The Crystal Mines

7 Ameer

The mug was burning my hand. The tea that Taury made swirled inside, untouched. I welcomed the burn from the ceramic. A sick sort of punishment for not trying to speak to Nik sooner. Nearby, Taury was passing out her tea to the residents of the underground Axion. Garren followed her around trying to help, much to her chagrin. Something had happened between then since escaping the university after the fourth trial. I didn't have the ability to keep up while tying to form a plan to rescue Nik and Cal. I hadn't told our group about the prince yet, not knowing how to bring it up. They didn't even know I could speak to Nik as it was.

When I last spoke to them, they had both looked gods awful. Cal looked sickly. His skin had taken on a gray parlor. He was malnourished and weakening. His chapped lips told me he was dehydrated and the dried blood on his back, that he had been whipped. In the beginning, he would get the post quite often. But I hadn't seen him that bad in years. I could see in his eyes when he spoke though, that Nik was much worse. I was lying to both of them. I swirled the tea and finally took a scorching sip. The taste was divine, but all I felt was the burn, my guilt overriding the flavor. I hadn't told Nik that I could speak to the prince. And I hadn't told him, that I could speak to Nik. I knew I had to come clean. It was what I had been trying to tell her before she said those damning words, "What if I deserve this?" I shook my head as I recalled the way her face dropped, and it was clear he had begun to give up.

She had no idea how incredible she truly was. What she had lived through and currently living through was only the beginning of the testament to her strength. She had looked me dead in the eyes in my room at the university and had admitted having always taken care of herself. In that moment, she had no idea the rage I felt inside of so many walking over her. She had never been taken care of, cherished. Nik surprised me. I was not prepared to meet someone like her while infiltrating the university. I had found myself wanting to tease and taunt her more, craving the scowls and sparks of fire she had but refused to let surface. With each passing moment with Nik the year we spent at the university, I wanted more. Around her, I felt like the Ipomoea flowers from home. They only bloomed in the moonlight, and she, was the moon.

I hadn't cared about her falling for Alden. It made sense. They both sought solace from immense trauma, and he went after her with ferocity. Their love was fast, brutal, and consuming. Watching her slowly come alive with him was as much breathtaking as it was devastating. He was exactly what she needed in the moment, she could experiment and have the freedom to explore feelings she had never been allowed to, living in the small town of hers. She was too busy taking care of her family. I took another sip of the tea, watching Taury shove her tray of tea into his arms angrily and stalk away. I shook my head and continued my thoughts.

The night I had slipped away to talk to Cal, he had stopped midsentence and spun around in shocked delight that it was begun to rain on the island. I had been updating him on the discoveries Lambert and I had made, including Nik's magic system and the altered quartz being distributed to every student. He had just begun asking me to send word to Volar via Jakota, when the rain had started. He had left the mindspace between us to drink his fill when Nik walked out of the room behind me. The way she casually mentioned that the island felt thirsty left me without words. It was then that I knew. I had begun to fall for her and couldn't have her.

I made myself scarce for a while after that. The Night of Nix, I went to speak to Cal rather then be in the woods. The decision to walk away from her dressed like a goddess as her and the other girls fucking polished the statue of Phaewen was more difficult than I wanted to admit, even to myself. When the hunt began, I fought the instinct to chase her, knowing she would be chased by Alden. I ran to the docks and Cal and I talked for as long as we could through the pressure of the magic veiling the island. I had already left when she had gone to the docks herself, not even understand why she was drawn to them. She had told me about Alden revealing his scars to her that night.