The Crystal Mines

48 Faolan

After Nik spoke to Dath, I barely made it back upstairs to the main entrance hall before vomiting. It was a natural bodily response to being in an area so familiar so soon. Evander had been right behind me, rubbing my back while Lilta ran off to find a member of the castle staff to help clean up my mess. I knew the dungeons weren't the same as the prison. But seeing Dath thrash and scream. It brought up memories of being whipped and watching others be whipped. My back bore phantom stripes of pain.

The abuse I took in the mines was nothing compared to Nik or Callion. I knew that. But I couldn't discount what I had gone through either. The number of times I wasn't able to mine the correct amount, made me shake just remembering it. I wiped my mouth and stayed hunched over, hands on my knees. Sorin had gotten it the worst of us, so it was no wonder he wasn't able to make it down the stairs.

I stood up and Evander lead me backwards to a small seating area off to the very edge of the hall. It was strange to witness Nik and Callion's mind speak during that moment as Sorin froze. When Callion and Nik spoke to each other, they made direct eye contact. She had noticed Sorin struggling and had clearly said something to him. My Nik, she truly had gotten herself in the middle of something. It was hard not to be involved. She was my girl. My everything, next to Evander. I wanted so desperately for her to be happy. I had never told her, but I choose her those first few days at the university, just as much as she choose me. Maybe I should tell her. Nah. She knows.

"You ok? You went somewhere else for a minute," Evander asked rubbing my knee. He had sat next to me and let me have my moment. Gods I fucking loved him. I told him over and over the night I saw him when the rest of the crew arrived.

We had made slow passionate love when we finally made it back to my rooms. Then, we just held each other and cried. I told him everything that had happened in the mines. All that had happened to Nik. Meeting the fecking prince of Salvare. Ameer's brother. Having been roomed with him the whole time and never known who he was. Then, feeling stupid for never having seen it. Nik telling me she was mated to Callion. Told him of the crystal harvesting and the agony. Of hearing Sorin suffer and remember his time from before our arrival. The absolute event of Nik finally shifting and becoming a dragon.

But in all of that, I shared my confusion. Why were Sorin and I cut and bled on the massive Aura Crystal? Why were we used again, as harvesting ground for the godsdamned crystals. Callion had said Erix needed certain blood. That he, Nik, and Ameer, were the same. Then why use us too? It didn't make any sense. I had thought that maybe we were also the same, but my magic system was not the veins Nik spoke about. It was woven, intertwined together.

I shook my head, realizing that I hadn't answered Evander. "Yeah. My mind kept drifting to our time... back there."

Evander's beautiful, mismatched eyes searched mine with concern. I reached out and brushed his brown strands out of his eyes. His hair has gotten so long while I had been gone. Nik had said we were gone for seven months. That was precious time I could never get back. As I held his face in mine, I thought back to someone else that had lost time with their lover. Reed had mentioned losing his wife to Erix's experimentations. For some reason, he had confided in me the day that I woke with crystals embedded in my body. I wished I could help him somehow. He had said her name. But traversing those memories were so painful that I had learned to block them out over the past few weeks. Anything to move forward and get back to some form of normalcy.

My hand froze on Evander's face, and he watched me. "Her name was Dolta."

He blinked, utterly confused at my outburst. Frantically, I searched around the area. Most of our group had stayed in the hall after visiting Dath. I found Nik standing next to Ameer, talking and blushing at something he had said. She kept looking over at me, worried. I grabbed Evander's hand and dragged him over to them.