The Young Gods (The Young Gods #1) [NEW DRAFT]

•capítulo cinco // chapter five•

Sometime in the near-forgotten depths of his childhood, Val used to watch the sunset.

He isn't sure now what he liked most about it, isn't sure whether it was the riot of orange and red and yellow and gold that filled the sky, or the excitement of a day's end, or the look of the sun dipping into the ocean. He isn't sure of most things, these days. Like all mortal musings and memories, they seem to evade him.

A pair of intersecting strings in the weave twitch, pushed by an incoming force. Then the sounds come: the barest whisper of a delicate breath, the rustle of chiffon, the tinkling of fine jewelry.

"Rufina," Val begins. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I heard what happened to your substitute and his patrol group. I knew you'd come here to mull things over."

Something old and human kindles within him, a tiny flame against the cold that's quickly snuffed out. He turns his head, the shock of Rufina's red hair just visible in his periphery. She's a multicoloured sight, bold and brash against the toneless shade of the sand.

The weave surges in the corner of his eye. He steps away just as a wave rolls into the shore, covering the spot where he stood just a moment ago.

"You look lovely," he offers.

"You barely saw me."

He folds his gloved hands behind his back. "I could always take back my compliment."

Val thinks he hears Rufina huff.

"No. I'll keep it." She comes up beside him, two heads shorter, dressed in garish pink. "How's life as a Sentinel treating you?"

"It's tolerable. How's life as a socialite treating you?"

Rufina smiles, shell-pink lips stretching to accommodate her amusement. "It's horrible, Don Valentine. And..." Her smile falters. "It's lonely. I didn't think I'd miss Ramon so much until he was gone. To think that he got the chance to mingle with the third Vesennan prince- well, I'm a little offended too, now that I think about it."

"It won't be long until he's back."

"No," she agrees, staring off into the waves. "It won't be."

Val nods and begins to walk along the shoreline. Looming on a cliff at the end of the beach, many towers and spires gleaming in the waning light, is Solaris Palace. It hasn't changed in the eighteen years that Val has watched it from afar, still made of the same white stone, flying the same blue-and-silver flags. He recalls the smug knowledge of the alcoves and corridors in the palace that he used to possess; after all, his aunt had once been queen.

So there's been one change after all, then. Queen Tamsin Hanover is dead.

"Valentine! Gods, why do you always do this?" Rufina hurries after him, heeled shoes clutched tightly in her pale hands, bare feet marking the sand. "Don't walk off without me."

He makes room for her at his side, stepping towards the water to keep her on the dry sand. A few strands of her fiery hair have come loose of the careful chignon at the back of her head. She looks almost like the child she once was, with those large, luminescent green eyes and tousled scarlet hair.

That human part of him pushes against the rigid confines of his body again, warmer than before. Val looks away, hands tight behind his back.

"Have you heard?" she asks after a minute of silence. "About Rosalinda de Silva?"

"Our new queen."

"You don't like the news."

"I feel no particular way about it."