19. Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Imeasured the exact amount of liquid to knock Emma out for three hours, even though I was not expecting to use it.
But then again, maybe Aiden wasn't all that capable.
After Aiden told Emma that her friends were coming, she took off her necklace making her loud melody a beacon sending them right to us.
The door opened as I was pouring, so I didn’t turn.
I didn't know if Aiden or Ryker were behind me.
They both were skilled at soul-shielding.
I acted like I knew it was Aiden behind me.
I did have a backup plan, and I was ready to use it if I turned around and saw anyone other than Aiden.
I had plans and back up plans that could be written down and span the length of five walls.
I was ever calculating—figuring out multiple outcomes.
When I realized that Aiden wasn't really a true soulless, things webbed off into different options of their own.
That was the thing about being myself. There were so many options—so many ways of choosing or deciding on each thing.
So many variables. I had to take into account personality, preference, and so much more.
It was rather complicated, but my brain liked the work, and had always liked the distraction.
If I focused on my plans and goals, my melody could not muddle them all up again with emotions as it had before.
“Hurry up; we have to go.” I turned around, and instead of seeing Aiden ready to administer the sleeping draught to Emma, Ryker stood there in the doorway.
His chest rose and fell at a rapid rate—a knight's blade in his hand.
I quickly focused on the plans that fell within that new web and followed the string of associated ideas in order to land upon the outcome I would entertain.
I tried my best to look shocked, wondering if it even mattered because the knight's eyes seemed full of fury.
“Where is she?” he snarled. I turned, placing the vial back on the table, taking my time as the strings on the web came into focus for me, and my path seemed clear.
I clapped my hands slowly in applause. Finally, I thought.
Something was happening. I was patient, but I was also eager to know which plan I would be initiating.
“Bravo, Knight. You got the better of me.” I kept clapping as he came closer to me, his knife at my throat. I knew how to get his anger to rise, and I enjoyed it, probably, too much.
“I am not playing with you; where is she?”
“She is in the back.” Aiden's voice rose to my ears.
I turned to look at the doorway to see Aiden there, his soul unshielded and playing loudly in the room.
I was surprised to hear some pity for me within his melody.
I wondered why he cared for me at all. Should he not hate me for making his sister into a soulless?
I still didn't regret it—but he shouldn't feel anything like pity for me.
“Thank you, Aiden, always so very helpful,” I shouted as he left with Ryker.
Keil, Shad's friend, tied me up and moved me from the room. The alarms sounded. The police would be investigating soon if the rescue team couldn't figure out a way to stop them from going off. My facility still had a handful of soulless workers, but as we walked through the hallways, I realized that they were all on the floor, dead. Ryker and his group had slaughtered them. Those soulless had very little time left. They were basically already dead. Still, I looked at their faces as I passed them, and one stood out above the rest, Ten—his face was bloody, his head pulled to the side with his back against the wall. He had kept away from me the entire time I had been at that facility? Good. Good on his part because I would have been rather enraged to see him alive. As we walked past him and moved further down the hall, realization struck me that he had never asked anyone else to end his life. How had he survived so long? It was a good thing that he died, however, even by the knight’s little rescue team’s hand.
He had been the one driving the car that ran into Emma’s parents and killed them.
I wondered if I should have told the knight that he had finally gotten the revenge he had been craving from me.
Glasson, one of the knights in Emma's little group, shoved me into a cell, locking the door. I heard shouts. Keil came back in, then closed the door behind him, softening the sound of the alarms.
“Turn them off,” he demanded, finally.
“Oh, I would; however, I am a little preoccupied at the moment,” I shrugged. He walked over to me, a small blade in his hand aimed at my throat.
“Call off the police,” he growled, and I felt blood drip down my neck onto my shirt. I didn’t like to get dirty—and if I was ‘captured,’ I wouldn’t get fresh clothes for a while. What a shame that red spot would be.
“Do you have a phone?” I asked.
Keil pulled away from me and handed me his phone. I dialed the number and told the alarm company that it had been a false alarm. I handed the phone back to Keil.
“Happy, warrior?”
“No, if you placed even one hand on Emma, I will string you up by your guts as soon as we reach Terra.”
“Is that what you did in your kingdom? I heard that your kingdom of Tolston had fallen. What a shame that all those warriors couldn't defend their own kingdom from the darkness of corruption. What a pity.”
“Your words do not cut me like a knife. Speak if you will, but know it’s wasted breath.
” He moved to the door, opened it, then shut it behind him.
Although he wanted to kill me, I was sure, I liked Keil—he had a strength to him, probably the only one in Emma’s group, other than my brother, who could best me in a fair fight.
A few minutes later, I was greeted by Ryker.
He didn't waste any time coming over and hitting me repeatedly in the head. Eight times to be exact. And by that time, I had given up on the possibility of keeping my clothing even somewhat presentable for when I would arrive on Terra. I also gave up on the idea of telling him about his vengeance for Emma’s parents being completed. He didn't deserve that peace.
I heard a few shouts but couldn't see because blood covered my vision. I laughed into the floor. I guess I was laying down, face first. I felt the cold floor against my face for a few moments; then blackness found me, like it always did.