36. Raya
RAYA
I ’d grabbed what I needed from the house, enough of our favoured belongings so we had something with us to take, including a small bit of food to last us a few nights. My heart was racing with nerves. This was it: our last shot at freedom, our only hope to escape.
I was surprised at how quiet the desert was tonight, the only sound a single insect playing a mournful tune as I punched in the code to enter the premises, moving my feet quickly down the steps to the underground level. With the moon rising higher, we were running out of time. Our shield would soon be thinning.
The last beep sounded, and I pushed open the door to the training floor on the base level but balked at the empty space. I scanned the room, silently closing the door behind me.
“Bodhi?” I called out, expecting him to come out from one of the side rooms. Perhaps everyone had been late to get ready tonight.
But there was no reply. Caution flooded my veins, making my chest tighten and the daggers slide into my grip. I palmed them nervously as I edged the perimeter of the room, making my way to the door leading to the kitchen and bedrooms.
Something was wrong.
I peered around the edge of the doorway, glancing towards an empty kitchen. There was no laughter, no nervous rambling or clinks of weapons preparing for the night, which is what worried me the most. I gnawed on my lip. Where was Bodhi?
I fought to calm my breathing as I worked my way through my panic, trying to find a rational, plausible reason why no one was immediately coming towards me, but my brain came up with nothing.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I whirled, freaked out as the figure blocked my swing with my blade, their arm still steady on mine.
“Riley?” I gasped as my vision focused on her. “What are you doing here?”
She pursed her lips. “There has been a change of plan, Raya.”
I frowned, my daggers thankfully sliding back into the cuffs on my wrist. “What do you mean? Where is Bodhi?”
She squeezed my wrists tightly, a single hand holding me. “I’m sorry, sister.”
As the final word fell from her lips, I barely had an opportunity to move before I felt something pierce my neck, and I lifted my hand to yank it out, holding a dart up to my line of sight in horror.
“What is this?” I yelled as I portaled to escape, though she clung to me and followed, landing expertly, just as we had practised so many times when we were kids.
She yanked me forward, her grip tight and strong as I threw myself at her, portaling us both to a different position in the room as I tackled her to the ground, not allowing her to orient herself. I landed on top of her, ducking beneath the swing of her free hand, her other still clinging unbearably tight to my own.
She knew that if she let me go, I would escape. The darts. This empty room. Bodhi missing.
She had planned this.
Betrayal flooded my system, my vision blurring with tears.
“Where is Bodhi?” I screamed as she swung another fist towards my face. She didn’t bother to answer, her face flustered.
I portaled us again and again as we rolled, and she fought to grapple me onto the ground, her legs lifting around and locking mine into place.
“Sly, shoot her.”
I panicked and portaled outside of the building and onto the sand, the dust from our landing coating us. My aim was reckless now, entirely erratic as my emotions swept into a torrent inside me. She yanked my arms above my head in my distraction, pinning me to the sandy floor.
I watched her chest heave before looking up to stare her right in the face, noting a wildness in her eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time. Never before had it scared me.
I screamed in fury, jostling my body to free myself. “Where is he?”
My voice echoed viciously across the expanse.
Still, she ignored me, and I hated her more as whatever had been in that dart began to slow my movements. I elbowed and clawed and kicked, but my sister held strong. She had always been stronger than me.
I bucked my hips and pushed to turn us, desperation driving me towards chaos as I managed to push us up and over into a roll down a dune. She never let me go.
We both spluttered and coughed from the disturbed sand that coated us and our lungs.
I yanked on my arms, managing to get a hand free to swing a fist up into her gut, forcing a grunt of pain from her.
“Why?” I yelled. “Why, why, why?”
She pinned my arms again, her entire body locking me down effectively this time. Still, she remained silent, so agonisingly silent that my heart clenched.
“I hate you, Riley. I hate you with everything I have. You deserve Zander. You are a fitting pair.” I spat the words, and her jaw clenched as she drew my two wrists together at the top. I had no idea what she was doing, only that she had done something to Bodhi, possibly something terrible.
This was so unlike her.
“I’m sorry, Raya. There is no other choice.” Was she handing me in to Zander? Is that where Bodhi was?
I bucked violently, more desperate now. She was turning me in. I was bordering on feral now, so feral that as she pinned me down, I screamed and swore beneath her as tears fell from my eyes.
“I hate you,” I sobbed. “I trusted you.”
“I know,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
Then, a shot echoed through the air, and I felt the pinch in my skin as a second dart pierced my neck.
Tears streamed from my eyes as she watched me, but I didn’t stop fighting her. I wouldn’t until I had nothing left.
“I will never forgive you,” I promised, and her expression crumpled, though she didn’t relent.
I felt my muscles soften, my movements beginning to jerk and drag.
Then, my body lost its fight, and my fate fell into her cold and cruel hands.