“Are we going to that class today?” Rebel asked behind us and Valentina nodded.
“Might as well, nothing else to fucking do around here,” June answered in a tired voice.
I would never have attended the class if it wasn’t for the fact that it meant I got to spend more time with Valentina. The class itself was pointless and revolves around being productive members in the world and our life after this hell hole. Not that we would ever get out. I hadn’t been here long but it had been long enough to know that most of the people here were not imprisoned by accident. Not like my Cupcake.
As an ink mage, I often found myself sketching dream like visions, quite a few of them having to do with her. I couldn’t see the future but I could see what she’d gone through, small snippets, and I knew she didn’t belong here. That was putting aside that she had confided in both Dimitri and me what was going on with that asshole Drake. I wasn’t positive why she trusted me but I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Most days, Valentina was like the thorniest rose. Stunning and dangerous… but there were times when she was different. When she was a bit softer and where she seemed to showcase who she’d been before she had to become ruthless. In my grandest daydreams I imagine a future where she can be free to express that side of herself, along with any other fucking side of her she wished. I just wanted to be along for the ride.
But yeah, she didn’t belong here.
Me on the other hand? I probably should sit my ass down and stay. I didn’t trust myself to not kill someone for touching me. It had happened several times when I hadn’t had enough sleep and I hadn’t remembered it until the next day. I'm kind of lucky they put me in prison, I should be institutionalized.
I had grown up in an orphanage, no memories before or after, just that I was alone. It was probably one of the only elements that made Dimitri and me similar, allowing for some basis and groundwork for a friendship between us. If you could call it that. Fairly quickly, I had been thrown into the foster care system and had aged out.
It wasn’t until I was about thirteen that I realized how my foster brothers were treating me was demented. Both the beatings and the sexual abuse. That was why I didn’t do touch. Why, on the rare occasion that I did sleep, I preferred to do it alone instead of accidentally hurting my Cupcake because of a night terror.
I hadn’t been lying, her touch was painful. It was painful to be touched with so much affection and such a gentle action after suffering from so much abuse. It was painful that I worried about hurting her every time she reached out to touch me. It was different when I chose to touch her because I had time to prepare myself mentally. Last night when I’d came over? That was nearly a half an hour of talking myself through it. Assuring myself that I wouldn’t snap her pretty neck for touching me.
That was what had happened to my foster family. I’d finally reached a point where the abuse had become too much and I’d snapped. Besides nightmares, it was one of my favorite ways to kill people.
I had been at peace with my future path of loneliness before arriving here. I’d been raised in the Horde, a sector of the Fae lands, and had been living there until I killed the wrong person. Unlike on the Earth realm, savagery was accepted in the Horde. Unless you killed someone important and their family ordered your arrest. My path didn’t seem as lonely now that I was here and my magic had wrapped itself around Valentina so tightly that I wasn’t positive how she didn’t notice. We were practically begging for her fucking attention. After all, I’d never met someone as powerful as her.
I could twist dreams and reality with the stroke of a pen. I think that was one of the reasons I felt so comforted by Valentina’s massive power surge. Made me feel like I was less of an oddity, because I wasn’t a normal Ink Mage. No. I was far different than anyone I’d met. I also felt a bit of hope that her touch didn’t create an angry storm of fear, which was usually the first response in me. It hurt but it was a good pain. The type of pain you feel when you sink into steaming hot water and it takes you a moment to adjust.
“You should get some breakfast,” Dimitri stated and she nodded standing up, this time I followed after. I wasn’t positive what was going on with her today but I didn’t like it. Instead of cutting in line she got into the back and I watched her cautiously as others began whispering, her magic flaring up in annoyance.
Dimitri and I weren’t exactly close, but if I had to consider someone my friend it would be him. I trusted that he didn’t want to actively kill me and that was enough for me. We had talked a few times about Valentina and I had realized the connection I felt towards her was on his end as well, even as a human. If you could call him that. He didn’t need to tell me how deep his obsession with her ran. I didn’t know about human culture well but I didn’t think it was very common for someone to kill daily for their mate. At least, not outside of animals. Then again, I wasn’t positive it was normal in mage culture either. And let’s not get confused here, I was definitely killing for Valentina even if it wasn’t as direct as Dimitri.
“Cupcake,” I murmured, “why don’t you sit down? I can get you something.”
“I’m fine,” She whispered her tray banging down onto the metal row as she began to grab a small assortment of things, her mind moving a million miles an hour. Sometimes I received snippets of it. But not always. What I wouldn’t fucking give to read her mind.
I remember the first time I had come across her and how she had nearly knocked me on my ass with her power. It had been right outside in the prison yard.
I kicked a rock under my foot, the stone jumping and landing on the pavement nearby. My eyes were squinted to avoid the harsh cold light. I was really attempting to make myself unnoticeable but as fucking usual that shit seemed impossible.
“Hey kid,” Someone grunted and I froze hoping for their sake they didn’t touch me.
When I didn’t answer, a pair of boots stopped in front of me, “Hey. I’m fucking talking to you.”
“And I’m not responding,” I looked up as my magic, a predatorial darkness that liked to play creator, woke under the surface of my tired consciousness.
“You little bitch-” He tried to grab me and instinctively I stepped into him, snapping his neck. I should probably look into the subconscious reasoning on why I always chose that way to kill but I think I knew. I could still feel my foster brother’s necks limp and broken under my hands. I suppose I expected more of a reaction but people just backed away and I stepped over the body finding the rock I had been playing makeshift football with. I kicked it once more and it landed right on the smaller boot of an individual. I looked up.
“That was solid,” She stated nodding over my shoulder.
“I don’t like being touched,” I spoke immediately in a near strangled voice. Her dark magic radiated off her like some wicked torch. She stepped closer and I froze, her fingers wrapping around the stone she had lifted from her shoe. Placing it in her palm she offered it to me and I saw the challenge there, I wish I could say I hadn’t risen to it.
Instead I placed my hand over hers, covering the stone and pulling it into my own, shivers rolling up my body at the contact. She smiled and nodded towards a table behind her.