Alizarin Crimson by Erica Millard

Author:Erica Millard [Millard, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Novelstone Ink
Published: 2018-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

20

You mention the emptiness you sometimes feel, and that is exactly what I feel myself.

—Vincent van Gogh

I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

“I just want to talk,” Dune said. She wore an immaculate, navy-blue tailored pantsuit that extended to perfect white, wedge-heeled boots.

“Does this talk involve me ending up dead somewhere?” I asked.

“Teenagers,” Dune said, her tone bored. “Always so dramatic.”

“Why are you here then?” I tried to figure out a plan. With the sleek white walls of the museum, not a bit of red was visible anywhere. There was nothing to help me. Maybe that’s why she chose this place.

She didn’t appear hostile, but this was the Aolian world. Who knew what she could do? If worse came to worse I could always break the red inside her body, but my stomach flipped at the idea. It was fundamentally wrong. The blood was the life of all human bodies and using that to hurt went against nature.

“Are you planning on running again?” she asked.

“I was wondering if I would have to hurt you to get away again.” I wanted to sound strong, but I knew I’d never be able to do intentionally.

I’d only been able to control red for a little while, but I’d never realized how secure it made me feel. Now, with the red inside my body all but depleted I was empty, like a jet without fuel. I didn’t know I could miss the feeling of the power in my veins.

She laughed.

Not the reaction I expected.

“It’d be fun to watch you try, but I don’t see much color for you to use here. There is some green outside the window. Why don’t you use that?”

Green. The color of life and serenity. I didn’t know how. Even if I could, there were two thick plates of glass between it and me.

“That’s not what I’m here to talk to you about,” Dune said.

I folded my arms. “I’m not stopping you. Say what you came to say.”

“I came to offer you a position with us,” she said. “Your power is valuable. I think we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“Seeing how I don’t know who you are, and my first experience with you wasn’t exactly what I’d call butterflies and sunshine, that’s not going to happen.”

“You’re so like your father, that same blend of confidence and annoyance,” she said.

“What does my father have to do with anything?”

“Children are always so self-obsessed they never realize that they were born halfway into someone else’s story. I belong to a—how do I say?—different group of Aolians. When your father was alive, he belonged to the same organization. He and I worked toward the same goal.”

“And what was that?”

“That’s confidential,” she said. “Join me and we can make you one of the most powerful Aolians in the world. Do you know how long we’ve been waited for a Colorist?”

“Uh, no thanks.”

“We can protect you,” she said.

“Protect me from what? You’re the only one who wants to hurt me.”

“You don’t seem to realize how valuable you are.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.