ᴍᴏᴏɴʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴀꜱꜱᴀꜱꜱɪɴꜱ「 ˢᵒʳᵘʸ ᵛˢ ˢᵒᵏᵉᵉᶠᵉ 」

33 [liar]

Do people enjoy lying?

That thought circled her head as she watched Sophie go off with Ruy to find Keefe and Gisela to see if there were any memories they could coax out of her mind. Memories that they weren't telling her the exact truth about.

Once people start lying, do they ever stop? Or do they have to keep up the charade?

There was a brief look in her friend's hazel eyes, and it screamed betrayal. Like somehow she knew that they weren't all being honest about the events that went down.

But the real events were nothing that she would have wanted to know.

So was it a lie by omission? A lie to protect?

Or was it selfish?

Hazyll bit at her fingernails as she turned to Ezra and Alvar, her boyfriend and her best friend. And when she was sure that Nyxen was gone and out of earshot, she tore her hands through her hazel hair.

"We need to tell her," she hissed. "She's letting on that she knows a few things already, and the fact that we've been hiding something from her this whole time."

She was about to say something else, but the voice of Nyxen's father—who she forgot was there, along with Raynne and Trix, that made her more panicky.

"This is in her best interest." Fintan murmured, dragging a hand to his shaggy beard that was in definite need of shaving. She honestly had no idea how he pulled Nyxen's mother, but maybe there's a slight chance he was less rugged back in the day.

"No, it's in your best interest because you refuse to even acknowledge that it exists, much less tell her about it. C'mon, Ezra, help me out." Because Ezra was Nyxen's cousin, and if he were in her shoes, he'd probably want to know.

But her boyfriend didn't answer her.

Her face screwed as she glared at him—he was a coward who at times bit off more than he could chew. She should have known that he would never go against his precious uncle.

"Fine, never tell her then—see how she will react when she finds out on her own."

"I vote that we tell her!" Alvar barged in, sensing the tension—he could always sense when she was going to kill Ezra and saved the witchy-technopath's life. "I mean—"

"Stay out of this, Alvar." Fintan grumped.

Ezra puffed out his chest, "You aren't family, so you wouldn't—"

"Shut up."

"Okay, uncle."

Hazyll was one pull away from tugging out all her hair.

Brushing past her boyfriend, she stormed in the direction opposite of where Nyxen was going just in case she couldn't hold in the truth. She was in a random hall when she sense someone behind her, "Ezra if that's you—"

But it wasn't and she should have known because Ezra never went after her. He was never wrong, so he never chased after her, never sought to make anything right.

You fuck up, and I say sorry.

Turning, she saw Alvar smiling at her awkwardly, his never-gelled-back-hair-anymore all messy like he'd been running his hand through it a lot while following her. She smiled at that, and his smile became less awkward and his sapphire eyes began shining.

"Thank you, for coming to my defense, it means a lot." More than anyone would know.

"Of course," he said, coming to her and draping his arm around her shoulders. "Anything for my best friend."