Page 40 of The Night Prince

“He hates me,” Declan answered simply.

This was a fact.It was non-negotiable.It was not just Vulre’s taunting words, but his actions.Yet to list those to her would sound like grievances and he was grateful to be in the Venomthorn and not out on the streets or dead in the water or wild.

“You think this because he is harder on you than on the other novices?”she asked. “He singles you out for more training, does he?Has you spar against three instead of one?Makes you the hunted instead of the hunter in all the chases?”

All of those things made little sense to Declan, but he nodded his head to confirm them. There was more to it than that though.Flashes of less food, a ragged blanket, constant harassment by the other novices went through his mind.But he mentioned none of them.Again, he had no family, no name, nothing.He was jadir.Yet she had taken him in.She was kind to him.She wanted to heal him even though he had bled her Blood Knight.

“You realize that those things have also caused you to be thefirstto ever cause him to bleed, don’t you?”she asked.

He froze.“First?”

“Yes,first.No novice has ever done that.And here you did it.”She was smiling broadly and nodding as if this was something she had expected all along. “So young.And you did it.”

Declan frowned.“Perhaps it was a lucky strike–”

“No.”She covered one of his hands with hers for a brief moment.“No, it was not.It was a sign of things to come.”

“I don’t understand.The other novices are… are so much more ahead of me,” he admitted softly.

“Oh?”

“They all have their first Blood Weapons.I have been… been unable to… create one,” he told her.

Surely, she knew this!He had been certain that Vulre had told her with great relish how he kept failing.Over and over again.Despite all that they had given him.She had given him.The dagger at his hip was borrowed.Just like the loincloth and the sandals.None of it was his.

But the victory against Vulre was.It was mine.

“And I have not experienced the Awakening.”He pressed a hand against his chest.

She nodded almost thoughtfully.“Those must seem like grave failures indeed.You must believe that there is somethingwrongwith you.”

Declan’s head snapped towards her.His breath caught in his throat.“Doyouthink something is–”

“No.”She looked at him full on and took both of his hands in hers.Her hands were warm and she was gentle with him.No one was gentle with him.No one touched him at all unless it was with violence.At least not inthisnow. “I am going to tell you something that few know or remember…” she half smiled, “or pretend not to anyway.”

“What?”His eyes flickered over her face, trying to discern if she really thought something wasn’t wrong with him.Was she lying?But why would she?

“Vex could not perform a single spell until he was three times your age,” she confessed with an almost girlish glee.

Declan blinked.Heknewthat name.Vex.Xelroth Vex.The Night King.A face with blond hair and round glasses swam up before his mind’s eye, telling him excitedly about this Vex…

“Our… our king?”Declan asked.

“Yes, our king–the dark god himself–could not perform a single spell!Not even conjure a wisp to light his way! Before him, of course, there were no Blood Weapons.He was the first to create them,” she explained with a distant look on her face as if remembering this.“But, again, he did not forge his first until an age had passed. His family thought him a complete Null.Yet we now know that he is the greatest Mage that has ever existed and likely ever will. So, you see, you are ingoodcompany.”

“But the king is…”

“The king?And you are just you?”She laughed.“Yes, but before Vex was the king, before he was who he is now, he was a boy.Struggling to find his way.Desperate to be accepted, but knowing… knowing he might never be.Underestimated and looked down upon.Yet he became…” Here, she paused and licked her lips.“Well, he became what he became.But his greatness is unmatched. He began from nothing.Just like you.”

“You truly think I could be… be sogreatas King Vex?”Declan’s voice showed his hope and his uncertainty. That seemed so outlandish to him.

Vex.The Night King.The boogeyman.That’s what Finley described him as.Wait!Who is Finley?Finley…

Her expression was almost sad as she said, “Oh, yes, I amsureof it.”She squeezed his hands again before releasing them.“If Vulre is harder on you than the others it is because… because I have asked him to be.”

He stared at her.“You…”

“The world that Vex has created for us is hard.So very hard.And you must be able to defend yourself,” she explained.“I have tasked Vulre with this.”

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