The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 29

Val

For the first time in a while, I dream about a new horror.

I got one night of peaceful oblivion, at least. After spending time with Kye. But now, tonight, a new nightmare has spawned in my hellish mind, and I am trapped in it.

It's frighteningly real. Searing pain blazes through my entire body as a Lychnus-tipped whip collides with my back, over and over again.

Amused voices swirl around me, some familiar, some not, one rising above the rest, smooth and dark and wicked. His voice. The voice that haunts me everywhere I go. The voice I need to erase from the world.

Lips brush against my ear as the whip comes down on my back once again, the pain torturous and overwhelmingly intense. The malicious voice whispers four terrifying words, and as I descend deeper into the darkest pits of agony and endurance, I feel cold metal—more Lychnus—

I sit straight up in bed, breathing heavily. My hands are on my back immediately, my neck. When I feel nothing, I sigh in relief. It was just a dream, Val. Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.

I roll out of bed to walk to the window, surveying the kingdom, wringing my shaking hands together. I must have not been asleep very long, for Trivette is still alight and the streets aren't empty.

After Zyair finished detailing his plan, everyone decided to retire early, for we had much to think about. In short, Kye, Lake, and hopefully Neve will join the spy network and try to find as much useful information as possible, especially regarding the Dark King and his approaching army.

According to what Lake and Neve learned a few nights ago, after we breached the basement under the fighting pits, General Andras gave the order to abandon the basement and move all operations to the Pyrrhos Inn. The owners of the inn are probably either Dark-King sympathizers, being bribed, or being threatened if they're allowing the spies to stay there, for they can't possibly be that inconspicuous.

Every few nights, I'll use my power to blend in with the darkness to sneak to everyone's room and see what they have learned. Because, from what Kye told me that night at the fighting pits, all spies are supposed to stay at inns.

Depending on what we learn and how close Kye, Lake, and Neve are able to get to General Andras, we'll determine how we'll take action. There are many options: poison, an "accident," an ambush, or an outright attack, just to name a few. Whatever the case is, we'll still have the rest of the spy network to deal with, but with their General dead, it shouldn't be too hard to go on a massive killing spree when the time comes.

The biggest risk is the safety of Kye, Lake, and Neve. I'd definitely join the network instead of Kye, but I'm too recognizable, along with Quinn, for I'm sure she's still on the spies' target list. And Zyair....with his pink hair, he'd just draw unwanted attention to himself.

While Kye, Lake, and Neve go to the Pyrrhos Inn to meet with Kye's spy friends, Zyair, Quinn, and I will go to Zyair's parents' house with Aala and Rafal, to secure their passage across the border. Hopefully, that will go smoothly.

I turn away from the window, unsure what to do now. I don't want to go back to sleep, that's for sure. If I listen closely, I can hear muffled voices coming from down the hallway that I make out to be Zyair and Kye. If it were Neve and Quinn, I would probably go join them, even just Zyair or Lake, but not Kye. Definitely not Kye.

Not after the way he pinned me to the wall, the way I stuttered when talking to him, the way I gasped and stopped breathing when his lips brushed my ear. The way my heart kept pounding minutes after Zyair had come downstairs and interrupted....whatever it was we were doing.