Deadly Obsession (The Darking x Oc)

Chapter 13: Sharing Secrets

I sighed as I tried for the third and final time to completely heal the woman in front of me. She was an inferni who had been injured while training, leaving a nasty burn across her arm. Usually, it wouldn't take me that long to completely heal her and send her on her way, but my mind wasn't focused at the moment so it had taken me a couple tries to get it completely healed.

"Sorry about that... just umm... avoid summoning for the next couple days as it regains its strength." I muttered quietly as the inferni nodded, pulling down her sleeve as she stood up, grabbing her kefta and moving out of the room. "Hey Karina, is everything okay, usually you're on top of the game, but that seemed... oddly slow." Al, one of the other healers on shift right now, said, coming over with Anna trailing behind him.

"Umm, yeah... just a little distracted today... My friend left for the front lines this morning and I think it's getting to me a little more than I thought it would." I said quickly, my face heating up slightly as I thought back to what had actually got me all flustered and distracted today. "Oh, that's a shame, but I'm sure they'll be fine." Anna said comfortingly, making me smile up at her thankfully.

"You know, if you want to do something else today, I'm sure Anna and I can cover the ward. There's some paperwork out back, you know how much the rest of us hate it." Al said, clearly half-joking, half-not as the three of us chuckled gently. "Actually that sounds good, maybe I'll have gotten through half of it by the time we finish." I said, joking slightly, knowing the paperwork always tended to pile up.

"Knock yourself out." Anna said with a smile as I stood and gave the two of them a thankful look before moving over to the back room where a small desk stood, a stack of papers sitting on it messily. I sighed gently, knowing that while it was a large pile, I had seen it larger before. I sat down in the wooden seat in there and pulled the top folder towards me, opening it up and scanning down the medical report, knowing this would take a while.

I did indeed spend pretty much my entire shift sitting in the small office, a couple of my friends and colleagues joining me in there when they were on breaks, leaving them to gossip and catch up while I continued to push the thoughts of this morning to the back of my mind. Once my shift was over I bid the other healers goodbye and meandered back to my room, slipping into the library on the way to pick up something new to read. I had intended on using the last couple hours of daylight to sit at my window and read in peace, but instead found myself simply staring down at the grounds in front of me, my mind wandering back to the events of this morning.

Almost as soon as the General and I had let go of each other, my eyes had flickered over to the clock on his wall, realising that I was already late to my shift and quietly apologising to Kirigan before rushing out of the room. I still wasn't entirely sure what had happened, and was slightly dreading seeing the General once more.

It had felt incredible to hear him talk about me as though I was the most important and powerful grisha here, but I knew that simply wasn't true, there were so many things I was yet to learn, and I was still young. I may have been the best in our year at school, but actual life here in the Little Palace was different, and so many of my colleagues had been working a lot harder than I had, for a lot longer.

My mind constantly doubted whether or not the General's words had been true and whether or not he really did feel that way about me. I had heard the occasional story about him messing around with a grisha or two while I was still in school, but nothing had come up in the past couple years. Perhaps he had stopped pursuing other grisha and turned his sights to me, although I was still unsure what he saw in me.

"Milaya! You in there?" A voice called from my door, breaking me from my thoughts as I looked up from where I sat, realising it was already getting darker as I let out a small breath and placed the unopened book I had brought back with me on my bedside table before walking over to my door. I pulled open the door and smiled up at Feydor, who stood there with a small smile on his face, Ivan and Zoya standing just behind him.