Don't blame me, love made me crazy
If it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right
『the darkling x femaleoc』
pre-shadow&bone
extended summary inside
cover by @-judeduarte
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter one, the side effect of liya safin
𝕯arkling
THE DARKLING WAS PRETTY SURE Liya has done something to his heart. His gaze lingered on that armchair in the corner almost every minute, remembering the way she sat there – posture straight, hands between her thighs, cheeks flustered. It seemed like the scent of lavenders, the scent of her lingered in that corner and surrounded the whole office, putting daggers into his heart.
He had too much time to think, seven hundred and fifty-five hours if he was precise. The sleepless nights of his were worse, it seemed like whenever he would put his head down on a pillow, the images of getting her to Zlatan kept on coming back. He wasn't a wicked man enough to not admit when he was wrong. Four centuries did wrap his head around the fact that he was better than anyone else because he has been through it all, but the gnawing guilt at the bottom of his chest only showed him that he made a huge mistake.
It made him realise that in those four centuries, he slowly lost his human side in order to get adapted to the horrors of the world. He knew he wasn't as sensitive and understanding as he should be and he never dreaded the fact, but it made him wonder if it would've been different if he has taken an opportunity to think his plan through before involving Liya. Clearly, the need to prevent the Civil War and get rid of Zlatan blinded him enough to not see that he was hurting a person that didn't deserve to go through hell again.
He was irrational and impulsive and he has never loathed those two traits of himself as passionately as now.
At first, he did blame Liya for the plan that wasn't successful. But he soon understand that searching for a scapegoat in this situation wasn't right. He was the one who snapped the neck of that man and she had nothing to do about it. Just like that, he involved a woman that brought something out of him to act irrationally and it was all his fault.
The situation between West and East Ravka was a little bit better since the General's family was far too busy searching for the guilty ones. They were blaming him and the red-haired Grisha who disappeared, but he managed to put the attention on the assassins of the Shu Han royal family. He kept telling herself that he needs to find Liya before some horrible people get to her first, but that was just another excuse to hide the fact that he was a total mess without her.
Getting to Genya was impossible and he was smart enough not to bother her. There was no place for his cruelty there – she was a servant of the Queen and torturing her wouldn't get him the answer. It bothered him that she was so intelligent not leaving the Grand Palace, not sending any letters – nothing. She knew well how to hide her sister.
Both Fedyor and Igor searched the nearest towns and villages around the Little Palace and she was nowhere to be found. By this time, she could've already been dead or out of the country even, but the two Heartrenders kept on searching all around the Ravka. She will be found eventually.
