39. Raelyna #2
“I’m not getting a great feeling on this.” Finn’s voice interrupted the silence of the empty corridor.
“You don’t say,” I bit back, my voice a low whisper. “We should have just started with the second floor like we said we would—”
“Let’s keep moving,” Iver interrupted as we began making our way back toward the stairwell. A door slammed shut in the distance, and every one of us froze in our tracks, pressing ourselves against the wall as we looked around in confusion.
“We just checked this floor?” Finn’s voice was a low whisper. “Did we miss a room?”
“Shut. Up.” Iver’s voice was a dangerous hiss as he motioned for us to follow after him. Cautiously, we followed his movements, creeping our way through the darkness as we carefully retraced our steps back to the stairwell.
Iver began to slow his pace before me. My own footsteps halted as we approached the stairwell. He turned, motioning for us to remain silent before the door softly clicked open and we snuck into the stairwell.
Finn had just made it through, the door firmly shutting behind us, when a voice broke through the silence.
“Took you long enough.”
I nearly shrieked as I whirled around. Iver had his pistol raised and aimed, the red laser pointing directly at the voice that spoke in the dimly lit space before I took in who it was.
“Orela?” I questioned, confusion seeping into the word. My eyes tracked up and down my sister’s form, scanning her for injuries, ensuring she was unharmed.
“If it took you a minute longer, the floor would be flooded with guards,” she stated as though we were having a friendly conversation at a café, rather than sneaking through the back stairwell of the High Temple in a rescue attempt.
“How are you—What are you—” I couldn’t even finish my sentence as I stared at my middle sister in shock. The lines beneath her eyes were more visible in the low lighting, dark purple bruises that sank into her cheekbones. Her hair appeared more brittle, her nails a mess of jagged, picked skin.
What had happened to her?
“We need to get going.” Her voice was weak but resolute. “There are still too many paths, too many options, too much that could go wrong.”
“How are you here?” I asked. “How is no one looking for you? What is even happening right now?”
“I’m sure they will be looking for me soon enough—they’re rounding all the seers, transporting them somewhere. I slipped into the stairwell when the RSG wasn’t looking. They are bound to notice their count is off soon enough.”
We heard a shout in the distance, and Iver began motioning for us to hurry down the steps.
“We’ll go out the way we came in.” His voice was low as we began to wind our way down the stairwell. “If that closet is still unguarded, that window will be our best option.”
The three of us only nodded, following Iver’s lead as we clung to the outer wall of the stairwell, moving through the shadows at a hurried speed. I noticed my sister limping slightly as we moved down the stairs.
“What happened, Ore?” I asked as I stood beside her, letting her lean slightly against me as we hurried past the third floor.
“It doesn’t matter,” she answered, her head turning upward as we heard shouts from the door we’d just passed.
“We need to move faster,” Iver’s command had me looking toward Finn, fear flashing in my eyes as the shouts began to grow louder, closer to the door as we neared the second floor.
“Orela,” Finn stated as he reached out, grabbing my sister’s arm. “We’ll move quicker if you let me carry you.”
I watched my sister’s eyes narrow, her lips moving silently as though she were weighing the options before she nodded her head, and Finn scooped her up. We were on the move once again.
I heard a door slam open higher up in the stairwell, and the RSG’s shouts echoed throughout the stairwell as they began to flood the space.
“Hurry.” Iver’s voice was a low whisper as he urged us down the last of the stairs to the first floor.
I held the pulse omitter in my hand, jabbing the button, praying it would help hide our trail as we darted after the Remnant, now sprinting to get out of the stairwell before the guards caught up to us.
“Not right. Not right. Not right.” Orela’s voice was a feeble whisper as we opened the door to the first floor and darted out into the corridor, rushing toward where we’d first entered the temple.
“Over there!” a shout sounded from further down the hall, and we were sprinting as fast as we could through the corridor, matching Iver turn for turn as we tried to lose the guards on our trail.
My heart thudded in my chest, breaths struggling, as we ran for our lives, my feet skidding with each turn we made. Shouts sounded closer to us, and just when I thought we weren’t going to make it, Iver threw open a door, ushering us through the space.
“Go, go, go.” His voice was a sharp command as he shoved me through the doorway, my steps stumbling as I came up short in a small, dark space, the hint of a window in the distance.
“Let’s go. Let’s go.” Iver rushed toward the window once the door was securely shut. “We don’t have much time before they go door to door.”
Finn set Orela down as I rushed toward my sister, wrapping my arms around her, grateful to have her with me once more.
The window groaned, a high-pitched squeak coming as the paneling unlocked and slid upward.
Only this time, a loud blaring alarm began to sound, Iver and Finn cursing as we realized the window opening had triggered an undetected alarm.
“Shit.” The word fell from Finn’s lips as Iver was already scanning the window before climbing out. Finn began helping Orela next, lifting her through the window, careful of her leg as Iver helped pull Orela through.
Safe. My sister would be safe. We just had to get home.
Finn gestured toward me, but I shook my head.
“Go!” I demanded as the shouts grew louder, doors slamming near us. There was a frustrated huff before he moved toward the window.
“Who goes there?” The guard’s voice broke the silence just as Finn was slipping out of the crack in the window.
My body froze for a split second, realizing that we’d been caught, and that I was the only one still inside the temple.
The space was still dark, the crack of the window barely visible as I motioned to Finn to go, to take Orela to safety—
Then I slammed the window down, ensuring it was locked before I ran to the far corner of the small space, pressing my back against the wall and tugging on the water and earth affinities swirling inside me before I could second-guess my decisions.
I forced myself to think of every painful moment—of my father dying, of Orela when she was marked as a seer, of the bargain I’d made with Luc and the betrayal that followed.
I thought of the worst moments of my life, reminding myself of what I was fighting for as the lights to the small space flicked on and three RSG entered the room.
“You there.” The guard’s voice was a sharp bark as he caught sight of me. “What are you doing here?”
I didn’t respond.
I pulled on every ounce of my affinities, harnessing the small amount of power I had, as I shoved my hands out, water and earth spiraling together as they cut through the air toward the guards.
And for one small moment, one flicker of a second, I had the upper hand.
I had caught them off guard.
I felt the moment a powerful fire affinity whipped through the room, diminishing the water I’d cast as it charged toward me, cutting off my circulation as smoke flooded my lungs.
My eyes widened, just as another spiral came toward me.
Cords of fire wrapped themselves around my wrists and ankles before I could resist.
“Bring her up with the others,” the taller of the guards said to the other two, before he exited the room. The remaining two guards stalked toward me, their eyes narrowed as they each grabbed one of my arms, hauling me out of the room.
My eyes teared up, the lack of oxygen increasing as I was roughly dragged through the hallways, unable to defend myself, unable to move, to break free.