New World

Chapter Twenty-four

"So... Spying on Sophie and Keefe," Cerulean said. "Only the most boring thing in the world."

"Boring but essential," Fox snapped. "Should they ever do something secretly that we ought to know about, this will be a prime opportunity to find out."

Cerulean rolled his eyes and grinned at Savi, but she turned away. He was forgiven, but she... She didn't know who she was anymore. There was something wrong about blindly trusting people. He shouldn't trust her and she shouldn't trust him - facts. Regrettable facts, but...

She liked him. It pained her to admit that, but despite everything, she still liked him, and she wanted to throw herself into his arms and have everything be alright, but she was too paranoid. He was going to betray her again. Maybe he'd switch sides and become good, and then she'd be stranded again, on the dark side without him.

She hated the way she acted indifferent to him now because he was still important to her, but how could she ever trust him again? He would do the unexpected, just like her, and that made him too crazy to rely on. She was equally crazy, but that didn't mean she was crazy enough to trust him again.

"If you're done dreaming, Nemesis," Fox drawled. "We have work to do. Spying."

"Right," Savi murmured, straightening up.

Cerulean glanced at her with concern, but Savi didn't make eye contact with him, instead turning away, her eyes dark. She was a loner, and she always would be. She had trust issues. It was obvious by now.

𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

Cerulean watched Savi as she followed Fox, her eyes hollow and practically dead. There was a distant feeling to her he'd never felt before, not even in the times when she'd ignored him. Then, she'd been swallowed by anger. Now, she was just empty. A hollow shell needing an owner.

"I'll fix you, Savi," he whispered, so softly even he himself could barely hear it. He imagined the girl he'd first met, ignored practically her whole life, but she'd still been happy. She'd made friends with the outcast. She'd changed him, made him question his decision to join the Neverseen.

And now she was there with him, but she didn't feel like her, not anymore.

"Are you both going to daydream all day?" Fox demanded. "Like I said, we have work to do!"

"I'm not daydreaming," Cerulean said immediately.

Fox snorted. "As if."

Savi glanced at Cerulean, her eyes blank and dead, but she followed Fox anyway with a mourning look in her eyes. A searching look. 

She looked like someone who couldn't find her place anymore. Someone who'd gotten lost in the crowd and been separated from everyone she knew and loved.

She was broken, he knew. And she needed to be fixed. Because the world hadn't deserved her, and they'd broken her until she was twisted into something terrible. Something people would hate forever.

But he never would.

He was like Sophie in Keefe and Sophie's relationship, the one who would never hate Savi. Even if she was working to destroy everything she'd once loved.

Cerulean had no attachments to the Elvin world. They had talked down to him and treated him like he wasn't one of their own kind. Cerulean hadn't been a wanted child. Even his grandmother, patient as she was, had lost her patience with him when his parents had been sent to Exile. She hadn't wanted to raise another child, or live under scorn.

He wanted to make a difference. He would show Theodora that, and she'd believe that he'd only wanted the best for her. Theodora had hated him and never wanted him, but at the same time she'd loved him and cared for him. And he'd given her further scorn by turning to the Neverseen.