Chapter 23 #2
“Nothing,” he said finally, ruffling his hair in irritation. “Let’s get out of here. Where’s the tunnel that leads out from his office?”
My eyes widened. “We’re leaving the building now?” I asked, disconcerted. “What about the others?”
“I have instructions to get out as quickly as possible. Why do you think we brought Cannon and his crew along?”
My stomach jolted. “Good point.”
I looked around for any sign of the tunnel. I just knew there was one, but not exactly where. Discomfort filled my body at the thought of telling Daegal this.
But before I’d even had time to consider it, two guards burst through the open door.
An orb of light hurtled towards me, and I barely managed to jump out of the way before it hit an empty shelf behind me, setting it aflame.
I hissed in pain, looking down at my side.
The orb had grazed me, burning my skin in the exact same place Kenric had hit me when he’d chased me through the market in Erobred.
But I gritted my teeth and raised my hands in defense, facing the guards. My sun powers were still unreliable, and my moon magic was rendered useless within these walls.
I looked to Daegal, who stood ready, his eyes fixed on the threat in front of us.
With one meaningful look between me and the guard to his left, he conveyed his plan to me.
I conjured all the anger I could muster, squeezing it into a little ball in my heart. Then I pushed that anger forward like Daegal had taught me and hurtled an orb of light toward the guard on the right.
Daegal’s whip had slit the other guard’s throat. Blood was spurting from the wound onto the golden floor. He clutched his gaping throat, falling to the ground with a thud.
The orb I’d managed was the most powerful one I’d ever created, but it wasn’t a killing blow.
The other guard shrieked in pain and clutched his melting face.
With all the hair missing from his face and angry, red patches and boils forming on his skin, he charged towards me, a whip hanging from his hand.
Daegal’s arm shot out, grabbing the guard’s neck in an iron grip before driving his fist into his already scolding face with another orb glowing above it. His punch, along with the burning magic, did the job.
The guard fell motionless to the floor with a menacing clunk when Daegal released him.
“If you keep saving my life like that, I’ll start to believe you actually like me,” I said breathlessly, watching his glowing eyes.
He looked deadly but beautiful. Dark hair falling in messy waves across his forehead, chest heaving with effort. But his lips had split into a grin at my comment.
“Don’t thank me yet, sweetheart. I’m still dragging you back to the base to face whatever punishment the council sees fit,” he teased, stepping closer to me while holding my gaze. “And I, for one, am not quick to forgive.”
My cheeks burned. We couldn’t do this now, whatever this was. The screams and shouts from the other end of the hall also seemed to pull him back to reality.
“Tunnel, Prudence. Think.”
I looked around the office with wild eyes. Nowhere seemed sufficient to hide a tunnel. But then I remembered.
“We walked up to get to this level. It has to be on the floor!” I shouted, scanning the ground for any cracks in the gleaming golden metal.
Daegal pushed the heavy wooden desk to the side, crouched, and ran his hands over the smooth surface of the ground. His palms glowed softly as he did so.
“What are you—”
The floor split in two, revealing a passage just large enough to fit a grown man. I gasped, looking down the uncovered staircase.
“Should we check on the rest?” I asked, looking over my shoulder towards the chaos inside.
“No,” he said firmly, grabbing my arm. He hurdled us downwards, raising his hand to seal the tunnel once more.
The second the floor slid back into place, we were engulfed in darkness, stumbling down the stairs.
I conjured an orb and held it out in front of us just before the stairs were replaced with solid ground.
“Daegal, the rest of them!” I protested, digging my heels into the ground to stop him from running further. “What if they don’t make it out before Cannon uses his bombs?”
“Everyone inside was instructed to get the prisoners out as quickly as possible. You saw it yourself; the guards don’t want to leave. They’re all cowards. They’ve probably alerted the King and Boaz by now. We need to get a move on.”
Instead of admitting that he was right, I resumed running, now dragging him with me. The thought of being trapped in this tunnel as the prison crumbled above us made me eager to leave.
We reached the end of the tunnel, the thick golden metal separating us from the desert outside. “Think you can do your little magic trick again?”
Daegal stepped in front of me, muttering something while dragging his hand over the metal. It slid open, just like the floor had.
“If you weren’t a traitor and my prisoner, I’d teach you this handy little spell,” he chuckled darkly, shooting me a wink over his shoulder.
I rolled my eyes, following him out quickly. He probably knew how to get through these exits because of his years as a Defender. I decided I needed to remember to taunt him about that once we were safe.
Only when we were out did I realize how anxious I’d been to leave Lili behind. The only comforting thought, one that’d stopped me panicking, was that she was with Archie.
“Where are they?” I whispered, looking around. It was quiet. We should’ve been able to hear both the war inside and the voices of the people outside. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “We must be all the way on the other side of the prison.”
A loud bang interrupted our search. I couldn’t stop the shriek that escaped me as I covered my face with my arms.
“Come on!” Daegal yelled, grabbing my arm and dragging me away from the explosions. Cannon had outdone himself. The walls shook beside us as we ran for cover.
We dove behind a sand dune just as the second bomb sounded. The explosions continued for what felt like hours. Like a chorus, a deadly symphony. We’d moved further away from the battle, now watching the show from a distance.
I adjusted my sitting position, wincing as the burning pain erupted on my left side. Looking down, I saw that my shirt had been scorched, leaving the wound open and bleeding.
“Are you hurt?” Daegal asked, straightening up from his slouched position on the ground. He scooted closer to me until I could feel the heat radiating from his body.
“It’s nothing,” I answered, but I couldn’t help the grimace that followed his tentative touch. Still, I didn’t want him fixing me up. “Just leave it, Daegal.”
His eyes scanned my body, checking for other injuries before landing on my face. He gave me a long, unreadable look that made me stare back at him in confusion.
“Just let me dress your wound so it won’t get infected,” he sighed. When I didn’t answer, he hung his head, making the brown curls cascade over his eyes. “Please.”
“Okay, fine,” I gave in, turning my side to him. “Thanks,” I added hesitantly. He’d begged me to let him fix me. That had to count for something.
His fingers started to peel the melted fabric from my wound with slow, careful pulls. The pain that followed had me gripping his hand tightly, halting his movement.
“Prudence,” he said so softly that I couldn’t help but look at him. I’d never seen him like this, brows slightly lowered in concentration as he looked up at me from his crouched position on the ground. “I need you to let me do this.”
With a sigh, I nodded and released his hand. I squeezed my eyes shut to prevent my vision from blurring as he gave a last, cautious tug.
“Good, just keep your breathing steady. I’m just going to—” The sound of fabric ripping cut off his words.
I gasped as the air hit my exposed back. “Daegal!” I protested, opening my eyes to look down at my ruined shirt.
“It was destroyed, anyway. I’ll give you one my spare ones,” he answered shortly, not taking his eyes off my wound as he dressed it with the cloth he’d torn from my shirt. I could feel his breath on my neck, coming in short, concentrated puffs.
A warm feeling that had nothing to do with my burnt flesh spread through my shivering body.
“There,” he said, leaning back on the heels of his hands to study his work. But then his eyes landed on my back.
The expression on his face changed in an instant as his gaze trailed down what I knew were the thin, red lines that covered my skin there.
His fingers found the torn hem of my shirt and lifted it slightly, revealing the scars running down my back. With a feather-light touch that made my stomach jolt, he ran his fingertips across them.
“You never told me… Who did this to you?” he asked, his eyes darkening as he stared at me with a gaze so intense that I had to force myself not to look away. It was the same question he’d asked me during our first training session. Only this time, I felt compelled to answer him.
“Kenric, the Defender, when he punished me for escaping him the first time he’d tried to catch me. “ My thumb found the scar trailing down my arm, just above the symbol that had allowed me to contact Lili.
“Whips of light,” he asserted.
I nodded. “And the King’s Right Hand gave me this.” I pulled the neck of my shirt to the side to show him the huge scar caused by the most frightening man I’d ever met.
“Elio Boaz? What did he do to you?”
“He tortured me for information to try and figure out if I knew anything about the Rebellion. He apparently thinks that every mooncaster in Erobred is a rebel.”
His expression hardened, gaze ablaze with a fury I hadn’t even seen in his eyes the times he’d looked at me with hatred. Almost like he cared that something like this had happened to me. But why would he?
“Daegal, why are you looking at me like you almost care?” I tried to make my tone sound humorous, as if I was merely asking to tease him. But the vulnerable pitch that filled my words instead had me wish I hadn’t spoken at all.
“Because,” he said, his fingers gently running over the rough skin on my neck. “Maybe I almost do.”
“Dae!” someone shouted from the distance. Daegal jumped back like my skin had suddenly turned scalding hot and burnt his fingertips.
Cannon and his group jogged into view, eyes scanning over us. “Good, you’re both okay,” he panted.
“The others should have left by now,” Daegal said, getting to his feet. “I told Felix to take them back the second the stream of prisoners stopped.”
“What?” I snapped, getting to my feet as well. “They’ve already left?”
As Daegal’s eyes landed back on me, I knew he’d slipped on the mask of mission leader, fierce fighter, hater-of-Prudence-the-traitor.
He shrugged, examining his fingers carelessly. “Yes, they left, and I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight to go with them.”
My cheeks flared along with my temper. I stormed towards him, ignoring the blazing pain in my side. “You mean to tell me that my little sister left without me? That Archie left without me?”
“If they know what’s good for them. Hopefully, they’re better at following orders than you are.”
“You can’t be serious!” I yelled, kicking the sand furiously. He received a mouthful, choking and spitting on the tiny grain.
“Calm down, Prudence,” he hissed, grabbing my forearms and forcing me to still my frantic movements.
I writhed in his grasp, panic overtaking me. “Don’t you think she’ll be safer at the base than here?” he whispered, gesturing to the prison and the desert.
“Not as safe as she’d be with me,” I seethed. “Nobody would do what I would do to keep her safe.”
“We’ve established that,” he scoffed. “But seeing as you’ll be chained to me again very soon, I doubt you’d been much help anyway.” He raised his voice as he said that, looking at Cannon with that self-satisfied smirk I’d longed to slap off his face multiple times in the past.
I gaped at him. “You’re handcuffing me again? Daegal, you know I’ll go of my own free will when my sister is at the base.” I shook my head at him. “That really isn’t necessary.”
“You should probably cuff her,” Cannon said tentatively, eyeing me cautiously. “To make sure Verena doesn’t get mad.”
“Of course,” Daegal scoffed. “What kind of captor would I be if I just let her roam around freely?”
“I thought we finally saw eye to eye,” I scowled, wrenching my arms free from his grasp. “Now that you know I didn’t lie. I thought you believed me.”
“I do,” he said simply, leaning forward to bring his face closer to mine. Nose to nose, I could almost make out the mask he’d slipped on and the bewilderment hiding beneath it. “And you’ve proven yourself useful on this mission. But I don’t have the power to grant you your freedom without a trial.”
He straightened up, fishing the cuffs from his pockets and dangling them in front of me.
“Are you going to let me put them on you willingly, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”