Chapter 11- Sybil POV

After I get the text, my thoughts are clouded with memories. Specifically, when l found V after we both ran away. Sh was so foolish back then and so was I- resorting to dirty work for the suits is a stupid move. I was desperate, I'll give myself that. Underneath that, however, I had a kind heart. I didn't even know what she had gone through living with them. Just another pawn in their plot.

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"So, this is where you've been hiding all this time."

She startled, whipping around with wide eyes. I stand in the doorway to her makeshift room — barren and cold it may be, but then again, that is what she signed up for, isn't it? A thoughtful, surprised look on my face as I look around. Not that there's much to look at, save the bed, if it can even be called that.

I swallow hard, gloved hands clutching into fists. Hair hangs in her face. Her skin is sickly pale, almost yellow. Body thinner than it's ever been and the shadows under her eyes stretching so far down her face they almost touch her jaw.

Still, she glares when I take a step forward, hissing loud enough that I pause, though out of curiosity more than anything else. Certainly not fear —I have never been afraid of anyone except Spades but, really, who isn't?

"The hell are you doing here?" she snarked, baring her teeth. I see her eyes glowing with magic simmering under the surface, and I am sure her hands are singing the bedding as she twists them in the sheets underneath her. However, Vega couldn't care less.

I feel genuinely confused, eyebrows furrowed together and the corner of my mouth twitching into a frown. "I came looking for you," I said simply, as though it were obvious.

"But why?" she narrowed her eyes, looking the other over, "Are you here to pity me? I don't want it. I don't want you."

A flash of hurt, though it's quickly hidden by a shield of indifference. Taking a few strides forward, ignoring when Vega flinches. I sit beside her, sizing her up just as she had done when I had entered. I wrinkle my nose. "I am not here to pity you," I admit, gaze unreadable.

She snorts, rolling her eyes, "Oh yeah, sure- just like the sky is purple and the grass is red. If that's not it, then what? Are you here to boast? To laugh?" she hesitated, wariness slipping through the cracks of her facade, "Are you here to take me back?"

I shake her head. A pang of sorrow goes through me. Hesitantly, I reach out, taking her hand running a gloved thumb along the back of it. "No," I say, voice softening, "I am not."

She hesitates, mouth pressed into a firm frown as she studies my face. My gaze falls on our joined hands.

Sighing, she leans her head against my shoulder, visibly relaxing when I immediately wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. I bite my lip to keep it from quivering, eyes burning with tears.

Neither of us speaks. When we finally do pull apart, and I tug on her hand, she doesn't argue, giving a small nod and allowing me to pull her to her feet, leading us out of the room.

We don't come back.