Madeleine usually found herself angry with people for reasons that would be considered unfair by anyone else. If asked, she would point out in a manner that was not exactly polite that fairness had absolutely sod all to do with her emotional reaction to any given situation. As much as she hated to be called irrational – and even more that it was put down to her gender – Fire was not an element suited to rational thinking, as any idiot with half a brain could figure out. Any ability she might have had to remove herself from the situation and think about it all rather more calmly had been destroyed when Zaviar or the definite lack thereof became involved. ‘Well now he is stood right there. Calm down. Or at least try to breathe.’ The snake needed to shut up before Madeleine went to find her and took a stiletto heel to her tail. ‘You wouldn’t—’ Oh, just you try me. It really wasn’t anybody’s fault at all that Zaviar’s reappearing seemed to have pressed all the wrong buttons. Althea merely chimed in with a ‘Blame the terrorists.’ Quite. But that didn’t give Zaviar the right to just stand there almost as though nothing had happened when something quite obviously had. And she would burn the bastards responsible. ‘You don’t know who they are.’ Which was utterly beside the point.
“Upset.” Zaviar’s answer somewhat deflated Madeleine’s righteous fury. He didn’t get upset; a fact which anyone who had a vaguely decent head on their shoulders should have known. To go from what she imagined to have seemed his usual self to strangling Antonin was not the same thing. That was—Well, it was sensible in her mind, but then the Grays were not known for wanting the black-blooded moron alive. Still, she was wondering if she and Zaviar had a different definition of the word ‘upset’ when she glanced over him again and recalled her own reaction. She had threatened to set a child on fire. Would have gone through with it as well had the girl not immediately left her well alone. ‘Sometimes I wonder if I should be disturbedworriedconcerned.’ Madeleine was thoroughly ignoring her familiar. A furious elemental could turn their element against you, yes, but that tended to leave themselves unscathed. For Zaviar to lose control and shift? She cared nothing for anybody who may have been bitten or killed – they should have moved out of the way faster – but the damage he may have done to himself on top of the explosion? “Oh.” She deflated further. That was not something she could direct her anger at. It was not his fault, nor was it hers. Forcing the harder lines in her face to soften, Madeleine tried her best to stop looking quite so much like she wanted to slap him. Which she didn’t. Not anymore. “Ah—Yes, that looks like a burn. I don’t suppose I would have fared much better had I not been, well, me. I woke up on fire. Sit down if you’re tired. I’ve sat long enough—” ‘She’s lying. She was pacing.’ “For Christ’s sake, I’ll pace if I like.” On an aching ankle, but that was beside the point. ‘You make no sense.’ It couldn’t be clearer that the elemental didn’t care. Having Zaviar closer again had caused that fear to leap back into her throat in a knot that was thankfully in the past tense. I thought you were dead. There. She could think it now that she knew he wasn’t, but she would be damned if she was saying it out loud. “No, not really. A few scrapes and aches, that’s all. I think I was saved from the worst by the people around us – and immune to the rest,” she added with a shrug of one shoulder. She wasn’t concerned about herself just then, which even Althea was agreeing was a rarity. Zaviar had her attention. “Can I get you anything?” Part of her itched to just fix any and all of his injuries. She didn’t give a damn that he could heal perfectly well himself.
Althea paused to consider that for a moment. ‘Apparently humanoids think farfarfar too much during a crisis… Or these two are special cases and we are unfortunate? It’s like someone put at least three Madeleines in one Madeleine-head.’