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I nod for Terra to take her place for practice while Raine switches out with Arthur. I’m mildly surprised when he comes to stand by me. I glance over at him.
“Why did I need to switch with Arthur?” he asks as he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets, tilting his head back and breathing in deeply. He’s almost my height and carries much of the same heaviness on his broad shoulders. Perhaps our similar emotional damage is what Terra likes so much. I peg her as the type of woman who wants to fix things. It’s the light in her eyes that gives her away. She wants to tend to us, make us less broken.
“Just watch and you’ll see why,” I mutter under my breath, silently sending a prayer to the gods that Arthur doesn’t slip up like yesterday. He was a millisecond from having his head sliced clean off. We may have our differences, but he’s one of my only remaining friends.
Terra takes a long breath before shifting her stance and letting Amser pulse from her as if she was born with it. The line of power that bursts from her hand intends to decapitate; it cuts through the air faster than the eye can trace.
Arthur bends backward in a flash, his cloak flowing over the snow like a fresh white blanket. He straightens just as swiftly, a cocky grin spreading across his lips.
Raine gasps at my side and I glance at him. His eyes are filled with awe at how magnificent our little Nova is. Though it’s early, I trust that she can keep herself from blighting if she tries hard enough. Her resolve is impressive. As is her desire to remain pure and untainted.
“Well, at least I know she’ll be okay when I’m gone,” Raine says low enough for only me to hear. Arthur walks over to Terra to tell her how well she’s doing. They’re completely oblivious to us standing on the sidelines. “I’m really going to die, aren’t I?”
I don’t enjoy Raine’s presence, especially since I let him be my torturer for the entirety of last week. But one thing I admire about him is the loyalty he seems to feel toward Terra. If he’s worth anything, it’s as a shield for my mate.
At least until his dying breath.
“Yes, you’ve been blighted. I’ve yet to meet someone who has survived it.” I watch as the light dims in his eyes. My skin prickles with the strength teeming beneath his. He houses the Destiny Shadow. I met it long ago. Why do I see so much of my old friend in Raine? The thought is too heavy, so I let it sink back into the depths of Velis’s grasp.
I clear my throat. “But, should anyone have the right circumstances to possibly overcome the blight, I think you might have a small, insignificant chance.”
I meant for it only to lift his spirits a little so he wasn’t so gloomy, but he looks at me sharply, his jaw set and eyes brimming with torment. “Really?” he asks.
“It’s not a good way to die, Raine. And even though I utterly despise you, I’d rather see you cut in half instead of dying the way the blight takes you,” I mutter as I watch Terra try a few more attacks on Arthur, mildly aware of Raine’s lingering eyes on me.
“Is that your way of confessing you don’t hate me?”
“No, I very much don’t like you.”
Raine cocks his head back and laughs. Terra’s eyes flash over to us and she grins at the sight of us not skinning one another.
“I do believe there is a way. So don’t give up hope,” I say with an even tone, then subsequently a deep pit sinks inside my chest. Since when do I tell people to have hope? It’s usually the other way around.
“Why are you being kind to me? I fucking tortured you.” Raine seems genuinely curious as to why I care.
Him and me both.
This guy is annoying, Velis growls, the sound ringing through my ears until it slowly subdues.
I was once as ruined as Raine. Did he really think I was unconscious during my torture? No, I was very much awake. Very aware of his tears crashing to the floor as he cut into my skin because deep down he hated what he was doing. Perhaps I see myself in him. Someone doing something heinous and against their morals to keep those they care about safe. By the end of my torture, he was practically begging me just to give him the information about Fernestia so he didn’t have to continue.
I think of the boy I saw cradled in his arms after the Skyfell. The way Raine’s mind broke and he ripped the brains out of anyone who was in his way. Perhaps that’s why… I don’t wish for him to die. He reminds me so much of?—
Stop, Velis hisses. I can’t keep your heart suppressed forever if you tug on the emotions.
That gives me pause and I redirect.
“I just hate seeing Terra worry about you,” I say with impassive eyes. Raine narrows his own at me; I don’t think he buys it, but he doesn’t say anything in return. Instead, a somber smile pulls at his lips. “Try the library, the old books on the third floor up near the back windows.”
That’s where we used to study. I shut my eyes and I can see all of us again. Strange how they still feel so close even though five years have passed.
Raine looks at me like he can’t quite figure me out. “Thank you, Elias.”
I inwardly groan at him thanking me. “Don’t mention it to Terra. Just do your research and keep quiet about it, got it?” If Cein or Empress Raven find out I’m trying to un-blight another student they’ll punish me again.
My knee throbs painfully and I shift my weight to my other leg.
Raine nods and we don’t speak for the remainder of the session.
