Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“Valenia, it was just supposed to be a test. A stupid test, one meant to examine your fighting abilities—your abilities in general.” I took a step in her direction. And while she didn’t back up, she didn’t step forward, either.
“You can just ask me things, Dimitri!” she snapped, but quickly covered her mouth with a gasp. “Your Majesty. I apologize.” She dipped her head, looking toward the ground.
In all honesty, I didn’t care much what she called me. I didn’t solely want to be her king anymore, anyway.
I slowly crossed the space between us, allowing her time to move away if she so pleased. When she didn’t, I reached out and took her hand in mine.
“Dimitri is fine, Valenia,” I reassured her.
“Val.” She looked up at me—finally. “It’s just Val.”
Her eyes, which were no longer rage-filled, were just as breathtaking in that moment as they had been the night we’d met. They were such a deep blue that they reminded me of the water of Cynth Bay.
“Val,” I breathed softly, trying the nickname out on my tongue.
A wingbeat later, she cleared her throat and took a step back, our hands falling apart because of it. To my surprise, I found myself disappointed at the sudden distance.
“What sort of things were you testing me for?” she asked, and it was like I could see her carefully crafted walls going back up around her.
Why did I find myself wanting to tear them down?
Shaking my head, I sighed. “I just… wanted to get to know you better. How a fae fights says a lot—especially you, being a female in the North,” I explained. “The fact that you know how to fight at all says all I need to know.”
“Oh?” she said, her interest piqued. “And what did you learn?”
“Well, mostly this confirmed what I’d already thought—that despite how you appeared back at the ball, you don’t have a purely noble background, if at all. And you’ve obviously been well trained—though by who, I haven’t a clue. The lightning was a pleasant surprise, though.”
At that last comment, she looked slightly pleased with herself.
“You knew I wasn’t of the noble class, even the night of the ball?” she asked.
I nodded.
“And yet you still allowed me to vow myself to you,” she continued.
“Nobody has ever been brave enough to try to harm me—or spy on me, or whatever it was you were up to—within the walls of my own castle before. You… intrigued me, is all.” I ran a hand through my hair, the white strands insisting on falling into my face.
We’d lapsed into a moment of silence when she blurted out, “I meant it, you know. I’d rather you be upfront and ask me things, instead of randomly being tested.”
I pressed my lips together to hold back my wince. I guess it had been a sort of odd plan, to say the least.
“So, you’re not of the noble class. Were you at least raised in Hollis?” I asked her, taking advantage of the moment while I could.
“Yes.” She nodded, taking a seat on the railing of the balcony.
“My older sister and mother raised me in our cottage, on the outskirts of Hollis. My father died in the war when I was an infant, so I never knew him. Mother and my sister, Nat, did their best to keep me out of trouble, but I suppose it didn’t work very well in the end. ”
“What—”
“My turn,” she corrected, holding up a hand. “Can you only wield fire?”
A question for a question. I supposed that was only fair.
“It’s the only one I have some control over, but I can… sense the earth below, as well as its shadows. I know I can wield them, too—I just haven’t figured it out yet.” I looked down, my cheeks and the tips of my ears heating up slightly with shame.
Val nodded, then motioned for me to go ahead.
“What kind of trouble did you find yourself in?” I asked, taking up a spot next to her on the wooden railing, sitting closer than I knew I should’ve.
“All sorts,” she sighed. “It started with me just hanging out with the wrong crowds, but one thing led to another until I was tied up in some shady organizations. That was where I was trained to fight—in hand-to-hand, and with my zirilium. I was the only one in my family that could wield lightning after Father died. My family… didn’t know what to do with me. ”
I’d always known there were organizations flying under the radar in the North. Most of the time it was about petty crime, but I’d heard whispers about bigger goals.
Like taking what was mine.
“How is it possible that you still can’t tap into all of your zirilium? You’re far past the age for it,” she questioned next.
How could I explain without making Father sound bad?
And why did I still care about that?
“My father and our royal trokav found a way to nullify anything Southern about me—as well as my twin. Neither one of us were free of his grasp until recently. And there isn’t exactly a line of Southerners willing to train me, so I’m doing my best to figure it out on my own.”
Val looked at me thoughtfully, and I could see the wheels spinning in her head, ready to ask her next question already.
“The organizations you mentioned, they’re why you were there the night of the ball, correct?” I inquired.
“Yes, but it was a setup. Even within those groups, I was never fully welcome. There was always somebody trying to trip me up. Despite my best efforts, they got the best of me that night. I was supposed to get close to you, but not close enough for this,” she motioned between the two of us, “to happen.”
“Hmm,” I hummed, processing each crumb of information she was feeding me.
“It must have been your mother that was Southern, then? Do you know where she is, and could she train you?” Val asked, leaning forward slightly to draw closer to me. I seemed to have piqued her curiosity; she was looking at me like I was a puzzle she could piece together.
“Yes, my mother was Southern. My whole life I thought she had returned to the Stars, but now…” I trailed off, thinking back to the top of the tower.
And who resided inside.
Val studied me for a moment, searching my face and body language for answers. Only Aviva had ever been able to read me so thoroughly, yet there was Val, doing her best to figure me out.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“The tower.” Her eyes widened. “Tell me your mother isn’t up in the tower. You acted so oddly afterwards, I wasn’t sure what could’ve been so upsetting, but…”
I shifted my gaze to look at the ground far below us. The estate was on the edge of a large piece of land, scattered with small streams and tall trees. I took a moment to collect myself before quietly admitting to Val what I’d been terrified to voice aloud.
“I don’t know what to do.”
We lapsed into a brief moment of silence.
Stupid, I screamed internally. Now you’ve screwed it all up and—
“If I had the chance to see my father again, I’d take it,” Val said quietly.
She stretched out one of her wings and gently brushed it against my own in a comforting motion. The contact sent chills down my spine, spreading across my skin in an instant.
“What happened to the rest of your family?” I asked after a moment.
Val pursed her lips together hesitantly before responding. “They’re all either dead, dead to me, or out of reach. Doesn’t really matter much now, does it?”
Those words rang out like bells in my mind.
Dead.
Dead to me.
Out of reach.
“No,” I responded quietly. “I guess it doesn’t.”
As Val and I headed to the table to try to salvage what parts of dinner we could, those words kept circling in my head like a cyclone.
Father was dead.
Aviva was dead to me.
The female I’d pined after for years was out of reach.
But Mother? She wasn’t dead, or dead to me. And she didn’t have to be out of reach if I didn’t want her to be anymore.
I’d found her.
And it was about time I did something about that fact.