69. Everett
Everett
FOUR YEARS AGO
“Songbird!” I screamed. I lunged away from the hands that grabbed me and scrambled for the trap door hidden in the earth.
I’d been knocked out as strangers dragged me from my cell, but I came to once we hit the fresh air.
The grass, the trees, the breeze—it flooded me, shocking my senses after years spent in that musty, rancid cell.
I breathed it in, nearly choking through my shouts.
I didn’t even have time to gape at the moon and stars above me as I desperately fought to get back to my Songbird.
She was still down there, somewhere in those tunnels. I couldn’t leave her.
I stumbled along the grassy stretch of ground toward the door but fell to my knees a moment later. My legs weren’t strong enough to carry me far. I shoved my elbows into the grass, crawling on weak arms, straining for every inch.
Rough hands gripped my ankles and hauled me back.
I kicked as hard as I could, but it was no use.
My muscles were already screaming from exertion.
My kidnapper flipped me over, and I stared into the tan face of a man with a sharp, stern expression, his brown hair neatly cut and only slightly windswept.
“Would you please stop fighting me?” he insisted. “We are trying to rescue you.”
I thrashed against him again, and he merely sighed, as if I was nothing more than a petulant child. “Tessa, a little assistance?”
The other person who was with him, a younger, brown-skinned female, sauntered behind me, black braids swishing as she moved. Lithe hands grasped my wrists and held me down with the strength of a Shifter.
“Get off me!” I grunted, struggling in their grips. “Take me back!”
The man raised an eyebrow. “You want us to return you to your confinement?”
With a snort, the woman said, “That’s a first.”
“You don’t understand.” I tried to twist away. “My friend is down there. I can’t leave her.”
Understanding passed over his features. “I’m sorry, but we must get you and the others out of here. Scarven’s guards will be coming at any moment.”
“Go back for her, then!” I roared. “You saved me, now go save her!”
“We can’t,” the woman, Tessa, said. She looked down at me with pity. “Look, I’m sorry, but we’re out of time. Our mission is to get as many out as we can before we’re caught. We’ll come back for her soon, I promise.”
“It’ll be too late,” I panted. These people had just orchestrated an entire rescue operation under Scarven’s nose. There was no chance he would let that happen again, especially with someone as important as Songbird was to him. Leaving now meant this was my last chance to save her.
“Leave me,” I begged. “Please, let me go back. I—I can’t go without her. You don’t know what they’re doing to her down there. I can’t—I—” My breaths came out in ragged bursts, and my heart raced so furiously, I thought it was going to beat out of my chest.
“It’s the shock,” Tessa said above me, looking at Kieran. “We’ve gotta go.”
“No!” I cried, throat raw. I was still pinned down, but I threw my head toward the tunnels, as if I could will myself back. “I have to get her!”
“Listen to me.” The man yanked my ankles, and Tessa released me. My back scratched against the earth as I slid toward him. He gripped my collar and pulled me up so I was face-to-face with him.
“You must pull yourself together. There are more lives at stake tonight than yours. Do you see this carriage?” He pointed behind him, where I made out a black carriage at the treeline of Scarven’s property.
“There are half a dozen prisoners waiting for us to bring them to safety. Within moments, Scarven’s guards will be upon us.
If I release you, they will surely kill you.
But if you come with us, you can be part of something greater.
You can be responsible for rescuing countless more lives. ”
My breaths faltered. I lowered my head, and my chin sagged against my chest. “How am I supposed to give up on her?”
“You’re not giving up,” Tessa said behind me. “We’re telling you right now the best thing you can do for her is stay alive. You can’t help her from your grave.”
I swallowed hard, pushing down bile. “She saved my life so many times just by being there. So many years. So many—” I choked on my own words, unable to think about what Scarven and Mortep could be doing to her now.
The brown-haired man shook my shoulders, making me look back up at him. “How long were you held prisoner?” he asked.
I licked my lips. “S-seven years.”
“Seven years. You went into those cells as a boy.” He tightened his grip.
“A boy with nothing to fight for. And you are coming out a man who knows what he would die for. Don’t waste that, do you understand me?
” He shook me again, and his urgency finally hit me.
“You must learn how to fight for more than one person.”
Admitting he was right felt like something shattering in my chest, cleaving my heart in two.
But I knew there was no other course. My eyes flickered to the carriage cloaked in shadows, and I thought of the other victims they had saved tonight.
Of the dozens more still trapped beneath the earth, and how I was being given the chance to help them.
To be that man I’d told Songbird I wanted to be.
I just never imagined it would be without her.
I took one more ragged breath, then met the man’s eyes. “I’ll go with you,” I said, the words ripping through me like a betrayal. “For her.”
“For all of them,” he said. When he held out his hand, I took it and heaved myself up. “What’s your name?”
“Everett. Everett Swift.”
He nodded. “I’m Kieran. Welcome to the Ashen Order.”
As Tessa took my arm and guided me to the carriage, I glanced back at the tunnel entrance one final time.
I will come back for you.