Son of Night and Daughter of Stars

Chapter 35: The Spirit

Nyx thought it was Artemis. 

He'd caught his cousin's scent from the castle, the wind from the forest blowing it all the way to the open window in the library. But finding Amandla instead had been worse, somehow. 

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that Amandla was covered in Artemis's scent. The two were hardly apart these days... or they had been. Before he'd ruined everything.

Nyx's leg bounced up and down as he sat beside Amandla's bed, watching as Katrien Westfall passed her hands over the Valkyrie's body, healing the gashes speckled across her chest and arms. On top of the cuts, Amandla had two broken ribs, a concussion, a broken wrist, and a myriad of bruises. 

At least, that was what Katrien told him. Before she'd healed the damage to the best of her abilities. She was still working, claimed she'd healed all the damage keeping Amandla unconscious, and yet his cousin's lover still did not wake. 

Finally, Katrien stepped back, breathing deeply. "I've done everything I can. She should wake up soon, I think." 

"You think?" Nyx growled, unable to help himself. Katrien's warm bronze eyes hardened, and her spine turned ramrod straight. 

"I could have left her like that," She said, ignoring Nyx's glower. "I healed her body. Now it's up to her mind to decide to wake. I'm a healer, not a magician." 

Thankfully, Estelle stepped forward before Nyx could say something stupid. "Thank you, Katrien." 

Katrien nodded to the princess, then turned, her thick golden-brown hair swaying as she left the room. Estelle stepped toward the bed slowly, crossing her arms over her green tunic. 

"Who is she?" She asked. He could feel her gaze burning on his skin. 

"Amandla. I told you about her. The one who vanished before--" Nyx stopped himself. Took a breath. "Before I left." 

He felt her eyes leave him and glanced up. She was watching the Valkyrie with interest, her gaze admiring as she looked over the female's leathers, dirty as they were. "She's a warrior, then?" 

Nyx huffed a laugh. "The best of her unit. Except maybe Artemis." 

Estelle frowned and leaned forward, picking up the Valkyrie's hand and turning her wrist over to reveal a tattoo written in the Old Language. "What's this?" 

Nyx felt as though the world slipped under his feet. "Artemis," He whispered. "It says Artemis." 

But Estelle leaned closer, her eyes narrowing. "There's a Wyrdmark in this." 

The sorrow in Nyx's chest hardened to focus. "What?" He stood, coming around the bed to look over Estelle's shoulder. 

Estelle traced the middle of the line of text,  showing him a slightly raised mark hidden in the letters he hadn't noticed. "It says 'steal.'"  She turned her head to meet his eyes. "Why would she have a Wyrdmark tattooed to her lover's name?"

Nyx shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. I don't even know Amandla well enough to know when she got that tattoo." His heart clenched. "Artemis would know." 

Estelle seemed to sense where his mind was going and dropped Amandla's hand to turn fully to him, gripping his shoulders. "None of that. Spiraling into guilt and pain won't get you home." Her gaze softened, and she squeezed his shoulders comfortingly. "I know you miss them. But now you have even more of an incentive to get home." She gestured behind her to Amandla. "You found her! When we find you a way home, you can take her with you." 

Nyx blinked. Mother above. He could fix everything. "When Amandla wakes up, I have to apologize." 

"And you will," Estelle reassured him. She turned, dragging him with her. "But for now, we need to find you both a path back to Prythian." She paused, then muttered, "And find my mother's would-be-assassin. But that's secondary to your mission, I suppose." 

Nyx turned to stare at Amandla again. "I don't want to leave her here alone." 

Estelle waved his statement off. "I've sent a servant to find my mother and tell her what we found. She'll send someone to watch her. They'll fetch us when she wakes." 

Nyx sighed, turning to follow the princess out of the room. "Have you always been this pushy, or are you really that anxious to see me leave?" 

Estelle laughed, the sound warming his cracked heart. "Oh, certainly. You're more trouble than you're worth, Illyrian." She grinned at him, and it was all he could do to grin back as they walked back towards the library. 

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The Valkyrie did not like being in the dark. 

It closed in on her, suffocating her breath and her sight. She knew she had but to open her eyes to see the light, but found she couldn't. Something would not let her. 

So she'd sat in the dark these long, cold days, wishing she had someone to wrap their arms around her. Wishing her lover would think to look for her, despite the pain she'd caused her. 

She held no regrets in her, but that. The pain she'd caused the one who owned every inch of her cowardly heart. She would never forget her love's face when she'd said those hateful things, none of them true. She felt it like a spike driven into her very bones, twisting her guilt into something worse. 

The Something liked those thoughts. Found them interesting, apparently, for They turned them over in her mind again and again and again until she was sobbing, begging for it to stop. For Them to let her go. The Something paid her no mind, but greedily drank her pain like a fine wine. 

The Valkyrie had been trained for torture of the body. She found she'd almost prefer that at this point. She didn't know how much longer her mind could hold out, could fight the Something from taking over completely. 

Oh, she knew it was not real. She knew perfectly well that the darkness she was trapped in was not a place, that the world she lived in still existed beyond her caged mind. But she couldn't get to it. Couldn't open her eyes. 

So she was forced to listen. Listen with every fiber of her being, for anyone who might come. Anyone who might find her, trapped here in the dark, and know she was being held. 

Her body had been found, this much she knew. She'd heard the Son of Night saying her name, had been able to feel him scoop her up and bring her somewhere. She'd heard every word that was said in her presence, but none of it made sense. The tattoo revelation gave her hope. Surely, the Son of Night would know what it meant, what it gave away. But he didn't. And then he'd left her alone, and she'd plunged back into those final memories that had haunted her these weeks. 

I hate you, Her love had said to the Valkyrie, her storm-blue eyes lined with silver that had made the Valkyrie's heart seize. I never want to see you again for as long as I live. 

And though the Valkyrie knew her love hadn't meant a word of it, she knew they'd both been broken that day in ways she might not ever be able to fix. 

But that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. 

So she fought the Something, fed it her pain but nothing else, waiting in the dark for someone to save her so she could see her lover again. Just once. To tell her how sorry she was. 

She'd say it the rest of her life if that was what it took. She didn't care what those Queens said. Didn't care if they took her life as they'd promised to do if she didn't obey their commands. 

I will make it right to Artemis, Amandla swore, if it is the last thing I do.