A/N: Griffin and Valtor only complicate things between them more when they refuse to admit the truth, even if there are no lies between them either.
"Did you miss me?" Valtor's voice echoed through the dungeons, cutting viciously through the quietness that otherwise filled them. His magic had given his presence away as he'd teleported, though, spoiling the element of surprise even when she had her back turned to him.
"Why are you asking when you'll only believe one answer?" she turned around to face him. He'd sneaked behind her back and still hadn't managed to startle her, working against himself in proving she wasn't afraid of him. But he was going for another angle anyway, seeing that fear wouldn't have her heart pounding for him.
"I want to see if you'll try to lie to me," Valtor met her gaze calmly, his attitude contrasting to the emotions hidden behind the words. It was somehow worse than the times he'd erupt when they'd fought on opposite sides. They'd been meeting so much on the battlefield it had felt almost romantic. If not for the magic aimed to kill her. She couldn't have missed him if she'd wanted to, for he'd always been there. But the ice of Omega had changed things for both of them.
"If I say I did," she started because he wanted her trapped in a situation in which lying and saying the truth would hurt equally so he certainly wasn't expecting that, "will you not accuse me of lying about loving you?" If he wanted to bring up her feelings, he'd have to take all of them into account. Not just the ones that were convenient for him.
"Who said anything about love?" Valtor asked, his facade still nonchalant enough but now with the tiniest hints of cracks in it in the face of the barely noticeable pause before the word 'love' and the way he blinked, cutting his gaze from hers just at the time it left his mouth. The challenge was back in his gaze in an instant, though.
"What other reason would I have to miss you?" she asked as she stepped closer, steering him towards the trap he'd set for her.
"The intoxicating feeling of our convergence," he offered immediately as if it was obvious when the one thing that was rapidly becoming clear was that he'd lost. She just hoped he'd have the decency to admit that.
"Magic comes from emotions, you know that." He'd taught her that. She'd known it long before she'd met him of course, but he'd been the one to show her what you could really do with your powers as long as you got in touch with your emotions. Their convergence had been so powerful because their feelings had been in tune. They had been shared, the connection between the two of them strong enough to withstand every attack coming from outside.
Valtor held her gaze. "True," he admitted as he crossed his arms, waiting for her next move.
"So you believe me then?" she asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a less deadly direction. They had the chance to stop hurting each other but they had to both take it.
"Believe what?" Valtor shrugged. "You haven't said anything." He had no mercy whatsoever even to himself. His inability to let go had destroyed them from inside. And it kept doing exactly that even now.
"At least you can't accuse me of lying to you." She wanted to be honest. But what was the point if he wouldn't accept any of her words that differed from what he wanted to hear? She couldn't find his demons when he wouldn't do so himself.
"But you're not telling me the truth either," he spat out as if he had rights over her. She didn't owe him anything after what had happened between them no matter what he thought, and yet, she was still doing her best to avoid hurting him–both of them–more than necessary. Which was more than what could be said about him. He'd set out to hurt her and he wanted her to cooperate in his plans. Selfish to the very end.
"Are you telling me the truth?" she asked because she wasn't the only one who was dodging questions. Luckily for her, she'd gotten better at not letting him get away with his hypocrisy.
"I've never lied to you," he said as his arms fell at his sides as if she'd truly hurt him. But it was his ego and his pride that she'd wounded. He'd loved to parade with the fact that he'd never lied to her but that had only been the case because he'd been too good at omitting the truth and she'd trusted him too much to press more. She'd loved him too much to see through him.
"No," she shook her head. "No lies. Our... partnership was killed by unspoken truths." Like the fact that his mothers had been planning genocide and he'd known all along. Or the fact that she'd been suffocating among all the bloodshed and even her love for him hadn't been enough to make her stay.
"Was that what your betrayal was?" Valtor asked as he came closer, his voice a bit unstable as the emotions took over it. "Because I remember you saying you would never leave and then you went and did just that." He was shaking, but not from anger, and the sight was unbearable because she knew his body language so well. Coupled with the words that he'd just thrown at her face, it made for yet another accusation against her. As if she'd brought everything they had down with satisfaction. As if she'd been happy about the whole ordeal. As if he'd been the only one to suffer.
"Did you miss me?" she asked, her eyes closing under the heavy realization of what she'd just done. And just in time to spare her from the sight of his reaction towards the strike she'd just carried out against both of them. She hadn't been trying to destroy them, and yet, there she was, pushing against something that was already far too fragile. Because he'd hurt her with the truth.
The sound of footsteps had her eyes snap open to see his back as he was walking away from her. And it hurt more than anything he could say. Especially when the thought that that must have been how he'd felt when she'd left made its way into her head. She'd hurt him and she had to do something to fix her mistake if she didn't want to trap them in a vicious circle with no escape, if she cared for either one of them.
"I did," she fired out and was relieved to see him stop despite the harshness of the sound when it bounced back from the walls, washing over them in intense waves. "I did miss you." She had. From the moment she'd left, a part of her heart had been ripped away and nothing other than his presence could fill the void eating away at her. So she couldn't let him go, for that would be the equivalent of murder. "And I did love you." Maybe loved him still. But even she wasn't fully convinced of that so she left it out.
Valtor turned around, doing her the courtesy to look at her one more time instead of silently walking away with her heart. "I guess we both know the truth now," he said, showing some mercy at last.
