41. Raelyna
RAELYNA
I awoke to something cold dripping onto my cheek.
In the distance, I could hear shouts and screams of terror filling the air.
I had no idea when I’d finally passed out, unable to break free from the cuffs restraining my affinities.
I’d been deposited in this room in a rage last night, once Lucanus discovered that Orela was not in the Solis Court as he’d believed.
I could still feel the blood trickling from a gash on my arm from when Lucanus had taken his fury out on me after discovering my sister had escaped his clutches.
Another drop of chilled liquid splattered on my face, and my nose scrunched as it trailed off my cheek. I strained my hearing, attempting to discern if I was alone in the room, but the sounds of shots firing in the distance kept distracting me.
When I couldn’t take the suspense anymore, I slowly cracked my eyelids open, peaking through my lashes to find I was indeed alone. Struggling to push up, I leaned against the wall behind me, taking in my surroundings.
Above me, a thin window sat in the wall, just out of reach had I been standing.
The afternoon suns shone in through the thin strip of glass, casting a bright hue over an otherwise gray space.
With a quick glance around the space, I found it to be devoid of chairs—no furniture of any sort, really.
The space was empty, save for me and the marbled floors.
My gaze snagged on a crack in the ceiling, thin droplets of water dripping down onto the floor in a slippery patch, and my nose wrinkled at the thought of old ceiling water dripping onto me.
A camera flashed in the corner of the room, the device more than likely recording my every movement and relaying it to the guards tasked with monitoring me.
I’d nearly decided to stand when loud shouts echoed from outside the door.
A door I knew was firmly locked from the outside, from the length of time I’d spent attempting to pry the lock off last night with my bare hands.
I pressed myself further against the wall as the lock began to rattle.
Then the door was thrown open, a vicious-looking guard stalking through the doorframe before Lucanus entered behind him.
His face was full of rage as he stared at me with malice in his eyes.
“You lying little bitch!” His roar filled the room as he threw the full force of his affinities toward me, and a cry of pain left my lips before the air was forced from my lungs as his water affinity circled my neck.
“How long have you been working for the Guild? How did you help them destroy The Wall?”
I could only stare in shock, clawing at my neck as I struggled to breathe.
“TELL ME HOW YOU DID IT!” His voice was a malicious demand as he stormed toward me, yanking me to my feet and releasing my airway.
“How?”
I swallowed, trying to breathe through the overwhelming fear coursing through me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It was the only thing I could say as I stared at Lucanus in confusion.
“The Wall!” His face was contorted with rage as he shook me. “How did they destroy The Wall? HOW?”
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the moment—or cry, or run. Honestly, there were lots of options. Still, I couldn’t help the slight grin that tilted up on my lips as I realized Callum and the Guild had managed to break down The Wall.
That they’d gotten through. That my family would be safe.
Hurried footsteps raced down the hall before a panting, measly-looking guard burst into the room, terror in his eyes as his words fell out in a rapid rush.
“Your Majesty! Majesty, they’ve infiltrated the court! The Guild is here, sir.”
Lucanus roared in rage, his fist slamming into my side in a burst of fury that had me crumpling to the ground in agonizing pain as he released me. I clutched my side, pain stabbing through me as Lucanus began shouting orders to the guards surrounding him.
I could hear it now—the sounds of shots ringing out in a closer proximity. The screams. The fighting. It was an all-out war, the sounds of destruction coming from outside the small window in the room.
And that’s when the panic truly rose within me.
Fear spiked through my veins as Callum’s words played in my head.
“Listen to me, starlight.” His voice was commanding as he softly tilted my chin up toward him.
“When we infiltrate the Quarter, there will be nothing stopping us. Nothing will hold us back from destroying the corruption and darkness spreading through the Quarter. I can only promise you protection inside your apartment. I will have a group of spies come and take you to safety, but I can only safely say that you will be safe if you’re here. ”
I stared around the room, Lucanus’s guards standing around him, their voices raised as they discussed the next course of action, and that’s when my hope began to fade.
Because even if I escaped his grasp . . . even if I made it out of the Solis Court. I’d be running straight into a battle I was ill-equipped for. Straight toward danger—toward war.
And I had no idea how to defend myself well enough to survive.
“Bring her with,” Lucanus stated as he stormed from the room, and two guards were suddenly hauling me up.
My side burned in pain, my ribs bruised as they dragged me through the room after their king.
The guard’s grip tightened, his fingers digging into the gash on my arm, causing me to cry out in pain as the wound opened further, blood trailing down my arm.
“What do you want with me?” I bit out, speaking to Lucanus’s back as the guards kept pace behind him.
The male didn’t answer as his men marched me through corridor after corridor, hurrying through the halls. I could only watch in horror as angels fled from the halls, running to take cover.
I heard the screams grow closer as the guards closed ranks. We moved through the halls of Solis Court at a rapid speed, and soon I recognized the sound of shots being fired from inside the building.
Lucanus’s men picked up their pace, their weapons at the ready as we climbed to the third floor of the court. I recognized various rooms as we sped along the corridors, until our footsteps came to a stop and Lucanus threw open a double-paneled door.
The two guards holding me shoved me out onto the terrace of the third floor, my eyes squinting as the afternoon light reached me, clouds moving across the sky as the summer sands blew by.
Sand and dust assaulted me as I was forced out into the open air, and it took everything in me not to start coughing immediately as dust flooded my lungs.
Every noise I’d heard from inside the court was intensified as I found myself looking down on the massacre happening before me. I felt another sharp stab in my side from where Lucanus had punched me, my ribs protesting every movement I made as I turned to face the male who’d started this all.
“What do you want with me?” I bit out, my hands still cuffed behind me, the metal blocking my affinities from breaking through.
Lucanus scoffed. “What do I want from you?” He mocked my words.
“Nothing, butterfly. You, yourself, are worthless to me. But I’d be willing to bet that your friends at the Guild will come running to your rescue the moment they learn I have you.
That you’ve somehow managed to weasel your way into their ranks, and they will come in an attempt to save you. ”
My thoughts immediately shifted to Callum.
He couldn’t come . . . not now. Not when he didn’t know just how much power Lucanus had stolen from other angels in the Quarter. Not when I was essentially being used as bait to lure them to Luc.
“No one is coming for me,” I answered, my voice shaking as I said the words, because I knew them to be true.
No one even knew I was here.
Sure, Finn and Iver knew I’d been captured, but they didn’t know whether I survived. They didn’t know where Lucanus had taken me. Where he was holding me at.
And even if they did, they wouldn’t have had enough time to get a message to Callum. To let him know that I’d been captured.
Lucanus darted forward, his form towering over me as he pinned me between the railing and his body, his eyes alight with fury as the Quarter burned below us, the flames licking closer and closer toward Solis Court—toward us.
I could hear gunshots ringing in the distance, buildings crumbling, and drones rapidly firing upon angels.
“Look at what you’ve done!” he bellowed, his face turning crimson with fury as he shook me, his fingers digging into my skin until blood began to trickle down my arms. “You’ve destroyed everything!
And someone must pay. Someone must answer for what’s been taken from me.
If no one comes for you, then you will pay the price.
Look! Look at my Quarter . . . at all I’ve worked for, destroyed! ”
Luc grabbed my cheeks in his hand, twisting my head to the side as he forced me to stare out over the Quarter, fully seeing the extent of destruction.
I said nothing as I stared at the destruction before me, taking it in. The Wall had collapsed along nearly every section of the Quarter, cement blocks of rubble literally covering the ground in dust-covered heaps. The skyscrapers that lined the Quarter had begun to collapse and catch fire.
Fires burned everywhere throughout the Quarter.
Orange and blue flames chased across any expanse they could.
Screams sounded as shots rang out.
Dust and sand covered every visible surface. Once gleaming skyscrapers now stood in shambles, half destroyed. Skybridges came crashing down in the distance, the sound a horrifying crush of destruction as they obliterated any and everything in their path.
Overhead, I caught sight of a clash of gold and onyx feathers as aerial cohorts attacked each other, feathers and blood falling from the sky.
Bullets, laced with affinities, were tearing through the air before meeting their targets in a gruesome display of violence as angels on both sides fell lifelessly from the sky.