Burning Brightly (a grishaverse story )

Chapter 8

We had stopped at Krisbirk, which was the town outside of the Fold. We were to set up our encampment there.

In the morning we would board the sand skiffs which would take us across the Shadow Fold. Our job was to make sure that everything went as planned and as a last resort we were to fight the ravenous volcra that lived in the deepest shadows of the Fold.

Darya would stand with the rest of the Squallers at the mast of the skiff. Her job was to help push the skiff across the sand. I would be standing at the railing with the other Inferni and the soldiers carrying rifles. We were the last line of defense if the volcra attacked.

I sighed and slipped out of the Grisha tent. Everyone was talking about the crossing of the Fold tomorrow and it wasn't helping my nerves at all.

First thing tomorrow would be for us to hop onto the sand skiffs and sail into the darkness of The Fold. The same place where Viktor died.

I instinctively reached up and grabbed the necklace that Ava had given to me. She had talked to me about Viktor for the entire ride, and even though it had felt nice to be able to talk to someone who understood, it had also ripped open the Viktor sized hole in my heart making me miss him even more.

I heard footsteps behind me and started. I scraped my flit across the stone to summon fire and turned around to see a very surprised looking Darya.

"Chill Valerya it's just me," she hissed.

"Oh, sorry," I muttered as I extinguished the flame I'd accidentally created in my surprise "I've just had a lot on my mind."

"Yeah," Darya nodded. "Same." We sat in silence for a while, watching a group of guys stumble drunkenly off into the distance. A girl a year or two older than me watched them and sighed in exasperation before going back to her tent.

I was suddenly struck by the realization that their lives depended on us. I sighed and put my head in my hands. "What is it this time?" Darya asked.

"I'm not ready for this."

"Well neither am I, and neither is anyone so stop worrying that you'll mess up and get everyone killed, because it's not just you. It's all of the Grisha's responsibility ok?

I looked at Darya in surprise. "Wait, how did you know that I-"

"Lucky guess," Darya laughed. "You worry about everything. You need to learn how to relax."

I sighed and leaned my head against Darya's arm. "Darya how can I relax when I'm going into the same place that killed my brother? The Grisha couldn't save them then. What if we can't save them and I get some other little girl's brother killed? How could I live with that?"

Darya looked down and kicked one of her feet against the ground. "I guess I didn't think of that, sorry Val." I smiled at my friend. "It's ok."

Darya hugged me. "No it's not, she mumbled against my shoulder. "Here I was about to complain about this snobbish squaller in my carriage that I had to deal with and you were over here worrying about your brother's death. I'm sorry."

"Darya stop apologizing, it makes me feel weird," I grinned and looked at her. "Tell me about this girl."

"Ugh," my friend leaned back and examined her nails. "Her name is Zoya, she's two years older than me, she's gorgeous, and everyone loves her."

"Including you," I teased. Darya snorted. "Yeah right. Like I would have a crush on that bitch."

I raised an eyebrow. "So far her only crime seems to be being absolutely stunning." Darya flushed and I laughed. "Come on let's go back to the tent. It's getting cold out here. You can tell me all about Zoya's flawless skin and luxurious hair in there."

Darya whacked my arm, but she was laughing too. "Fine, fine," she exclaimed. "I'll tell you all about Zoya later."

She had a dreamy sort of look on her face when she said that and I smiled. "Awww. I ship it."

"Shut up," Darya hissed, but I could tell she was trying not to smile. "I don't like Zoya."

I stood up and hauled Darya up from where she was sitting and looped my arm through hers. "Darya I love you and you're amazing, but you cannot lie to save your life. Darya laughed and we headed back to the Grisha pavilion.

~~~~~~~~~

The next day I was a tired and extremely stressed mess. The stress was mostly from entering the fold and even though Darya's reassurance had helped a bit i was still scared. The tiredness was from Darya's relentless chatter about Zoya. And as much as I enjoyed teasing her about her crush, and seeing her so happy, it had also taken away from my precious sleep.

The Grisha had woken up early to prepare for the crossing. Me and Darya had been assigned to different sand skiffs, so I hadn't seen her yet. We boarded the skiffs and I went to the railing with the other Inferni. We watched as the Squallers lifted their arms and started the skiffs moving forward and closer to the darkness of the Fold.

a/n *waves awkwardly* umm hey. it's been a while. and by a while i mean like it's been 5 months, but i had not motivation and practially gave up on this story, and then today in science i was like YA KNOW WHAT IM FINISHING IT so i wrote some chapters and im going to be uploading them soon :)

if you're still reading this than ily

- mel 😘