Chapter 51 Zion
ZION
“I’m not losing you.” I brushed the tangled hair away from her face, the strands sticking to her wet cheeks, and swore at her unseeing eyes. Her vacant look pierced my chest like an arrow with jagged edges and burrowed so forcefully into my ribs that they fractured.
Sticky liquid coated my fingertips from a wound at the back of her head, and I practically exploded. If I’d arrived ten minutes later… I gritted my teeth.
Cursing at her frozen state, I hurriedly fixed her clothes and rushed back to the compound with her in my arms. Kicking the infirmary’s door open, I yelled, “Help! Now!”
“What—” Eislyn rushed in from the adjoining room. “Put her over there. What happened?”
“Where’s the doc?” I laid Kali down on the steel table in the center of the room. “I want everyone here. Save her.” My fist hit the metal surface. The structure rattled from the force, yet she didn’t even flinch, just stared at the bright lights dotting the ceiling.
“Calm down.” Rooted in her spot, Eislyn raised her palms, her voice controlled. “I’ll get the doc, but you need to cool off. Jayce! Get in here!”
A yawning man appeared in the adjoining room’s doorway, his gray t-shirt and sweatpants wrinkled. “What’s up?”
“Wake up the doc,” Eislyn ordered, checking Kali’s pulse.
I rammed my fist into the wall. The assistant jumped and dashed out of the infirmary.
“Talk to me. What has been done to her? Any broken bones?” She lifted Kali’s t-shirt. “Whose blood is this? I can’t find the wounds.”
“A soldier’s,” I ground out. “I think he hit her head before strangling her. I tried to talk to her, but she won’t respond.” I ripped at my hair, pacing alongside the wall, glancing at her lying as still as a corpse.
Striding into the infirmary, the doc headed for the sink. “Stats?”
Eislyn carefully examined Kali’s skull, dabbing a strip of gauze to soak up the blood.
“She’s steady but non-reactive. Her skull is intact besides a shallow wound that is already clotting.
The swelling is local, no fractures. No other broken bones or visible external wounds apart from small cuts and scratches,” she rattled off while the doc scrubbed his arms with a bar of soap.
I wanted to stuff it into his mouth so his hands were free to fucking take care of her.
He toweled off, pulled on a set of fresh disposable gloves, and shone a flashlight in Kali’s left eye, then the right. “What happened?”
“She was attacked,” I snarled. I was not explaining it anew. He should have been here. The whole fucking med team should have been here.
“Calm down.” The doc walked over to me with his hands raised. “Yelling won’t help her.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I bit out, my fists trembling at my sides from the effort it took me not to reach for my knife. “Fix her.”
It killed me to see Kali pay no attention to Eislyn cutting off her tattered t-shirt. Her half-naked body was nearly as pale as the silvery table. As pale as my sister’s corpse I’d had to leave in that military truck.
Eislyn switched places with the doc. “Zion.” She gestured to the white stool pushed against the wall. “Sit down. Please.”
Her soft voice furled around my knees, beckoning them to bend, and I slumped on the seat. She pressed a damp towel into my hands, as red from the soldier’s blood as the gunshot wound Gedeon had received while prying me off my sister’s remains.
“She’s in shock,” Eislyn explained. “Not unconscious. That’s a good sign. But you have to let us do our jobs. We need to know if any…internal wounds are a possibility. I hate to ask, but did anything else take place?”
My grip on the wet cloth tightened to the point my knuckles bleached.
“She found out Alora is gone. She said she wanted to be alone, so we let her go to Vice for her shift. She didn’t return home, so I went looking for her and found a soldier on top of her in the clearing.
He was throttling her—” My voice broke. “If I hadn’t gotten there in time… ”
“But you did.” Eislyn squeezed my shoulder and waited until I raised my head to meet her steady gaze. “Can I trust you to let us examine her without jumping us?”
Rubbing my forehead, I nodded. They fussed over Kali, and I almost leaped out of my seat when she helped them take off the rest of her clothing.
But when the doc touched the tender flesh of her neck, Eislyn had to step in to stop me from punching his face.
He was obviously causing her pain and distress from how she winced.
“We think she has a concussion,” the doc finally announced.
“You fucking think?” I wanted to snap his neck for only thinking.
“We know.” Eislyn pulled off her bloody blue gloves.
“It’s just a nicer way of saying it. It’s not high grade and should fully heal over the course of a week.
She’ll have a nasty bruise on her neck, but her trachea is not damaged.
She’s mostly in shock. We want to keep her here overnight for observation. ”
“No.” I strode to Kali sitting on the edge of the table, hugging her knees, oblivious to our conversation. “I’m taking her.”
“That’s not a good idea.” The doc hovered at my back. “We need to watch her for any signs of deeper injuries.”
“If you can’t do anything more except observe, I’m taking her home and watching over her myself.” I secured the blanket Eislyn had wrapped Kali in and slid my arms under her knees and back. She didn’t resist, only kept hold of the woolen fabric.
Eislyn opened the door for us to pass. “Is Gedeon aware of this?”
“No.” Cursing, I hoisted Kali higher up. He had to know. But I couldn’t leave her alone. I was not letting her out of my sight. “He’s out.”
“Okay. Then I’ll wait for him,” Eislyn promised, and I held no doubt she would.
From the late nights and rare days she’d spent with me in our underground, I learned one thing.
Eislyn always carried out her promises, whether they were the special kind made to my playthings or a simple offer to bring you a cup of coffee made from the bag of beans I’d stolen from Gedeon when he wasn’t looking.
The doc brought a couple of bottles of water from their med supply closet and carefully placed them in Kali’s lap. “Take these. We would’ve put in an IV for hydration, but seeing as you won’t let us, make sure she drinks plenty once she wakes up.”
“If she gets nauseous at any point in the night, bring her back here.” Eislyn adjusted the blanket to cover Kali’s legs.
“Jayce and I are on duty tonight. I’ll stay for tomorrow morning to check her over as well.
And Zion, I don’t say this lightly. She can’t miss the checkup.
I know you tend to do that, but Kali needs to talk with someone who”—she smiled sadly—“understands what she went through. Not all wounds are physical, and the psychological ones take the longest to heal.”
Gritting my teeth, I agreed to Eislyn’s ask. Kali’s head rested on my shoulder as I brought her to my bedroom and laid her on the bed. I tried to peel the blanket’s corners away, but she whimpered, clutching it and curling into a ball, and I had to pause to breathe.
Once I had collected the remains of my non-existent-to-begin-with self-control, I carefully tugged the duvet from underneath her and covered her, crawling beside her but halting a few feet away.
Warily, I stroked her side, avoiding her neck.
She didn’t push me away, and I slowly scooched closer.
A knife sliced my ribs as she choked on her spilling tears.
I didn’t dare to pull her flush with me. “You’re safe. I’m not letting you go.” I gave her the same promise I’d made to my sister. “I’m here… I’m here. You’re safe.”
A few wracking sobs were all it took for her to pass out.
Creak.
Pure instinct carried me into a sitting position, knees bent and core tensed as I blocked Kali with my body.
A familiar shape materialized in the room, and my muscles relaxed. I laid back on my side and gradually inched closer to her. She let out a pained sound, her eyelashes fluttering, and I stiffened. Another nightmare had trapped her.
As he sat on the mattress, a muscle feathered in Gedeon’s jaw. “Little death.” He curled her hair behind her ear, so careful not to harm her, but his other hand flexed in the sheets.
I was deeply familiar with the move. He was going to snap without an outlet. Usually, it entailed a session at the training rings and a row of new bruises both on him and me.
But this time? His blows wouldn’t end with a tap out. Because mine wouldn’t, either. Rage was vibrating my body so intensely it physically hurt.
“Eislyn told you?” I rested my head back on the pillow and pressed her palm to my chest. Feeling she was actually here and not in that godsforsaken forest was the sole thing placating my need to carve Ilasall up.
Gedeon nodded, then asked quietly, “How long has she been like this?”
“What time is it?” Utter darkness had fallen behind the large windows overlooking the compound, and even the shimmers of those stars Kali loved so much and regarded as gods couldn’t penetrate the gloom.
“Five in the morning,” he said, inspecting her neck where a red circle was emerging, a faint sign of brutal bruising to come.
I forced myself not to stir, not wishing to disturb her sleep.
“I found her around two, so about three hours. Where were you?” I’d never asked him personal questions before, but fuck that.
I was going to cross the line separating us.
The fact there would be no way back held no sway over me.
My restraint had cracked tonight, and I had no intention of gluing the shards back together.
I wanted it all.
I wanted them both.
“A commotion broke out between the new arrivals from the auction. Apparently, some attempted to flee back to the city.”
Some always did. The complete turnaround of your life could freak anyone out. And a familiar environment always felt like a haven, despite it being abusive. Like how Kali had attempted to escape after we’d brought her here.
She abruptly sat up, choking and then convulsing with a sob. Covering her ears, she rocked back and forth, her eyes wild. “I’m not a message, not a message, not a message.”
Gedeon gently pulled her wrists down to her lap, keeping them there as she tried to rip them out, gasping like there wasn’t enough air. “You’re okay. You’re home. There’s no one here but me and Zion.”
“You’re safe, Kali.” Saying it without proof to back it up, without a guarantee, with evidence of the opposite befalling her, was suffocating. My tongue had barely formed the words.
“I’m home,” she whispered, a sheen of sweat coating her skin. “Safe. Safe.”
I exchanged equally haunted looks with Gedeon, swallowing the dryness in my mouth. “What message?”
“I—” She licked her cracked lips, scrunching up the fluffy duvet so hard her fists quivered.
“He said he was a messenger. That he knew what I’d done with Alora.
” Sniffling, she furiously wiped at her nose.
“He said he would take me back to Ilasall to bear his children because I owed them. That he could do whatever he wanted to me because nobody would care,” she said calmly, her tone serene and devoid of any indication she comprehended what she’d shared.
Maneuvering her to lie back down, I pulled the woolen blanket and the duvet up to her chin.
“He’s dead. He won’t do anything to you.
” I closed my eyes, willing down the waking need to rain destruction.
“You’re safe here, you know that, right?
” I forced myself to repeat the impossible promise. “You’re safe.”
I was going to burn that cursed city to the ground. Not a cinder would remain. And if it did, I was going to bleed it dry. I didn’t care if it didn’t have blood. Not a dust mote would float in the air after I was done with Ilasall.
Gedeon kissed her forehead so softly I wasn’t sure she noticed and headed for the door, toward the darkest part of the room. Since the day the funeral blaze had marked my forearm, darkness exercised its command over him.
“Gedeon,” I pleaded. This was not the time to leave.
He paused in the doorway. The tense contour of his back and shoulders reflected pure wrath. He stared straight ahead until, finally, as if my plea in the shape of his name had reached him, his head turned an inch to the left.
“Gedeon,” I repeated, my voice growing hoarse.
He was about to lose it. I’d been in his position twelve years ago, had fallen into that bottomless hole I’d just begun to climb out of, and I wasn’t sure he could. Or would.
The door creaked closed as he vanished.
Alone, I held Kali in my arms until her frantic breaths evened out and she grew limp, the overstrain lulling her back into sleep that evaded me until dawn.