I shifted to ensure I shielded Gray with my body while summoning a second dagger to my other fist. “Valik,” I warned. “Wheredid you come from?”
With an eye roll, he sighed. “A portal.”
“A…portal?” I questioned with a raised brow, still mind blown that those even existed.
“Yes. A portal. You know. Traveling between worlds. Dimensions. Realms. Whatever you wanna call it.” Valikshrugged and plopped onto the ledge, retrieving a knife from his pocket. His brown waves were cropped short, but the longer tendrils in the front fell over his brow. He ignored them as he dug the tip of his knife’s blade beneath a nail and cleaned it. “Ah, that’s right.” Valik chuckled and shook his head as if it was a joke with himself. “You guys don’t do portals like that.”
“What the fuck, Valik? Why are you here?” I demanded, growing impatient, concerned that he was even here at all.
“You know him?” Gray spoke from behind me.
“Kinda. Not really,” I muttered. “Trying to figure it out myself.”
“‘It’is sitting right here, by the way.” Valik waved as if he were invisible, a fake smile gracing his features that I could only describe as perfection. How? Who naturally looked like that?
“What do you want?” I asked, skipping any formalities.
“It seems you discovered something recently,” Valik said, intently focusing on his nails.
My mouth went dry. “What are you talking about?” I wished I had the ability to mute Gray’s hearing with sound manipulation like Peri. My shoulders tensed, and my fists tightened around the hilt of my daggers.
Valik stood, power emanating from his body as if he were power himself.
For the first time in my life, outside of my punishments with Grim, I felt small. I swallowed, swapping my stance to prepare to go on the offense.
“You met an Elemental the other night,” he said matter-of-factly.
I dipped my head, keeping my gaze locked on him. “Yeah, what about it?”
“He told you some things.”
“Sure. They all do.” I shrugged.
“Did he mention anything about the Endarkened by chance?”
“Yeah?” I said, dragging it out in question. “I mean, kinda. What do you know?”
“Did you happen to gain any information about that claim?” Valik asked. Within seconds, he went from seeming childish and aloof to feeling like an ancient power that was better left untouched.
I kept my stare ahead, clocking all of the exits and quickest escape routes to get Gray to safety. “Maybe.”
“What did you discover?” he asked.
“I don’t know if it was actually—”
“Tell me, Chrome.”
I clenched my jaw, conflicted about whether to divulge my suspicions.
“This is important. I need to know.”
Gray’s fear cinched around my heart and squeezed it, reminding me of her presence. She couldn’t know the truth yet. None of it. It was too dangerous. All it would take would be for Forest to hurt her enough and she could spill it all. I couldn’t risk her getting hurt, and I couldn’t risk the insurgency being compromised.
I shook my head. “Nothing. There was nothing.” Silently, I tried to communicate that I couldn’t talk about anything related to the insurgency with him right now. I mouthed “later” to him.
Valik narrowed his eyes, glanced at the princess, and held her gaze as he studied her with a tilted head. “Princess Gray. It is quite the honor to meet you at long last.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her as she shrunk away, looking back and forth between the strange man and me. Her bracelet was on, so hopefully she couldn’t sense that he was neither Elemental nor Kinetic.
