Evident by her soaked appearance, Evalaite had just been thrown into the surf by Arius. While amiable for December, the winter night caused her to begin shaking at once.

In response to Tavras’s question, Arius said, “I was just trying to return her to the place where I got her from.” Back to Evalaite, he cast his enraged glare. “I wish that I never would have helped you! I should have kept flying right overhead and ignored your existence.”

“Yes,” Tavras said darkly, walking up behind him, “you really should have.”

“Leave me alone,” Arius said as he shoved past Tavras. “She’s yours again. I am assuming that you want her, or you would not have come. I’m leaving.”

By the looks of his temper, Evalaite was lucky enough to be alive, yet she did not know when to quit. Shouting at his back, she said, “He was better in bed than you!”

Arius wheeled around. “Shut up!” A swipe of red energy went hurtling through the air in Evalaite’s direction.

Despite Tavras being right there and having heard Evalaite for himself, he was too slow in stopping Arius. A blast of water rocketed him towards the tree line, but Arius had already gotten his attack off cleanly.

The scythe traveled to Evalaite. The energized blade cut past her arm, leaving a gouge of red and some golden curls from her head falling to the ground. Other than a graze on her arm and a few hairs sliced away from her head, Evalaite stood there unscathed.

Tavras’s action had done nothing to alter the course of the attack, so that showed the level of Arius’s restraint even when infuriated.

“I am not fighting you right now. I said that I am leaving!” Dripping wet, a cloud of steam lifted from Arius instead. He walked away into the trees without a glance at Val.

If only he had not gone that way, Val would have loved to run away from the beach. Out here, she had to witness Tavras and Evalaite interact.

“Evalaite,” he breathed, “are you all right?” In another splash of water at his feet, Tavras joined Evalaite at her side at once.

There, she had collapsed to the sand. One arm clutched around her injured arm while her body hunkered over herself, trembling. Evalaite rolled herself up and tipped back her head. Raucous laughter started to peel from her lips. “Tav, you came for me. This is so romantic!”

“You are delirious,” Tavras said evenly. His waters floated to encase the side of her arm. “Let me heal the mark that he left upon you.”

“Thank you, my darling.” Her hand lifted up to stroke Tavras’s cheek.

The fact that he did not swat her away made Val want to barf. She could not bear to watch this. Though she felt bad leaving him alone with Evalaite, the mind manipulator, it was not Val’s job to keep him away from her. He had just willing ran to her side himself.

Sharply, Val turned and ran. She would take her chance in the forest with Arius.

While running, her vision became blurry from her rampant emotions. She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “What are these?” she asked down to the watery imprint of tears on her sleeve.

Why did Tavras running to Evalaite’s aid have to hurt her so much? It was just a crush—a stupid crush. Ever since she confessed her feelings to him, Tavras had begun acting mean to her to divert her feelings. She had no reason to like him anymore. He had said directly to her face that she was but a child to him, yet seeing him with the real woman who had once captured his heart burned at hers.

An impact with something hard sent her careening backwards onto her butt. Had Val been so clumsy as to run headlong into a tree? Looking up, she saw something terrible.

The coloration was much too red to be a tree. Despite the bright colors in contrast with the dark forest, Val had just run headlong into Arius’s back. Fate must have designed this moment because it was unlucky beyond what anyone could expect. Of all the spots within the forest, Val had run directly into Arius.

Instinctually, she needed to do something to save herself, so she reached her mind out to his with Keep the Peace. He had his Mind Shield up, but she sent out her largest output of calming energy anyway.

“Ow,” he said lamely as a reaction. Turning around, he offered her a hand up. “Hey there, Val. You need to watch where you are going a little better.” Whether Keep the Peace had worked on him, he seemed amicable enough towards her.

Without taking his hand, she leaped up. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You are having a bad night too.”

“It’s not as bad as yours.” What just came out of Val’s mouth? She had meant to say something sympathetic, but the detachment of her voice sounded cruel even to her own ears. For saying that, she fully expected to receive a blade of energy to the gut.

“Ouch. You do not have to go rubbing it in.” Little humor was present in his voice. Arius looked to the side and folded his arms around his midsection. His slouched shoulders made him look small despite his hulking frame. Arius the Ravager looked sad and insecure.

“I’m sorry. That came out wrong. I meant to say that I’m sorry for you.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want your sympathies.”

They stood in awkward silence for a moment.

Prodding at his mind again, Val determined that he still had his Mind Shield up, so Keep the Peace had never reached his mind at all. His eyes gazed into hers with a knowing look. Of course, Arius could feel the way that she tried to enter his consciousness. While they looked into each other’s eyes, he let his Mind Shield slip away.

Her heart raced a little faster. It was almost like an invitation into his brain, and Val let Keep the Peace roll out of her and into him.

The red light of his irises dimmed away to a dull shade. “This is your ability that you mentioned before: Keep the Peace.” Arius let his eyes fall closed. “It feels nice—the opposite of what I would feel without it.”

Again, a pause fell between them.

“We do not have much time here,” Arius said. His attention drifted to the nearest tree where he spit neatly for no apparent reason. Back to Val, he thrust his open hand out to her. “Come with me.”

Val could feel her eyes bug out of her head. “What? No.”

“You are not going to enjoy being around both Tavras and Evalaite tonight. I am better company, and that is saying everything given my present condition. Take my hand,” he said again. Somehow, despite his ability’s manifestation of literal hate around him, he managed to slap a smile on his face. It was as if he were trying to entice her.

“No,” she insisted. “It would hurt Tavras so much right now if I left him for you.”

Speak of a devil, Tavras’s voice came belting through the forest. “Arius, I will turn this entire forest into a swamp to drown you!” Over that one sentence, his voice drew louder towards their location. At this rate, he would find them at any moment.

“Suit yourself.” Arius drew away his hand. “You might want to back up a few steps. Ask Tavras to put out the flames for me.”

Dumbly, Val staggered a few steps backwards. “You’re not going to fight him right now, are you?” While she forced her output of Keep the Peace beyond its previous capacity, Arius’s Mind Shield closed off the connection between them.

“I’ll check on you later.” Those final words left Arius’s lips. Any other sound was soon drowned out.

The tree that he had spit on erupted into a column of fire. The flames gushed outwards, framing Arius’s body as a silhouette.

He turned and with steady steps, Arius walked directly into the inferno. The light around the fire and his body refracted. With a shattering of energy in glowing, geometric shards, Arius disappeared in a flash. Add teleportation through fire onto his list of abilities because Arius had just done that before her eyes.

Val was left standing alone in the fire’s outpouring heat. For the first time since she left the house tonight, she felt warm.

Tavras arrived beside her and expressed his fury. “Did you just let Arius leave?”

“I’m sorry. Was I supposed to hold him back somehow? Arius asked you to put out the fire.”

“We could let this grow into an entire forest fire for all that I care.”

“Tavras,” Val insisted, “put out the fire!”

“Fine!” With the water that he had brought with him from the ocean, Tavras set to dousing the tree. It took him a whole five seconds to send the tree into a curl of steam and smoke.

The scarred, blackened trunk stood in the middle of healthy trees.

“Well, now that this is done, it is time to head home. I need to go back to the beach for Evalaite first.”

At the mention of her name again, Val’s heart sank. “Is she coming back with us?”

“Of course.”

“I mean, is she going to be staying with us?”

“No,” Tavras said, “though I will want to talk to her before she heads out and send her home with a cloak.”

While the introduction of Evalaite into their home would be unacceptable for however short a time, Val supposed that she would have to endure it. Grumbling in agreement, she followed after Tavras to pick up Evalaite.