This Blood that Bonds Us (This Blood that Binds Us #4)

68. Sixty-Eight

Sixty-Eight

Kimberly

The room erupted into chaos, and some of the lower members of The Family pressed into the atrium. Ezra and Sirius barked their orders, but I reached for Aaron, trying desperately to grab hold of him. The pulsing noise was excruciating. I guessed a drone.

“I’ll lock her up,” Luke said, wasting no time in grabbing my arm and pushing me toward the door.

“No, let me take her.” Aaron grabbed me and pulled off the restraint.

Zach interjected. “So you can run off? No. You don’t even know where it is. Stay next to me.”

“Get off me!” Aaron reached for me, but Zach yanked him away. My hand barely grazed his again.

“She’ll be fine with Luke,” Zach said.

“It’s okay, Aaron.” Get the dagger , I mouthed to him.

He nodded with a pained expression. I’d lost sight of it. Sirius could have given it to someone else.

The only solace I had was knowing Aaron would be safe, but what about Zach . . . Luke? They clearly were still not going to fight with us, which meant The Legion would fight them if they stepped in their way.

Luke threw me over his shoulder. I dug my fingers into the cloth of his jacket when he started to run. My head was spinning. The air on my back soothed the sting of the gashes. I moved to look out across the field as we reached the doors that led outside. Yelling. Fighting. It was really happening. A larger group of Legion were coming from the front of the castle, but I lost sight of them as we disappeared into the charred hedge maze.

My feet hit the grass, and I stood face-to-face with a statue I instantly recognized. Icarus falling from the sky. Luke touched the side, then a door opened, and he led me down a dark dusty hallway with stone on either side.

In the barely lit room, I saw a silhouette of a man.

“Will!”

William sat in the corner of a dusty, damp cell, and I ran up to see him. The room was bone-chillingly cold.

He stood up at my words. “Why are you here?”

I hesitated. His eyes, though he’d always had darker irises, were pitch black.

“You’ve come for Her, haven’t you!? You can’t have Her!”

I recoiled from the hatred in his voice and fell back into Luke.

“I’m sorry. Can you let me out of here please? I need to get to Her, and they won’t let me.”

“Will . . .”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t know me.” He slammed his fist into the bars. “If you won’t help me, then you can die for all I care.”

No. She’d changed him too. Only, he was worse than Presley. This was the consequence of too much of Her blood. I had to fight the lump in my throat at the thought of The Legion and the horror they’d feel seeing him this way. If that’s what happened to Will, I was afraid to think about what had happened to Thane.

“I’m sorry you had to see him like this,” Luke said. He watched Will, who was now screaming and grabbing the bars to pry his way out. “I . . . I wasn’t paying enough attention. This is what happens when you come here. This is likely what will happen to you.”

He pointed to the cell beside William’s, and I followed.

Luke turned to leave, and I stopped him to wrap my arms around him in a hug. I remembered his hugs. Always reassuring me. Pushing us on and making me believe in something that wasn’t there. If I squeezed him hard enough, maybe he’d remember. Maybe he’d cling to himself a little longer. I braced myself for him to push me away, but after a few seconds, he let out a breath, then a few more. His hand moved to my shoulder, and he squeezed me back, soft at first, then hard and comforting.

“Why are you here?” He said it through clenched teeth, but it was a plea.

I stayed clinging to his large frame.

“I’m sorry we didn’t come sooner. Everything took so long.”

He held me by the shoulders. “I want to tell you that I can save you . . . but I can’t. I can’t save anybody.”

“You don’t have to save me. We came to save you.”

He shook his head with a furrowed brow. “It’s not going to work.”

“Did you think no one was coming to help you?”

“I didn’t want help . . . not from any of you. I wish you hadn’t come.” Amid the darkness and the grit, there was still something incredibly soft about Luke. He was in there. Clinging. Holding on. I couldn’t see every scar or infliction, but it was written on his face and lived in the dark circles under his eyes.

“I don’t know how to help you.” His voice wavered from only stoicism to something more. Care.

“You don’t need to. We’re going to save you this time.”

“I’ve got to go. We’ll come get you when this is over.”

As he left, I clung to the bars of my cell. Only partly thankful I had a moment to rest. Fear tore into me from every side; Aaron still had a job to do. His brothers needed more convincing, and our time was running out.