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Dessin’s head falls as he drops his last bite of meat into the fire.
“I’d rather talk about anyone except the little Greyshit,” he grunts.
A laugh tickles my lungs, but I settle for a teasing smirk. “Not a fan of him?”
He scoffs
“Why not?”
“He’s useless, pompous, annoying, has loose lips, and goes out of his way to ruin plans.” Dessin glowers at me as if merely speaking about Greystone has drained him of all happiness.
“He told me about the other alters,” I say, sitting up. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We were in a dangerous place, surrounded by people who would use that knowledge against us. I would never risk the safety of the other alters.” He’s sitting up now, too, a stare of loyalty burning into me.
That makes sense. I can’t fault Dessin for wanting to protect them.
“Will you tell me about them?”
“I’m sure you’ll meet some of them soon enough.” He sighs.
“I thought you were going to tell me stories by the fire!” The wind whistles through the branches around us, forcing the fire to make a sputtering sound.
I glance around the woods that are now covered in total nightfall. Extreme blackness. No light. No flicker of stars or the glow of the moon. The Evergreen Dark Wood is a black pit of blindness.
“Mmm.” He pokes the fire with a stick and begins. “When I was at Demechnef’s training quarters, I wasn’t the only one being trained. There were others.”
“Others… like you?”
“Mm-hmm. Only two came before me, and two trained with me. The ones I never met killed themselves a couple of years into training, and the two that trained with me were about fifteen years old.” Dessin hands me another slice of cooked meat. That’s one benefit of leaving the city—no more starving myself.
“The girl’s name was Vinaley, and the boy’s name was Valentine, Val for short. Vinaley could not cope with our environment, the pain, the abuse, the physical conditioning. She went through the motions but was in a catatonic-like state. The hardest part of this to watch was Val. He was in love with her, took care of her. He even found new ways to lessen her training and take more on for himself.”
I remain still, keeping my breath shallow and steady. I don’t want to interrupt or say anything that could stop him from sharing with me.
“He would hold her every night as she begged him to take her home. She’d repeatedly say, I want to go home.” Dessin sighs, running a finger over his jaw. “Val was a good man. Someone I looked up to. He not only took care of Vinaley but also looked after me because I was so young. Unfortunately, when I turned eleven, he killed Vinaley in her sleep and then hung himself above her bed. He did exactly as she begged… he took her home.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “What?”
“It was the only way to really escape.”
“But,”—I set my food down—“if they were all like you, able to think differently, then why couldn’t they find another way out?”
He chuckles. Looks up to the sky. I am a child to him. A child that still believes in magic and happy endings. “They were all like me. Only slightly different. We all emerged from our trauma with adverse strengths. It happens that mine is planning, human behavior observation, deduction, and deception. Val’s was empathic. He could so clearly understand how each individual was feeling. He could sense if someone was afraid of him or afraid of a spider in the corner. It was a gift and a curse. A gift because he could detect weakness in anyone. It allowed him to make nine different escape attempts.”
“What about Vinaley?”
He looks down in thought. “I’m not entirely sure. She was buried in something powerful. Val didn’t even know. All he knew was that training struck fear in her, yes. But whatever her strengths were, they swallowed her in devastation. It destroyed him to feel what she felt.”
I inch myself closer to him. The fire warming my cold toes.
“Did you know he was going to do it? Murder her and kill himself?” My knee touches his, and he glances up at me from under his black eyelashes.
“I knew.” A soft cashmere blanket coats the tone of his voice. “That morning, he told me every person’s greatest fears in Demechnef. He told me what causes them anxiety and discomfort. He told me everything he learned in a matter of an hour. He didn’t have to say goodbye or tell me what he planned to do. But I knew. I had known for some time that he would do it.”
I rub my palm over the right side of my face. “I don’t understand. How were you successful with escaping and they weren’t?”
“Val and Vinaley failed to hide their weaknesses from Demechnef. Kane got lucky that he had me to protect what meant most to him. Without me and several other alters, they would know everything.”
