Chapter 100 Chapter 100
However, the bags under her eyes and the bruises that sometimes appeared on her skin couldn’t be hidden from Thorne’s sharp gaze. When she entered his office the next morning to hand in a written article, he asked her to sit down before she could leave again. Reluctantly, she took a seat on the chair in front of his desk, crossing her legs.
A particularly angry burn marked her left arm since she had fought a fire demon, and unfortunately, her sleeve had slipped up far enough for Thorne to see. His eyebrows rose, and his mouth twitched in disapproval and worry.
“Valerie, may I ask what you have been doing these past two weeks?” His stern green eyes were piercing as they regarded her, and she couldn’t look away.
“Nothing noteworthy,” she replied.
“I’ve known you for many years, and I can tell that you’ve been abnormally tired at work. Something is up, and I want you to tell me,” he said seriously, his normally calm voice taking on a hard edge.
“You needn’t worry about me, Thorne. Everything is fine.”
“Is it because of Maxwell?” he asked bluntly, and her smile slipped. She faltered, fingers digging into her thighs as she stared at the ground. She hadn’t heard anyone speak his name in a while. Her friends had gotten used to avoiding that topic in front of her, considering her feelings. Just hearing his name had the void in her heart throb painfully, and the longing to see him came back.
“No… It’s not because of… him,” she whispered, her voice failing her. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
“Valerie,” he began carefully. “You can talk to me about anything that is bothering you. I’m here to help and to support you. I just want you to be safe.”
When he was met with stubborn silence, he sighed. “I’m going to be honest with you since you obviously won’t admit to it… I know that you’ve been out hunting, you can’t fool a century-old demon,” he finally said, and saw her body stiffen.
“I’m not doing it alone, and I’m also being careful.”
“Maxwell wouldn’t have condoned this,” Thorne uttered and shook his head, eyes staring into space with a bitter tinge in their depths.
“What Maxwell does and wants doesn’t matter anymore. It’s obvious he doesn’t care about me at all,” she snapped angrily. “Don’t bring him up again, Thorne.”
“Acting as if he were never here won’t help.”
“Are you taking his side now?” she hissed in frustration, ready to get up and leave.
“No,” he said, making a calming gesture with his hands. “I’m on your side. If I ever see this damn bastard, I’m going to kick his ass so hard he wishes he’d stayed in hell.” A sinister scowl distorted his soft features, causing him to look every bit like the demon he was. Anger was blazing in his eyes. “I’m not blind, Valerie. I’ve seen how much his departure has affected you. He has to be completely nuts.”
She fidgeted with her hands, glancing down at her intertwined fingers nervously, fearing to voice the words she had been thinking about for a long, long time. It took a lot of courage to verbalize them. “The answer is easy. I don’t mean anything to him. That’s why it was so easy to cut me from his life,” she whispered sorrowfully. It felt like the sadness was choking her, a lump forming in her throat. “I mean, why would a demon like a human? He told me so many times that he finds us weak, and he’s not wrong about that. We might be the weakest compared to all supernatural beings that exist. He must have been sick of being around me all the time.”
She didn’t see Thorne’s grimace, the pitying frown that followed. He reached over the desk and covered her restless hands with his, prompting her to raise her head. She looked crestfallen. He hated seeing his friend like this; it was so unlike her to be depressed and downhearted all the time. Her smile was something he hadn’t seen in forever, and he couldn’t curse Maxwell often enough for being the cause of all this.
Thorne had supported them in any way he could and also helped them get over their disagreement after Uriel’s death, but now they were back to square one.
The warmth of his hands was a comfort to her, as was the kindness in his eyes.
“You need to know one thing, Valerie,” he said seriously and met her gaze. “You are not weak, and you continue to prove it. Although I don’t like you hunting supernatural creatures, the fact that you’ve decided to do it shows that you aren’t a coward but someone who faces their fears and overcomes them. I still remember how scared you were when you first learned of their existence, but I no longer see that same fear in your eyes. You’ve grown in the past weeks, and I want you to realize it. Have confidence and don’t let yourself be pulled down only because one demon decided to be a stupid prick.”
“Thank you,” she managed to sputter.
Thorne smiled. “You’re very welcome, Valerie.”
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Despite all of Thorne’s warnings and tries to reason with her, Valerie didn’t change her habit of going on hunts with Travis. The free time she had this Saturday would be used to check out a popular hiking area where some humans had previously vanished under weird circumstances.
In Travis’s opinion, it had to have a supernatural reason. Perhaps the high-class demon they were after was responsible for it, and even if that wasn’t the case, Valerie and Travis still wanted to make sure that nobody else would be hurt.
They met up at the edge of the woods on a parking lot where the hiking trail began, leading up the mountain. It was a rainy day, and the sky was clouded, a fresh breeze playing with Valerie’s ponytail. She had gotten used to wearing her hair like this to prevent it from getting in the way.