Page 24 of As Above, So Below

No more barren hells.

I want to dance under the moonlight, learn to swim in the sea,and lay under the canopy of a tree on a sunny day…

Deep, muffled voices pull me from my thoughts, and the window before me comes back into focus. As I turn, the click of the door handle sounds, and I brace myself for Netharis to enter.

The door swings wide and Vaelyn strides in, smiling.

His arms filled with books.

Kicking the door closed with a heel, he crosses the room, headed for the desk in the corner near a window. I watch him in confused silence, as he sets the stack of books down with a thud.

“I would have come sooner,” he says, turning to face me and crossing his arms over his chest. He speaks as if it hasn’t been weeks since we’ve last seen one another, but simply hours. “But Netharis had the entire floor warded. Forced the rest of us to sleep elsewhere.”

Interesting.

A small smile curls my lips. For a time, it seems, my own father viewed me as a threat to his House. Too bad I wasn’t successful in ending him; I would have given Vaelyn the hells without remorse.

I release a long, long sigh.

“What does he want?” The sound of my voice sits strangely in my ears.

They’re the first words I’ve spoken in weeks.

Vaelyn shoots me a confused glance. “Netharis didn’t send me. Ylara did.”

He gestures to the stack of books on my desk as if they would prove his point.

I lean against the windowsill, one of my wings brushing against the warmth of the glass. The other rests against the cool of the obsidian wall. Vaelyn pulls out the chair and straddles it, folding his arms across the back as he watches me closely.

“If you’re here to fight with me about Kassil again—”

“I’m not,” he interrupts, hurt flashing through his eyes. “Ves…” he trails off.

He’s not sure where to start.

To be fair, I don’t know where to start either.

Wheredoesone start when I’ve been nothing short of a persistent thorn in the god of death’s side? There hasn’t been a weekwhere I haven’t earned some degree of Netharis’ ire for my behavior—and not all of it intentional.

His stare is laced with concern, evidenced by the creases bracketing his mouth. “I thought Netharis was going to end you.”

“That was the goal,” I scoff, looking away.

Vaelyn’s eyes widen, his cerulean blue pinning against mine, and I’m sharply reminded of the same intense stare from Celesta.

I shouldn’t have hesitated when she made her offer.

Things would be different if I hadn’t.

A mistake I’ll regret for eternity.

“You don’t mean that,” he says quietly. “And even if you do, you know he’ll never allow it. Think of the message it would send. Killing you doesn’t serve him, it serves you.”

I remain silent. As much as I hate it, Vaelyn is right.

“No.” Vaelyn shakes his head. “He’s going to break you. And I don’t want to see that.”

“Again,” I whisper.