Page 4 of Lies That Blemish
Chapter 3
Valor
Ember was beautiful,like a raining fire. I watched it dance down to the forest floor and burn there, smoking against the cool moss. I should probably grab a chunk. It was practically a rite of passage, but considering my sister was the empress and, therefore, the richest person in the country, it felt wasteful. I’d leave it for the embersmiths to mine or the next Lottery candidates.
A twig snapped to my right, and I spun that way, dagger out. A small little ferret with purple ember marks raced along the forest floor, and I let out the breath I’d been holding.
Okay, Valor, a little jumpy.
I took a deep breath and rolled out my shoulders, trying to relax. If my sisters were here, I might feel better—I wasn’t used to being alone. Being a triplet meant I’dneverbeen alone, not even in the womb. But if they were here too, I’d also be worried about them and constantly looking out for them. No, this was better. If anything horrible happened to me, they wouldn’t see it.And in three days, the guards would find my body and bring it back?—
No. Stay positive. You’re getting out of here alive, I told myself.
It was hard not to have negative self-talk. I had an inner voice sometimes that hated me, and it sounded a lot like Father’s voice.
No, not like that, Valor.
You’re not doing it right, Valor.
That’s not good enough, Valor.
Aisling is better at that than you are, Valor.
You need to try harder, Valor.
Sometimes, I wondered what magic he had over Aisling that she idolized him so much. I mean, I was pissed that Kohen Badshah murdered him; sad to officially be an orphan… but I wasn’t mad he was gone. The nights were peaceful, the days without constant scrutiny. Now, I was just terrified that my older sister would be next. Someone I actually cared about and would be devastated to be without.
Where my mother’s death left a hole, and Father’s cold, hard neglect grew that hole ever wider, Aisling filled it. Along with Elaine, I had a vivid memory of baking cookies in the kitchen at seven years old, and a then-twelve-year-old Aisling picked up a hunk of raw dough and threw it at me. Father had been yelling at me earlier for not paying attention to my studies, and I was in a rotten mood. I had spun to her, angry, only to see her smiling before she threw another chunk. What erupted next was the first and last food fight we’d ever had. My sisters and I clobbered Aisling with cookie dough until she was laughing on the floor, and we rubbed it into her hair.
When Elaine came in, I thought she’d kill us all. But Aisling took the blame. My big sister.
I couldn’t let anything happen to her, which was why I needed to bond the biggest, most powerful creature possible so that I could protect Victory, Virtue, and even Aisling, too. My big sis was so busy running the country that she barely took care of herself. She’d lost weight. I barely saw her eat. She drank coffee constantly, and she was consumed with the war and making Imbria pay for what they did.
Another twig snapped, and I spun, sucking in a breath, and I saw two Imbrian boys, one about my age, one a little older. Like me, they wore packs and had swords on their hips, but they didn’t look like soldiers. They had soot in the creases of their skin like they’d gone through the burning fields to get here.
I held my blade aloft. “You’re on the wrong side of the border,” I spat.
We were at war with the Imbrians again. That meant this was our side, and across the river was theirs. They were probably just here to steal ember but it wasourember, not theirs.
“Valor Everhart?” the eldest said, and my stomach dropped.
No.
Assassins? I hadn’t prepared for this. Without giving it a second thought, I reached into my thigh holster with my free hand and pulled a throwing star. With one flick of my wrist, it sailed past the older boy’s head and sliced the tip of his ear right off.
With a scream, both boys crouched to the ground, putting their arms out in surrender.
“Holy crap, she tried to take my ear off!” the older boy said as he cupped his bleeding ear and glared up at me.
“I was actually trying to take your eye, but close enough,” I snarled, stalking forward with my dagger raised.
The younger boy who had been quietly watching me stood then, stepping in front of his elder brother, and held up his hands as I pressed the tip of my dagger to his chest.
Stars, he was gorgeous. His eyes were crystalline blue, and even though he had a baby face, it was still chiseled.
“Kindly go back to your lands, or I’ll carve out your heart with my sword,” I told him.
He frowned. “You have everything wrong, Valor.”
