Little White Lies

9. Little White Lies

A week passed and I still hadn’t found the guts to tell him. When he’d confronted me later that day, I told him it wasn’t important. Now it was my turn to lie to him.

            “I really think we’re in good shape, everyone,” Tristan said as he stood at the end of the dinner table. “The royal family would like to thank you all again for coming to our aid. We do realize that you all have your own lives and we have an army that is supposed to handle these things, but you are all the best at what you do. We would not be able to do this without your help. When this is all over, you shall be greatly rewarded.”

            For the past week, everyone had done their fair share of training with the leaders of the Terra Vox army, including myself. However, most of my training was in healing and self-defense since we hadn’t revealed my true power yet.

            “I just want this to be over already,” Abby whispered beside me. “I’d like to spend some alone time with Guild that doesn’t involve him attacking me.”

            I smiled. Abby was really crushing hard on Guild. It was hard to believe it had only been a little over a week since she first met him. “That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.” I nudged her arm

            She hit my shoulder. “Zee!”

            “It’s true,” I said shrugging. “You’re an adult and you have your own room. Why don’t you….invite him over for some alone time?”

            “You don’t think that would be a little…fast?”

            “Well, from someone whose time is severely limited…no.”

            Her smile faded. “I don’t like it when you talk about it like that.”

            “And I don’t want to get into it again,” I said sighing. 

            “Zee, you barely have functioning arms anymore. You need to tell him or he’s going to find out on his own.”

            “We’ve barely spoken for the past week. There really hasn’t been a chance,” I said.

            “You’re lying.”

            I stood and threw my napkin onto my seat. “I’m not talking about this anymo-.” All of a sudden there was a flashing pain in my head. It felt like my eyes were on fire and my head was being attacked by lightening. As I doubled over in agony the screams escaped my lips. In a matter of seconds I was writhing on the floor clawing at my face to make the pain stop. Though I was vaguely aware of people speaking around me, nothing could pull my attention from my pain.

            What was happening to my eyes? Would I lose my vision?

            Suddenly, the pain stopped altogether. As I took the moment to regain myself, I thought about how to get away from all the people who undoubtedly noticed my little scene.

            “Zee, are you ok?” Abby asked. She was kneeling in front of me with one hand bracing the floor and the other on my back. I looked up at her and she gasped. “Your eyes.”

            Suddenly I became hyperaware of the other, larger, hand that was also on my back. “What about them?”

            “They’re green,” Tristan said in wonder.

            “Oh no.” I got up and ran straight to my room. There was a mirror right on my wall, so it didn’t take me long to see what had been the cause of my agony. My once black-as-night eyes were now an unnatural green.

They glowed the color of Vercilon.

“Oh man,” I mumbled to myself over and over as I fell onto my bed. This wasn’t something that would go unnoticed. People would ask questions….Tristan would figure it out.

Panic arose and my heart began to beat faster and faster.  I felt it inside of me, thrashing throughout my body and pushing at the edges of my skin. Wave after wave of heat hit my veins and all of a sudden it was too much. With a scream I released the burning green substance from my body. I felt it sear through my flesh and reveled in the moment of peace I felt as I embraced the familiar pain. Altogether it ended and I collapsed onto the floor.

Not two minutes later there was an intense pounding on the door. “Zyda open this door right now!” Tristan screamed.

As I lay on the floor I thanked the heavens that I somehow remembered to lock the door. I needed a minute before I could deal with his wrath.

“Zyda I swear if you don’t open this door I’m going to knock it down!”

I licked my dry lips and tried to find a voice. “I need a minute,” I managed to choke out.

“You just erupted?” He screamed.

“Yes,” I coughed.

My eyes were closed when the door cracked open, but I didn’t miss the crash that came with it.

“Is it true?” he demanded angrily.

Abby followed behind him. “You need to calm down. She’s been through enough today.”

“The hell she has!” He knelt beside me. “Look at me, Zyda. Is. It. True.” Obviously I didn’t respond fast enough because he grabbed my arm and pulled off the glove. When he saw my hand he cringed, and it made me recoil from his gaze. “Weeks. This has been going on for weeks and you never told me?!”

Finally, I looked at him. “It’s complicated.”

“No. You’re dying, Zyda. It’s not complicated at all. So tell me why you didn’t mention it.”

I sighed. “When it first happened, you weren’t exactly around were you?”

“Oh no, I apologized for that. We’re not changing the subject here.” Then, his whole demeanor melted and he became pleading. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

My eyes began to water. “I didn’t want your pity. And I didn’t want you to ever do anything you didn’t want to because of what’s happening to me.”

“Baby,” he said in a mangled voice. He buried his face in my shoulder as he gripped my hand tightly. “I love you so much.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “You can’t be the weapon. We can’t let you do anything that’s too taxing. Shit I bet even just the training has taken a lot out of you. And healing me, too. I bet that took a lot. Shit shit shit. Ok, you need to rest and take it easy. Nothing too tiring and.”

“Shhh. Baby, stop. I’m dying,” I said as I brought his hand to mine and kissed it. “Let me make it worth something.”

His tears finally spilled over his eyelids. “I just got you back, I’m not ready to lose you.”

“I know, baby. But there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

He kissed me. “I will figure something out.” Tristan’s eyes flashed with determination. “I’m not letting you go that easily.”