31. Phoebe
31
PHOEBE
T he shouts come again while I’m going through this weird sense of deja vu. Vapas steps ahead, pushing me back and behind him. The knife is in his hand while he looks around. Boots are approaching and there is more shouting.
Firelight dances between the cracks in the wall and door. Someone has torches outside the walls. The shouts are in Urr’ki, so I don’t know what they’re saying, but nonetheless my blood runs cold.
Vapas growls and pushes me back until we’re against the wall. His attention is on the front, so I assess the back. This hovel is barely standing. There must be another way out.
In the far corner, buried in shadow, I see something that gives me at least a bit of hope. I slip out from behind Vapas. He tries to grab and pull me back, but I duck under his grasp.
Several slats hang loosely bound together. I grab onto one of them and tug. It swings aside revealing a small opening. I could get through it but Vapas will never fit.
Vapas looms over as I pull the slat aside. His broad frame casts a shadow even in the flickering light of the candles.
“You won’t fit,” I say, my voice low and tight.
His jaw clenches, and for a moment, he looks at the opening, then back at me. The shouting is louder outside, closer. Boots pound down the alley. We only have moments before they’ll be pouring in. I don’t know what they are waiting for.
“I can widen it,” he growls.
He grips the edges of the gap and rips, his muscles flexing as he works. Splinters fly as he tears at the brittle material, each piece giving way with a sickening crunch.
“Faster,” I whisper, glancing over my shoulder.
My stomach drops as I audibly gasp. That’s not only torches. Flames are licking through the wall like it’s alive. Red-orange tongues exploring its way through the cracks as it seeks its way in. Smoke fills the room, thick and acrid, burning the back of my throat.
“There.”
Vapas steps back and gestures for me to go through. It only takes one glance to see it’s still not big enough for him to fit.
“What about you?” I demand, voice rising in panic.
“I’ll follow.”
It’s a lie. I see it in his eyes. He doesn’t believe there’s enough time for both of us, but he’s shielding me from the truth.
“No!” I hiss, grabbing his arm. “We both go, or neither of us does.”
His growl deepens, a primal sound that sends a shiver down my spine. He shifts his hands and grabs both of my arms in a death grip.
“Phoebe, do not argue. Go!”
The heat of the fire is heating up my skin. My lungs scream for fresh air. I glare at Vapas as he grabs me and jerks down. He pushes me towards the opening. I want to resist, but I also know he’s right. On my hands and knees I pause, looking over my shoulder.
“Promise me,” I demand.
“Phoebe, go. Now!”
He pushes on my ass, trying to force me into the opening but I hunker down and refuse, though he does shove my head through.
“Vapas, promise me. Get out of here. Don’t leave me.”
His eyes bore into mine as debate rages across his face. I’m asking him the impossible. He’s resigning himself to fight and die, but I don’t want to live without him.
He’s mine. I’m his.
After all the trauma, the resistance, the not going to do it, it all clicks into place. Maybe it’s the danger, heightening all my senses, maybe I’m high on adrenaline and fear but it doesn’t feel like that at all. As I realize this fundamental truth a sense of calm comes with it. A certainty that this is the one I need to be with. The one whom I’m meant for.
“Yes, dragoste,” he says at last, nodding.
He drops to his knees and grabs onto the sides of the opening, setting back to work to widen it. Having gained his agreement I wriggle through the narrow gap, the edges scraping my arms and sides.
Outside, the night air is cool after the heat of the flames. I crawl a little ways across the ground of uneven, broken stone and debris. There isn’t a lot of room. The hovel butts up against the outer wall of the cavern that homes the Urr’ki city. I rise up and press my back against that wall.
I turn in time to see Vapas shove himself through the hole. The wood groans under the pressure, and for a terrifying moment, I think it will collapse entirely. But he forces his massive shoulders through, twisting and contorting in ways I didn’t think were possible for someone his size. He gets to his feet and rushes right to my side.
“You are okay?” he asks, his eyes inspecting as he speak.
“Fi—”
“Gru-har-uh,” a voice shouts in Urr’ki before I finish.
Vapas grabs my hand, and we run.
Behind us, the hovel erupts into flames. Smoke and heat billow out, filling the narrow escape path and obscuring us from sight for the moment, but it won’t last.
“This way,” Vapas growls, tugging me toward the shadows of a jagged rock formation nearby.
We dart into the darkness, the sound of pursuing boots pounding right behind us.