Valesia cast a glance behind her every once in a while, but no one was following them, or even paying them any mind. She led him through the winding back-alleys, a route all guild members knew well.
On rare occasions you’d see some youngster panickedly spinning round and round in a slow circle, lost beyond his wits. Usually they’d caught a glimpse of a guild member disappearing into the twisted paths and decided to follow them, losing them only after they were so deep in the bowels of the city that they had no hope of finding their way out again. This fact was also why the paths were littered with bones.
The pair descended a staircase that led to the sewers under the sewers. The true intestines of the city. If the paths were the bowels, this was the piss pot. Smelled like it, too. The only good thing about the place was that it was the purest dark you could find anywhere. Valesia’s eyes could finally relax. “Just a bit farther,” Valesia muttered, her voice bouncing eerily off the smoothe pillars and towering walls.
They walked in a straight line for about three more minutes before descending yet another set of steps. She’d never been this low before, but she knew that few else had either. Darcy’s body would never be found unless someone was directed to it. Edward had told her about it two years ago when she asked where the best place to hide a body would be. It felt suffocating, pressurized. “We’re here.”
“But why?” Darcy asked again.
The echo given off by Darcy’s voice resembled the aggressive hiss of a spider. One of those massive spiders that her family hypnotized when she was young. They were used to torture prisoners as a entertainment for Lolth. She shivered. She’d forsaken Lolth long ago, denying her teachings, but it reminded her that she was on a goddess’s hit list, too, and gods don’t generally miss.
I forsake my oath!
But your blood is still black, black as a moonless night. You’ll ssserve me even in rebellion!
Was fate always going to be against her? She chose not to kill Darcy’s friend for the guild, so now Darcy himself must die by her hand. It seemed so unfair. Of course, the gods, no matter which one of the dark elf demons she’d worshiped, all agreed that life wasn’t made to be fair. Life is chaos. The only way to survive is to be chaotic.
Even in rebellion!
Darcy approached her, reading her like a book as he was always able to. “Valesia, what’s wrong?” The gentle tone in the dark elf's voice made it feel like he was the one stabbing her. The ice was melting away, and Valesia knew if she didn’t do it now, it would remain undone.
“I just—missed you,” she lied easily. Her words had the desired effect. Darcy immediately wrapped her in his arms. She almost didn’t get a hold on the dagger but it slipped from its sheath and she gripped it firmly, refusing to let it leave her hand. Then, she hugged him with all her might, plunging the dagger through his back, right into his heart.
His gasp resounded in her ears and bounced around her jumbled head. His weight in her arms was heavier than lifting a mountain. The bloodied dagger slipped from her grasp as she clung to him. Valesia, trembling, laid his limp, wheezing body on the cold stone ground. She crumbled, her vision spotty as the smell of blood permeated the air around them. There was no escaping it.
The pressure seemed to be increasing, and she pressed her palms to her head as it throbbed.
Suddenly her eyesight cleared as Darcy coughed weakly and gazed at her like a sad puppy. Confusion outlined his barely-tinted face. What choked Valesia the most was that his blood was red… just like hers.
“Darcy…” tears streamed down her face, like a torrent in the middle of summer. It was uncomfortable and confusing and not the least bit expected. Her tears mingled with Darcy’s life essence that pooled around him.
“Why?” he choked out, blood spraying her face. She didn’t wipe it away. His eyes closed without waiting for her answer. His body went completely slack and one last warm breath whispered out of his soul.
“I had to… for Talio…” she said, but he could no longer hear her. Desperately she realized that Darcy could not be her sacrifice or she’d be appeasing the gods she forsook. No longer would she be the brave anomaly, she’d fit right in with the rest of her kin. Too late.
You’ll always serve the goddess! It is written in your nature!
But maybe not. She reached into a concealed pocket located on the inside of her cloak and uncorked the bottle within.
YOU ARE READING
Black Bloods: Valesia's Vow
Fantasy"Valesia looked outside the window and saw that the sun had just disappeared behind the hillcrest. She had until the second sundown to murder her best friend. The only person who loved her through her plight for Talio. Talio. Was he ever going to st...
