Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vil
I’d heard enough. There was no point listening to more.
Angrily, I pulled away from the door and walked down the hallway, leaving Vanessa alone. Just how she wanted.
A large part of me said it was a mistake. That I should go in there and fight for her, for what I knew to be correct. We were meant to be. Fate told me that.
She doesn’t care about fate. Not the way you do. She doesn’t believe in it.
The words she spoke over the phone still burned, slicing deep. It hurt to know that she thought I was “a mistake” and that she’d made a bad decision by allowing herself to be with me. Especially so soon after things had taken an amazing upswing for the better.
I went up to the roof and sat on the edge, taking deep breaths as the minutes and then hours ticked away. The moon swung through the sky, and the sun began to rise. But still, I couldn’t stay calm.
I curled my fingers, the memory of her skin under them a bitter pill to swallow, knowing I’d had her so close, yet now she was so far.
Was the situation even fixable? Would I ever again experience that euphoric feeling of trust and closeness we’d shared, or had I lost it, a high I would chase for the rest of my life but never be able to recreate?
My grip continued to tighten as I fed into my anger. Steel rose to cover my skin, the metal groaning from the force of my clenching.
“God-King,” I cursed. I needed to blow off some steam and some energy.
Prowling through the corridors, it didn’t take long for me to find who I was looking for.
“Vil? What’s wrong?” Cruce asked, shooting to his feet from where he was lounging on the couch, book in hand. “Everything okay?”
“Sparring room,” I grunted. “If you’re up for it.”
Cruce looked me up and down, then shrugged. “Sure, but I’m not going easy on you. Not with that look on your face.”
I just nodded and left the room, heading toward a stairwell and down a level to the sparring room. It was a large, open room with a six-foot walkway surrounding a twenty-by-twenty pit. Without hesitation, I dropped the ten feet into the pit, my legs easily absorbing the fall.
Cruce followed, running a hand over the concrete wall as he eyed me. “You’re using me to vent your anger again,” he observed. “You know that never ends well for you.”
I bared my teeth in silent fury, both because I was angry at myself and because I was annoyed at being so easily called out.
My skin turned a brilliant silvery hue, and from my right hand, a length of iron extended forth, its tip pointed.
A crossguard extended to protect my hand and wrist while runes along the length of the blade glowed orange.
Across from me, Cruce did the same, donning his armor and wielding his sword. He casually swung his arm through a pattern or two, then, without warning, came charging at me.
I turned his assault aside easily because I’d seen it coming.
Then I pushed the attack, and Cruce was forced to give ground.
When it came to finesse, Cruce had me beat.
But I was stronger and faster. He would win, give or take, two out of every three matches we had, but it was always a challenge for him.
In a real fight, my blows would beat him down before he could take advantage of his skill, and I would win. But since we weren’t fighting to kill, just to spar, it nullified my advantage.
“So, are you going to tell me what brought this on?” Cruce asked, ducking under one of my swings and aiming for my back.
I brought my blade up and over my shoulder, blocking his strike with a loud clang of metal blades. Spinning away, I settled the sword into a guard position. Cruce didn’t immediately press the attack. He was giving me time to speak.
“It’s Vanessa,” I said, darting toward his side, scoring only the lightest of slashes to his hip, the metal armor of his skin turning the blade away with a mark. “I screwed things up with her. Big time.”
Cruce glanced at where I’d hit him but shrugged it off before awarding the point to me. “How?”
“I didn’t tell her about the Test,” I said. “And she accused me of using her just so I could pass it and stop the Nine.”
“And did you?” Cruce asked, coming in slow and steady in a clash of strikes and parries until we parted. The scuffle left me with a deep furrow along my upper bicep.
“No. Of course not,” I said. “I wanted to make sure she understood how fate had brought us together before I told her. No point in scaring her ahead of time. Besides, we’re going to pass. I never lied to her, but she feels like I did. And I can’t figure out why she thinks I would?”
“Probably because you haven’t given her enough time to be properly courted,” Cruce said without hesitation.
I glared at him. “You’ve been waiting to say that.”
“Not really,” he said. “I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to. But, Vil, even by our standards, everything with her has been extremely rushed. You pried her out of a car and then brought her here and to our realm.”
“Because fate said we would be together.”
Cruce sighed. “That’s not the point, Vil.
The point is, she’s had a terrible experience, and then you tell her about dragons and bring her to your realm.
The woman is likely overwhelmed. You forgot she’s not a dragon.
That she isn’t able to understand and accept the whims of fate as we would. Did you ever tell her how you feel?”
I hesitated. How I felt about her?
“She should know how I feel,” I said. “I was doing all this stuff for her. Fate—”
Cruce came at me in a blur, his blade clanging off my metal armor repeatedly until he had backed me up almost into the corner. Then he planted a foot in my chest and knocked me down. His blade came to rest at my throat.
“If I hear the word fate one more time, I’m going to leave a mark you’ll feel even after the armor fades,” he said. “Stop thinking about what fate has shown you. Start thinking about how you feel about her.”
“I …”
“You have to tell her that you want her. That you care for her. Otherwise, she thinks you’re just doing all this because ‘fate said so.’ Not because you want to. Not because you want her. That’s what she needs to hear, Vil. How you feel about her. You. Not fate.”
My sword lowered until the tip was resting on the floor.
I stared up at my friend, stunned by the gravity of my error.
I’d assumed she would just know that I enjoyed her company and liked being with her for the simple reason that I was with her.
Just as she had a chance to reject me and fate, I had one, too.
But I’d never told her that. I’d operated on assumption.
“Shit.” The armor and sword were absorbed back into me as I got to my feet. “You’re right. I need to fix this.”
Cruce held up a hand.
“What?”
“She kicked you out, I’m assuming?”
I nodded.
“Give her till morning,” he said. “It’s late anyway. Let her sleep and calm down.”
“But …” She was leaving in the morning. I needed to fix it now!
“No buts,” Cruce ordered. “Vil, you can’t just go barging in there. You need to think it over. You have to be able to say the right things. Which means taking time to understand how you feel on a deeper level.”
I stared at him. “What are you suggesting I do?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging, his own armor and sword sliding back under his skin. “Go home for a few hours. Take a nice long flight, clear your headspace. Just think. About her. About the two of you. Make sure there aren’t any more assumptions. Analyze them all and figure it out.”
“A long flight.” I let out a long, slow breath. “Yeah, you know what, that might help me clear my mind.”
Cruce smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. “Now you’re talking sense! That’s good. It bodes well for your ability to rule that you’re willing to listen to reason and adjust your preconceptions.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But it’s downright scary that the reason is coming from you.”
He laughed and gave me a shove. “I’ll see you later. Let me know how it goes.”
“Thanks,” I said, jumping out of the pit and heading to the other side of the basement where the Rift was located. I slid a sliver of steel into the lock and opened the door, eager to get out and stretch my wings.
As I did, the Rift flashed, just as someone dressed in black ducked through it.
“What the hell?” Nobody was leaving that I knew about, nor were we expecting anyone to join us.
That’s when I saw that the platform for the Rift wasn’t empty. A large metal container had been left on it.
I walked closer and froze. The package was ticking.
My head snapped around to look at the exit in horror. But not for myself.
Vanessa!