VALENE:
“Our sister.” Fierya didn’t have to say her name. We only had one.
Harlyn; I didn’t have to say who I was talking about for Fierya to realize that I was referring to her.
I could never shake the hint of mistrust when I was around her. Sure, I’d have loved to have thought that I could trust my little sister implicitly. Unfortunately, the reality of it was that I wasn’t entirely sure.
My gut told me that she didn’t do it but even my instincts had been called into question of late. By me, of course, and no one else. Surprisingly so.
“Our instincts are in sync on the premise that she has had nothing to do with our demise at all. Yet, you insist on assuming so,” she said. Tilting her head in curiosity, Fierya asked, “Why?”
Distressed, I turned away from my counterpart, recollecting all that had transpired between the both of us, how could I not?
“I know that you are apart of me, Fier,” I said. “In fact, I know that you always have been. Even in my human state, I could feel a part of you there.” I faced her. “But you weren’t present enough to see what I had seen. Feel how I felt.”
It was difficult to face up to the reality of what I had to deal with back then, but I knew that the only way to move on was to confront my past head on. I’d never hace a future if I didn’t.
“Then tell me of your doubts. Explain to me why you doubt our instincts.”
“Deep down, I knew that Harlyn resented me. Maybe even hated me. She’d always assert her dominance over me. Or at least try. She treated me like an object-made sure that I didn’t forget that despite how close I was to the family…how much we cared for one another, that…that I was still just a bloody gopher. It was why, despite dad’s adamant decision against it, she took me to get the brand.”
It was hard not to get upset by these memories that I was facing up to. Looking at it from a different light, I had come to realize how traumatizing those moments should have been to me.
“I was so…so desperate to please my family, to belong, that I…I went as far as mutilating my flesh for them,” I choked back tears. “I believed Harlyn when she told me that it was for the best. That the only reason that she brought it back up was because it was sensible to do since I was portraying their drudge in the first place. She said that was the only reason. She never said that she’d use it. I found that she had done this quite a few times without my consent, but I had convinced myself that technically she was doing nothing wrong. That…I was her human, so why couldn’t she use it?”
“So, you’re saying that she cared about you….as long as you stayed in a servant’s place,” Fierya clarified.
It was then that I chuckled bitterly, recalling that night that she attempted to force me to mate with Tobias.
“She once asked me if I thought that I was better than her because I wasn’t willing to date a human that she thought was attractive. She was so…angry that night.”
“I remember that night.” I regarded Fierya curiously and she simply smiled. “I told you, I was always there. I missed some things but not all.”
“If dad wouldn’t have come in…I wouldn’t put it past her to strike me for it. Saying all of this, realizing all of this…I’m not saying that Harlyn does not care about me. I dare say that maybe she even loves me.”
“She just loves her position as your superior even more.” Fierya realized what I was getting at.
“I guess so,” I replied, my eyes lingering on the door anxiously.
“That could be true,” said Fierya, and as soon as she said this, I realized that she had a different thought.
I turned to her. “And what do you think?” I asked.
“Well,” she said. “Has it occurred to you that…maybe she feels like you are superior to her? And that the only thing that she ever had over you was her inhumanity and the fact that the Great Alpha of was her biological father whereas you were a wounded baby that he’d taken in? And even with bearing that in mind, you still somehow made her feel inferior. The girl clearly felt like she had to overcompensate just as you felt you did because of your humanity.”
“So, you’re saying that she was insecure,” I countered.
“I’m saying that she is insecure. Even more so now. Still, I just…I don’t that she would have it in her to hurt to that extent. That is why my instinct tells me that she did not do this.”
Fierya’s reasoning would have been acceptable had it not placed me on a pedestal as I was as insecure as my little sister.
“I guess after living a life where I was always less than, it’s hard to imagine someone like Harlyn envying me.”
“Of course, it is.” Fierya replied. “But the girl was hurt when you died, Vale. She grieved for you. I know that our relationship is tumultuous at best but…the least that we can do is give the girl the benefit of the doubt.”
She was right. I knew that, and even if I didn’t, one way or another, I had to walk through that door. I had to face my past and my fears. I had to get this over with.
“So, what do you say?” asked Fierya. “Let’s get this over with.”
I took a deep breath and stood next to Fierya. She took my hand as we both looked at that intimidating door. I felt my breath quicken. I was near petrified at facing it, but it had to be done.
“Ready?” she asked me.
“As I’ll ever be.”
She squeezed my hand. “You’re not doing this alone. Remember that.”
“I know,” I smiled.
We faced that door and immediately the locks and chains began to unfasten themselves and drape away.
The door opened and taking one last nervous breath, we walked in.
*******
Ares:
Being next to Vale, I found the most peace that I had ever felt, and I knew that it was because she was there.
It took all of my strength to get up. Since feeling that peace, I was almost desperate to feel it again. But I couldn’t. Not yet.
When I felt her wince in her sleep and then yelp in fear, I knew that something was up.
Through closed lids, I saw her eyes switching anxiously from left to right. While I didn’t like the look of it, my instinct told me not to wake her just yes.
My abilities were a strange thing. It was never easy to explain, nor were the things that I saw and felt from time to time.
Reading my mate’s mind did not come as easily as it had with others that I had faced. However, it was to my fortune that telepathy was not the only part of my abilities. It was a vast gift of mentality that, to this day, even I can not fully understand.
It was one of those abilities that led me to the conclusion that though Vale seemed asleep, she wasn’t. She was coming to a mental breakthrough-a crossroad that may finally reveal the answers that she had been searching for all this time.
I settled next to Vale on the side of her bed, and held her hand. It was all that I could do at this point which made me feel a bit helpless. Still, I knew that this was a road that she needed to travel alone and that I would only serve to get in the way of progress.
I observed her silently. “I’m here, mimar,” I whispered. “I will not leave your side,” I promised her.
It was shortly after this promise that her eyes shot opened. They were almost completely black with the exception of her scleras, which a deep and richly dark red. She smiled, her skin turning slightly pale.
“Do not worry for her,” she said to me. “We are fine.” Her whisper was soft, her voice ethereal. Was this Vale’s counterpart.
“Mate!” I heard Bain groan with desire.
It was her.
“Hello, Baine.” she murmured. She smiled at me one last time and then Vale’s eyes closed again.
I was awestruck by the partial shift in Vale’s appearance. It was the earpiercing cry that left her lips shortly after that brought me back to currents.
“Vale?!” I called to her. My hand moved to wake her when Bain stopped me.
“You heard what she said, Ares. Wait! She will be fine.”
Reluctantly, I held back and took her small hand into mine. Then I anxiously waited.
“No! Please don-”
Her cry quickly stopped and then her body went limp. A breath that was so long, it almost seemed final and then she stopped moving altogether.
It was frightening to see, but I…I had to trust that her counterpart knew what she was talking about. That Bain knew.
Moments passed and still no sign of life. My concern began to grow. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to wake her.
“Vale? Vale,” I gently shook her when without warning her eyes shot open, amber as they once were.
She was filled with rage, and then she growled, as those names left her lips. The name of her murderers.