One last glance in the mirror and she stepped from the light and into the waiting darkness. Nyx waited what felt like a lifetime before leaving her safe spot and running to Tor. She didn’t know why she felt the urge to go to him after all he’d done to her– would probably continue doing to her. It wasn’t something she wanted to look at too closely at the moment.
Act now, think later.
Nyx slid to her knees in front of Tor and rolled him to his side. Blood pulled beneath him, staining his clothes and skin. “Oh my gods, Tor.” Nyx placed her hands frantically around his body as if she could find some way to help, but she didn’t know where to start. “Are you okay? Of course you’re not okay. Get it to-fucking-gether Nyx.”
He coughed, blood spattering his chin as he whispered something unintelligibly.
“What? I can’t– Tor I can’t hear you.” Tears stung her eyes and made everything blurry as a wave of dizziness hit. She wiped a hand across to clear them but fell to her ass when she realized her palms were covered in his blood. Blood she shouldn’t be able to touch in a vision.
He coughed again and she brought her attention back to the words he was trying to mouth.
Focus, she reminded herself. You have to focus. You can’t help if you’re freaking out.
Nyx put her hands on the floor and leaned in to press her ear against his mouth. “Say it again, Tor. What do you need?”
“Invitation,” he wheezed. Every breath was an effort, and it drew a cry from her lips. If he died, the people of Avyssos would be left to rot.
“I already have a stupid fucking invitation, Tor, just tell me how to help you. I refuse to die because you’re too stupid to live.” Nyx leaned down again, but he only repeated the same word. “Ugh!” Nyx yelled, frustration mixing with panic and clouding her judgment.
She scrambled to her knees and searched the floor around them until she found the blood-spattered invitation. It was identical to the one she gave Brooks, but Mel knew a secret they hadn’t.
It was the blood.
In between the inked lines was the real invitation, written in a substance that could only be seen when soaked in blood.
Nyx laughed, the sound incredulous even to her own ears. “You genius, I could kiss you!” She turned to look back at Tor and remembered he was dying on the floor.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Nyx dropped and cradled his head in her hands. She tucked a leg under as gently as she could and laid his head in her lap. “I don’t know how to help us.” Her voice was low and raspy as tears fell to his cheek and she did a shit job of wiping them off before they ran down and dripped from his nose.
“Are you crying over me, kitten?”
“I would never cry over an asshole like you. I’m upset because your blood is staining my favorite pair of pants and, in case you forgot, I’ll die right alongside you.” He smiled even as his breaths were coming in short pants. He was fading.
A familiar heaviness hit her like Ares war hammer and godsdammit if it didn’t always happen at the worst time. Her vision was fading. She would return to her home while he lay wherever he was, alone and dying. Would she go the sameway? Dropped on her kitchen floor as the God of Chaos wiped his hands clean of her?
Nyx placed a hand over her eyes and pushed, willing her chaos to let her stay even a moment longer.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t take me now. Just a few more minutes!”
She looked back down to Tor and a softness she’d never seen before eased the ever-present frown lines. That complicated look was the last thing she saw before her chaos jerked her back to reality.
“Ruby.”
Xia let herself get lost in thought as she walked beside swirling shadows back to him. Back tohome.She had mixed emotions about the woman she’d spent her day with. She’d been stunned when Ruby jumped to conclusions about Brooks when she’d never even met him.
Other than Ruby’s curious behavior toward the end, Xia enjoyed spending the day with her. To not have to worry about what the night would bring and take on tasks as mundane as laundry while feeling so at ease was exceptional.
Knowing that Brooks was just up the hill from the main cluster of homes made it even easier to slip into a part of herself that had yet to be discovered. She’d spent so much of her life wearing armor made of tempered glass. It was too dangerous to take it off to figure out who she was without it.
Who was the girl underneath the glass? What if, just maybe, she was made of titanium?
Xia was determined to find out.
Maybe she’d done herself a disservice by not pushing to be a part of the discussion. Discovering the girl beneath the glass would mean speaking up for her needs and fighting for her wants.
Fighting… for herself.
She wanted this new life, and she knew down to her soul that she wanted Brooks to be a part of it. To build it with him by her side, but it wasn’t possible until she did the work to love and trust herself. To be selfless was to be selfish, for one cannot know what parts of themselves to give if all they ever did was let people take the ones they wanted.
