The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 26

Kye

Val has been sleeping for two days, and we're all getting anxious. The look on her face right before she passed out, after Quinn healed her—it was a look of pure horror.

And all of us are beginning to guess why. Because if the Dark King has been capturing all of the Gifted, and the Gifted can hurt Val....it doesn't seem like a coincidence. Not at all.

Things have been very tense around here. We've all spotted Rurikan spies watching from nearby rooftops, and it's quickly become an unspoken rule that we all must stay inside unless we're heading into the streets and will stay around the public.

Lake, Neve, and Zyair have been heading out the most, mostly to see how things are, especially at the fighting pits. With what they have observed, the spies have practically abandoned the place. I guessed that the Pyrrhos Inn is where the spies have been converging, and with a bit of spying, Lake and Neve confirmed it.

Once Val wakes, we will form some sort of plan. Half of it will have to do with taking down the spy network, and I have a feeling that my affiliations with Crooked Nose and Missing Tooth will be of use, judging by the scheming gleam in Zyair's eyes when I told him of their offer to me. The other half will have to concern Aala and Rafal. We need to get them across the heavily guarded border to Asilo. To safety.

The two Gifted have been grateful and kind to all of us. Neve has been helping Quinn heal Rafal's leg, which will definitely be an obstacle in whatever plan we form. Quinn cannot heal him, for that is the Gifted's curse: they cannot heal themselves, or one another. They've been staying in my father's old room, at the very end of the far upstairs hallway. Rafal was a private teacher before he was captured, and to pass the time now, he's been using some of Zyair's books to school Aala in the evenings.

Aala has been a source of laughter and smiles for all of us. She'll clamber into Lake's lap, steal Zyair's books, and beg me to show her my fire. I can't help but comply. She also asks about Val. All the time. It's almost as if she thinks about her as much as I do.

But I doubt that.

Because I think about her all the damn time.

And it's not as if I've spent every night for the past two days sitting at her bedside, unable to sleep. Not at all.

Neve insists that she's been sleeping for so long because she is drained and needs the rest, which I understand. But I'm still worried.

I'm worried she'll wake up and have no idea where she is. Like when she was hallucinating in the alleyway, thinking she was somewhere else. Somewhere with Manar. And she was afraid of him hurting her.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, what I'd like to do to Manar, whoever he is. I'd very much like to kill him. Burn him alive, preferably. But slowly. Very slowly. Slow enough that he could feel every moment of the pain.

Just like how I killed the spy who choked Val in that alleyway two nights ago, once Lake and I had killed all the others. His hands, wrapped around her neck, the choking, gasping sound that escaped her throat, the words he said to her....

My hands curl into fists, and fire boils in my veins. Across the room, lying on the couch, Zyair raises a questioning brow at me. "If you want to set something on fire, please do it somewhere else. I'm trying to read."

I scowl at him, and he grins playfully for a moment before sinking into deep thought. Aala and her father went upstairs a few minutes ago, so it's me and my friends now, with Zyair reading, and Quinn sitting silently, staring out the window. Ever since losing her grandmother and unintentionally hurting Val, she's been very quiet. None of us know what to say to her.