.
    And
for the first time since the rain in the warehouse fell upon her and washed
away the angry fire, Hunter heard her mother’s words fresh in her mind, almost
as if she had finally stepped away from darkness and into the warmth of the
sun.
    “Just
have a little faith,” she said to Benji gently. He clutched his book tighter,
his eyes brightening even more so. “For when there is nothing else, there is
always faith to cling onto.”
    Benji
glanced down at the book in his hands. “Faith… like Peter?”
    She
nodded. “Exactly.”
    As
both Ryo and Benji smiled, and the cold, empty room around them glowed just a
little brighter, Hunter felt the comfort of her mother’s words. It made the
terror of the institution that much more bearable.

 
    ELEVEN
     
    I’m
dead.
    Holy
shit, I’m dead. No matter how many times I repeat that in my mind, it still
doesn’t seem real.
    This
is what death feels like: stiff limbs, stinging skin, rasping breath and
interminable cold. The world is black, so I’m either passing through to the
‘Great Beyond’, or I’m waiting to be cast into hell.
    So
what will it be, Eli? Eternal darkness or burning?
    Darkness,
definitely. Burning would be horribly painful. But then… would the loneliness
be more tormenting?
    Eli
lay there, battling with his conscience about which choice to make, when a
blinding pain slashed through his body from the tip of his head down the length
of his