The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 51

Val

Ignoring Kye, I've found, is much easier when I'm angry with him. Not easy, but easier.

And I have a damn good reason to be angry with him, for he knew he was dying and he didn't tell me. He didn't. Fucking. Tell me.

Lucine could have told me, too, before I even saw Kye in the first place that night, two weeks ago, at the Pyrrhos, but no. She didn't tell me, not until almost a week later. And she didn't even mean to tell me; she thought I already knew. She just wanted to know how the hell Kye was alive, and I asked why he wouldn't be, and she told me that General Andras injected Lychnus into his veins as a form of torture. Fucking Lychnus.

I had thought that Kye....what happened to him happened because he had pushed himself too far, used too much of his magic. I had thought that it was basically my fault, because he used the last of his magic to protect me, to keep the flames in the Pyrrhos at bay so I wasn't burned alive.

I was wrong. He was already....already living on borrowed time.

If I had just known....if I had just known that he was dying....

Dying.

Dead.

The anger quickly turns to something else, something that hurts.

My traitorous hands are shaking again as I arrange some of my daggers on the dining room table because the image of Kye dead in that alleyway has entered my mind again, just like it does every time I'm near him, and it takes every ounce of control that I have not to look at him, not to reassure myself that he is indeed alive. It's torture, but I can already feel his eyes on me, trembling fingers and all, and I know if I allow myself to meet his gaze now then I'm going to lose whatever game I'm trying to make myself play.

A game of avoidance and harsh words and carefully spoken lies, all so I can avoid the truth.

Of course, Kye and I are the only ones downstairs now, because Zyair insisted that he and the others go up to the roof to watch the streets and see if any spies might come looking for the man I dragged here. Also, apparently, he wasn't in the "mood" to watch some torture, claiming that he already hears enough screams in his nightmares, and not the "good kind".

I'm debating on telling Kye to go up to the roof too, tell him that I can easily torture this man by myself. But I already made a point of saying we'd torture information out of him together, all because of a cruel idea that surfaced in my mind.

I really am a horrible person.

"A monster."

The Occisor's voice reminds me of those desperate, agonizing minutes in that alleyway two weeks ago, and my hand instinctively tightens around the knife I'm holding. My thumb presses into the sharp blade, and blood drips, but I barely register the pain.

Kye's voice comes from behind me, low and with a hint of warning. "Val."

I want to whip around and shove him against the wall and hold this knife to his throat and demand to know why he didn't bother telling me that he was dying.

Instead I force myself to let go of the knife and place it back on the table. I wipe the blood from my thumb, leaving a dark stain on my white shirt, then turn around and walk right past Kye and over to the spy tied to the chair in the middle of the room. He's still unconscious, but should awaken any minute now based on the amount of time that has passed.

I recognized the man from the early days I spent as Manar's trophy prisoner. He was one of the many guards tasked with escorting me around the castle to do various things, like watch as all of Vance's possessions were burned or feed the caged crows the Dark King claimed had fed on Coryza's rotting body. I'd guess he was sent to Trivette when General Andras was, to be a member of his guard in the enemy kingdom.