The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 50

Kye
2 WEEKS LATER

Val and Lucine are screaming at each other again.

Their "disagreements" started this week, and happen nearly every other morning, as if the first thing Val wants to do when she wakes up is go and threaten to beat the shit out of our unlikely Rurikan guest.

The first week after the Pyrrhos burnt down was much calmer, because most of us were resting and recovering. My magic was more drained than it had ever been, along with Quinn's and Neve's as well. Val's darkness was drained too, but she could also barely put any weight on her ankle, and based off of the few times she resolved to come out of her room, the way she avoided putting pressure on her right side made it clear that she had a bruised rib or two. Lucine and Zyair seemed mostly fine, and they had no problem with spending most of the week relaxing and interacting with one another as little as possible.

It was, surprisingly, Zyair's idea to let her stay here. She had helped us, after all, and she still possessed lots of valuable information we needed to know. And after waking up feeling half-dead in an alleyway, I wasn't in much of a position to disagree.

Now I sometimes think that I should have, for Quinn hates Lucine, blaming her for her grandmother's death, and Val seems to hate her too for some unknown reason. Neve mostly ignores her, but she's been quiet in general though since I told her about Lake's "traitorous" death. Zyair is the only one of my friends who is amiable around her, even though her brother killed his parents. Neither of them have spoken about that, and I don't think they intend to, especially because Lucine is convinced that Arden is still alive, that somehow, Rurik's Goddess, Terra, saved him. And when Val is not shouting at her, she says that she believes her, which I think may be one of the reasons shel has been going "out" every day this week, claiming that even though we agreed to lay low for a bit, she can go out into the streets because she can just remain undetectable in the shadows of the alleyways.

But everyone living in my house knows the real reason she spends all day out in the streets, rain or shine: It makes it so much easier for her to avoid me.

Just me. She has no problem speaking to or looking at any of my other friends, but when it comes to me, it's the worst thing in the world. Even Lucine, who she seems to loathe with all of her being, gets hateful glances and angry words, while I get nothing. Nothing, as if she wasn't the one who ran through the flames at the Pyrrhos to get to me. As if she wasn't the one who kissed me like the world was ending. As if she wasn't the one I used the last of my strength to carry out of the burning inn.

She'll fight with the girl she hates, yet she won't even look at me, and I have no fucking idea why.

I drop my head into my hands, listening to her unintelligible, accusing shouts echoing down the stairs. I'm sitting at the card table, supposed to be dealing the next hand to continue playing with Neve, but all I can do is stare at the beige, smooth surface of the table, wishing I knew what I did to make Val shut me out like she has.

Lucine screams something back at Val, her tone unmistakably taunting, clearly edging her on, as if she wants Val to snap and break her nose.

Quinn sighs in annoyance from where she flips through an old newspaper on the sofa. "I'm not healing Lucine if Val stabs her."

Neve looks away from the window and leans back in her chair so that she can stare up at the ceiling. "What's the problem with those two anyway? They didn't hate each other like that when we used to meet at the fighting pits."

Zyair's eyes slowly slide up from the book he's reading--some kind of love story, I think. "From what I've gathered, Val isn't very happy with Lucine because she didn't tell her something that she should have told her."