Chapter 13

"Do you think the lips are too much?"

Anna glanced up from her laptop as I twisted the top back on the tube of shimmering red gloss I had just applied. "Normally I'd say yes, but you pull it off with black. And I have a feeling even if I do give it the thumbs-down, Baltor will beg to differ." She paused for a second, raising her eyebrow. "Baltor. That still feels weird to say."

I smiled. "You aren't the only one. I know it'll take some time, but we'll get there."

"It feels like I'm the only one who still needs to get there. You seem to be just fine with current events."

"I don't know if fine is the right word. It's still a shock, and to be honest it's still a little hard to see Baltor and Thomas as the same person. But I'm trying to look past that and realize it doesn't matter who he is or was, but that he's funny and sweet and he likes me and I like him back. I mean, isn't it supposed to be that simple?"

"You should write Hallmark cards if this whole illustrator career doesn't work out." Anna smirked.

I rolled my eyes at her and headed for the door. "Thanks."

"You're going to his place after dinner, right?" she called. "I don't have any more earplugs, so if you're coming back here I should go get more!"

"Big talk from a girl without a boyfriend!"

Anna yelled something back, but I didn't catch it, as I felt my cell phone buzz in my pocket (I had never bought a dress without pockets, and I never would). I was going to let it ring until I noticed the name on the screen, which caused me to smile and my heartbeat to quicken a bit. I hit 'accept call'.

"Hey! I was just on my way out. I'm not running late, am I? You said seven?"

The line was silent for a moment. "I do hope you haven't gotten too far."

My hand stopped in the middle of twisting the doorknob. "Baltor? Are you all right?"

"Fine, fine," he said, though it sounded a bit forced. "But I'm afraid I'll have to postpone our dinner."

"...Oh."

"I'm sorry Bloom."

I finally forced my hand to let go of the knob. "Is anything wrong?"

Baltor paused. "No. Why do you ask?"

"You sound funny."

"Bloom." He sighed. "It's... personal. Probably nothing. But I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"And you can't talk about it?"

"...Not right now. But soon, I hope."

I bit my lip. "You're okay, though? Physically speaking?"

"I'm fine. I just need to work a few things out."

"All right." I glanced over my shoulder at Anna, who was watching me with a raised eyebrow. "So how about taking a rain check for next Sunday? Same time and place?"

He sounded relieved. "Wonderful. Thank you, love. I'll make it worthwhile."

I smiled a little. "I know you will."

"He cancelled?" Anna asked once I hung up. "Why?"

"He wouldn't say." I tossed my purse on the couch. "Well, I just spent an hour and a half of prep time for absolutely nothing."

She smiled sadly. "Pull up some couch and watch with me?"

"Not if it's another Korean drama with subtitles."

"You're a spoilsport."

"I know," I said. "And as much fun as that sounds, I think I'll just turn in early."

"All right. But keep me updated on this date delay. I want to know if this goes south."

"It's not going to go south!" I insisted. "It's just one postponed date. That's it."

The caves in the Alternian mountains were surprisingly quiet, Rachel had decided. She'd only been to them once before, in a nature studies class, but she didn't remember them being so serene.

Of course, that probably had more to do with the company.

She looked around the cavern, sparsely decorated with a table, a few couches, and a shelf of baubles from various dimensions. Valentine had sent Krystal and her sisters on an errand, and though it wasn't much time to spend with him, it was better than nothing. In fact, between those three and her friends, it was a miracle she'd even been able to see Valentine since the night he'd appeared in her room - the night she decided to take a chance on what he could give her.

The moments had been few and far between, but Rachel treasured them, especially like this when there were no outside distractions. For just a few hours, she could relax and pretend that things were normal; she was just spending time with her boyfriend before she had to get back to school, not sneaking off into the mountains to be with a convict who was terrorizing the dimension. Because in all honesty, there had been little talk of what they would do when their battles reached a critical point. It was a subject neither of them brought up, and Rachel had a feeling it was because neither of them had a good answer for how to deal with it.

Valentine had gone into another room to get a bottle of wine, but apparently the room was a ways away from the one she was in. Rachel's eyes came to rest on the shelves on the far wall. She recognized some of the objects on display: they'd flashed across her TV screen as missing after various attacks had taken place. The contents ranged from small leather-bound books to fist-sized gems of various colors.

They all seemed to be in decent condition in their new home, but Rachel couldn't help but note that extra precaution seemed to be given to a necklace resting in a small glass case on the middle shelf - a gold chain with a dark red ruby hanging from it. The gem was shimmering, even though there didn't seem to be a light source aimed at it. That was odd. The only gems she knew of that could do that came from...

Rachel felt her heart speed up. She stood from the couch and walked over to the shelves, listening for footsteps. After a few seconds of silence, she lifted the case and set it on the ground, giving her access to the necklace. It continued to shine, even after she cupped it in her hand to keep the light from hitting it. There was no question; it was glowing on its own, and there was only one necklace she knew of that did that.

"You could've just asked me to give it to you."

She spun around. Valentine was on the couch, watching her with a curious eye. An unopened bottle of wine sat on the table, with two glasses. The image was a picture perfect example of a romantic afternoon, but Rachel felt nothing like that anymore.

"It's really not that important to me. There was a small bit of magic in there, but nothing useful..." He paused when he saw the look on her face. "Are you all right?"

"This is Liana's, isn't it?"

Valentine's eyes widened, like someone who'd just remembered they weren't supposed to tell a secret. He tried to look confused, but it was already too late. "Who?"

"Liana. Princess Liana of Gemma. This is her necklace. It's genetically bonded to the next-in-line for the Gemma throne. That's why it's glowing. It's trying to find its owner." Valentine was silent. "The only thing I don't get is that the genetic link prevents it from being taken by force. So that means she gave it to you willingly."

His gaze was on the shelf behind her. "I did receive it willingly."

"So you made a deal with her? But Liana has everything, and she'd never willingly betray her planet. Her ego's too big. There's nothing you could..."

Rachel's voice trailed off, her mouth half-open, frozen in shock as the thought occurred to her. "No." The word was barely more than a whisper.

In that moment, Rachel realized she had a choice. She could put the necklace back, pretend that nothing had happened and continue her romantic afternoon. Or she could follow the train of thought to wherever it led, even though it almost certainly would not be pretty.

The temptation to make the first choice, to remain in blissful ignorance, was intense. But Rachel couldn't help herself. She had to know.

Something must have shifted in her expression, because Valentine took a step towards her, reaching out his arm towards her shoulder. "Rachel, whatever it is you're thinking, I can promise you there's an explanation. Why don't you come sit down with me and we can talk about this-"

She took a step back, shying away from his touch like it would burn her. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears she was surprised he couldn't hear it. "Tell me you didn't do it," she said, wincing internally at the manic sound of her own voice. But composure was the last thing on her mind right now. "Valentine, tell me you didn't... tell me that whatever you did for Liana in return for that necklace, it had nothing to do with Connor and me."

"Rachel-"

"Please, tell me you had nothing to do with what happened at that party." Rachel felt the beginnings of tears stinging at the corners of her eyes, and she blinked furiously. She had thought there was nothing she wanted more than the truth, but only now had she realized how much she wanted to be wrong about this. How much she wanted to have this one good thing in her life, unspoiled by secrets and lies. "But tell me the truth. I'm sick of liars."

There was a long, tense pause, where Valentine refused to look at her. When he finally did, Rachel's stomach turned; his eyes were that of a man burning at the stake.

"I never wanted to lie to you, Rachel," he said softly. "You deserve more than that."

Bile rose up in the back of her throat as she saw the admission of guilt in his words.

The tears seemed to dry on her skin, replaced by a rage that went straight to the bone. Rachel felt hot all over, like the intensity of her anger would sear her skin. "You bastard! You broke my heart so that you could put the pieces back together?"

Valentine flinched at the accusation, but didn't try to deny it. "Rachel, please, calm down-"

"Calm down? How am I supposed to do that?" She reached for the first thing she could find - a patterned blue and white vase - and aimed it at his head. It was probably a priceless artifact from some far-away realm, but as it shattered against the far wall of the cave, any value it might've had was gone forever.

Just like her relationship with Valentine.

"You lied to me. You manipulated me. You took advantage of me when I was at my lowest, after you did something to make it happen. I can't believe I ever trusted you. My friends were right - you are a miserable, rotten, heartless excuse for a man."

Her chest heaved with exertion. Strangely, though every word out of her mouth seemed to hit him like a poisoned dart, Valentine didn't try to fight back. Instead of pacifying her, his silence had the opposite effect.

"Did Krystal put you up to it? This kind of devious manipulation seems right up her alley. Did she feed you all the info, tell you exactly how to make me fall for you so you could break my heart into a million pieces? Was any of it real, or was this just an elaborate plot of revenge for you all to laugh over?"

When Valentine spoke, it was in a surprisingly collected voice. "I will hate myself forever for the fact that I hurt you. But if you think for one second that my feelings for you were part of some revenge scheme, you're gravely mistaken." He hesitated, and for that split second Rachel could see the depth of the pain in his eyes. "I... I wanted to get close to you, and that was the only way I knew how."

Something inside her wanted to break, but she refused to let it. "That's no excuse," she said bitterly.

"I know."

Rachel opened her mouth to keep yelling, but then exhaled instead. "You know what the really sad thing is, Valentine? I came into this knowing who the stories said you were, but I thought I saw something different inside of you. I thought there was someone worth saving inside the monster you pretend to be. But there's not, is there? You're exactly who they say you are. And there's no one who could possibly love the real you."

With that, she turned around and stormed out of the cave, ignoring the feeling that she was leaving her heart behind with every step.

Sorry to do this to you again, but I think I'll have to take a rain check on that lunch. Forgive me?

"Argh!" I stopped myself in time from hurling my phone across the room in anger (because iPhones crack so easily, and I really couldn't afford to get it fixed).

This was maybe the seventh time in two weeks that Baltor had postponed- no, might as well just call it what it was - had canceled a date. Sometimes he managed to come up with what might've been a valid reason, but sometimes - like today - he didn't even bother trying to explain himself.

I'd been willing to make excuses at first, but now this was just getting ridiculous. I would have marched right upstairs and demanded that he talk to me in person, except he hadn't been to work in a few days either. The whole situation was starting to become less of an occasional nuisance and more of a full on problem. I could only do so much without knowing what exactly I was compensating for.

The hardest thing to wrap my mind around was the why. Things had been so incredible - I'd even go so far as to say perfect - between us, making up for all the time we'd lost in our other lives. And then it was like someone had flipped a switch and he'd become an entirely different person overnight - one who wanted nothing to do with me.

I sighed, then sat up straight and reached for my computer. The text had left me too pent up to think about drawing, but maybe I could get caught up on some old email stuff or something. But of course, when I moved my finger over the touchpad, the image that came up was of a draft of Baltor's book - the last thing I had been looking at before the computer turned itself off.

Groaning, I automatically moved to close the screen, but paused at the last second as a thought occurred to me.

I'd tried all the normal methods of trying to figure out what was going on with him - calling, texting, email, even face-to-face conversation when I could get it. But all of those would require him to voluntarily give me the information I wanted to know - which obviously wasn't happening any time soon.

What if there was a way I could find out what was bothering him that wouldn't involve that?

I leaned back in my chair, lost in thought. A normal girl wouldn't have an option like that available, but as proven again and again and again, I was far from a normal girl.

This just might work...

Three cheers for filler chapters!

Well, this isn't a complete filler chapter, but is a setup chapter for the plot driving the rest of the story! I hope you're excited! The next chapter is being written as we speak (literally, Authoress is on our BLBC doc typing it out.), and should go up around time school is out (June 7th, for me, June 1st for Authoress). And hey, who knows what else may be written (shameless plug that I'm going to try and put up new things).

But all things said, we really hope you liked this chapter. Of course scenes with Valentie and Rachel are just awesome to write. Man, isn't Valentine great? He totally deserves his own story; like a real, honest to goodness story about him that you pay money to buy and read because it's nice like that. But I mean, it's not like that will ever happen, right? (Wrong. But we'll talk about that later.)

Anyway, next chapter! Expect it in a few weeks time. And of course, reviews are nice because it makes us feel accomplished and stuff.

Have an awesome summer, you guys!

ember & Authoress