Chapter 30 Kaelen
Kaelen
Eres doesn’t knock. He slams the door open hard enough that it rattles in its frame, his bellow following. “ Kaelen!”
I hold up my hands as Lyra bolts upright, woken by the noise of him storming in. She still looks too pale, too tired. Just like he did. “If this is about Darian, I know. I’m going to apologize.”
I’ve been sitting here for hours, going over the argument in my head and mentally kicking myself. But I didn’t want to leave Lyra alone and didn't want to disturb Eres. “Where is he?”
“Where is he? He’s gone, Kae.” Eres’s eyes are uncharacteristically angry, his hair wild. “Darian rode out an hour ago. He left with a patrol and went to the fucking Veilspire.”
The room tilts. “That’s impossible. There are no more patrols. I called them in."
“Shadowscouts.” Eres runs his hands over his face. “Kae… one of them just came back. Injured. They were seen, and he’s missing.”
“What?” The word comes out sharp, disbelieving. I’m already on my feet, heart hammering. “That’s not—he wouldn’t—”
“He did.” Eres’s jaw is tight, eyes burning. “It was Beckett and Carmen. He asked to go with them. Eldritch tried to stop him.”
“The Veilspire is full of Lightbringers,” Lyra interrupts. She pushes back the covers, sliding out of bed. “That’s what Elspeth said when she brought Sera in.”
And now—
They don’t take prisoners. They don’t—
My legs almost drop beneath me. I stagger, but force myself upright before grabbing my sword belt. My hands shake as I buckle it on. “I’m going after him.”
“And I’m coming with you,” Eres says instantly. My hands pause, indecision warring with sheer panic. “Don’t argue with me, Kae. Not over this.”
I can’t speak, the sides of my throat sticking together. We move in grim, swift synchrony as we load up our weapons and Eres refills his belt from the supplies he keeps on the shelf in the corner. Lyra watches, her eyes dark.
He’d looked so lost. And I’d let him go, let him think he meant nothing.
“I did this,” I breathe. “If he dies out there—"
I refuse to believe he’s already dead.
“Kaelen.” Lyra’s voice cuts through the chaos swirling inside my head. “You can’t go. Either of you. If they see you, you won’t be able to get out.”
My hands tighten on the belt buckle of my sword belt. With the Lightbringers using quills, I won’t risk being without a weapon. “I have to find him.”
“I know.” Her eyes flicker with fire. “But let me go. I’m the only one who might have a chance of getting through.”
I freeze at her quiet words. “Absolutely not.”
But she’s striding to her boots, discarded beside the fire. “I’m a Lightbringer. Their patrols won’t question me the way they’ll question you, and I’ll be able to talk my way around it if they do. I can get closer than you can.”
“You’re barely standing,” I snap. “You burned yourself hollow healing Sera. This is not happening. And I don’t have time to argue with you about it.”
“I’ll manage.” Her fingers curl, faint light shimmering around them. “But if they see you, you know they’re not going to let you walk away.”
“It’s a generous offer,” Eres says swiftly, cutting us off. “Truly. But you need more rest. You need to recover—you’ve already done too much today.”
She runs her hands over her face and takes a breath. “You have no idea what I can do. Kaelen. You know I can do this.”
Our eyes meet.
“I was well trained,” she says forcefully. “I can bring him back. Let me do this.”
“What do you mean?” Eres looks between us. “Kae?”
I can’t risk her too. “No, Lyra.”
Her lips press together, her shoulders squaring. She’s so fast. So fucking fast that I don’t see the hit coming. It smacks into my stomach, winding me, and she’s shifted to Eres before I can do more than choke.
I didn’t expect her to punch me in the fucking stomach.
She steps back, her hands already moving.
The light rises up around me, and I pull my erevas up, but it doesn’t matter.
The bars rise up too quickly, weaving and wrapping around each other as her hands move, twisting and shaping.
She’s not trying to kill us. Just contain us.
They snap into place around both Eres and I, forming a fucking cage.
She’s locked us in. Breathing hard, she takes a step back.
I grab for the bars. They feel solid beneath my hands, warm. “What have you done?”
Lyra turns. “I’m buying time for you to see that I’m right. This makes sense, Kaelen.”
Wasted time. “Take it down, now.”
I wrap my erevas around a thick bar and yank. But it’s as if she’s buried it ten feet below the damn floor, because it doesn’t move. I can get it down, but it’s going to take time we don’t have.
“Lyra.” Eres wraps his hands around the bars. “Let us out. Please.”
She doesn’t. She crosses to Eres’s satchel and rummages inside it, pulling out two quills. “I’m going to bring him back. This makes sense. You know it does.”
My finger shakes when I raise it. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
She does. She shoots me with a fucking quill, after locking me in a cage in my own bedroom. It buries itself in my neck, and I feel the loss of my shadow almost instantly, even before I tear it from my skin. “Lyra,” I snap at her through the bars. “This is not the way to build trust.”
“I’m sorry.” She stiffens, but her head shakes in silent refusal, and my heart turns over inside my chest. “I can’t let you follow me.”
Eres strikes the cage with his blade. The impact rings like a bell, the light barely rippling. “Lyra,” he pleads. “This is madness.
“So is all of you dying, when I can try just as easily as you and get through faster.” She reaches for my cloak, her eyes dropping from my face.
My heart slams against my ribs. “You said no more secrets,” I say hoarsely. “No more lies. And now you’re locking me away?”
I’m confident I can break it. But I don’t want to hurt her in the process, which means I need to let her walk out of this room.
She looks back at us before she flips the hood of my cloak over her face and pulls the door closed. I slam my fist into the cage again, fury and fear ripping through me in equal measure. My voice bellows. "Witch!"
But she’s already running for the Veilspire.
And no matter how hard we try, we can’t get out of this damned cage.