CHAPTER FORTY-TWO #2
Licia was exactly where I had left her, curled on the small, battered mattress, her breathing shallow and slow. The lantern flickered weakly in the corner, throwing long shadows across the room, and for a moment, I just stood there.
It was too quiet. Too still.
My heart thudded painfully as I stepped closer and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Hot.
I exhaled. At least she wasn’t dead, but the sheets were damp and twisted beneath her, clinging to her skin. If only I could make my power listen. If I could just will it to work, she wouldn't be lying there like this. She was in so much pain, and I’d done nothing. I should’ve helped her already.
“Wake up,” I said, my voice broken. I bent over her, shaking her shoulder gently, my hands trembling. “He’s here. Will’s here. We can leave. But you need to get up. Please. You have to.”
She groaned, a tiny sound that cracked something in me.
“I’m tired, Kera…” she whimpered. “It hurts.”
I swallowed the panic clawing up my throat.
“Please,” I whispered. “Let me help.”
Her eyes blinked open, slow, heavy, like her body was fighting it.
Then she nodded, and her hand found mine, limp and cold.
Eyes closed, I reached inward, searching for the light buried deep beneath everything else.
Warmth stirred in my palms. Then came the glow.
Soft and golden, kindling between our hands.
Thank you.
I poured everything I had into her. For a long, breathless moment, nothing happened. Then slowly, color began to return to her cheeks. Her breathing steadied, and as the tightness in her limbs began to ease, a wave of relief crashed over me.
But it wasn’t the only thing that hit me. Something between us cracked open, and it felt as if our bond became a bridge. I wasn’t just taking away her pain; I was pulling it into myself.
And it tore through me without warning, like lightning striking from a clear sky. A scream built in my throat as pain lanced through my skull, sharp, blinding, and brutal. My knees hit the floor and I gasped, ripping my hand back just as the light retreated back into me.
“Kera?”
Licia’s voice was clear, but her face blurred in front of me. I staggered, pressing a hand to my forehead, fighting the dizziness crashing through me.
“I’m fine,” I rasped. A lie so thin it barely made it out of my mouth. “It just takes… a lot.”
I forced myself upright.
“Can you walk?” I asked. As if she was the one having problems staying on her feet.
She looked down at her legs like they weren’t hers, like she didn’t trust them to obey. Then slowly, she swung them off the bed.
“I think so… yeah,” she said.
Good enough.
Will was there when we stepped into the hallway, and the instant his eyes landed on Licia, his entire face shifted.
“Hi,” he breathed.
There wasn’t time for a reunion, we had to move. Quickly.
“Guards?” I asked.
“Aran is distracting them.” Will responded.
A sudden crash tore through the corridor, a metallic, shattering echo that sent Licia stumbling into me with a startled cry.
“What was that?” she whispered.
Will glanced toward the sound, jaw set. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s part of the plan.”
Will took the lead, and we followed, hugging the walls, ducking past half-open doors and shadowy corners. They weren’t the same halls I’d been dragged through when I first arrived.
“Aran said they threw him out the back door last night,” Will whispered as we moved. “There’s a second exit. It should be just ahead—”
Footsteps.
Fast. Close.
Will froze mid-step and held out an arm to stop us. Then, with silent urgency, he grabbed the nearest door and pulled it open. Without a word, he shoved me and Licia inside. The door clicked shut a heartbeat before boots thundered past.
“Are you lost, sir?” An unknown voice asked. I could see his shadow just outside the door.
Will didn’t miss a beat. “Just looking for the shitter,” he said, casual, as ever.
The man on the other side chuckled. “Well, it’s not in there, is it?”
The doorknob turned, and a man stepped inside.
Then steel flashed, the knife met the man’s throat so fast he didn’t have time to defend. Will shoved him against the wall, blade pressed to skin so tight a line of red already bloomed beneath it.
“Not a sound,” Will growled.
The man went still. Frozen with fear.
“Where’s the exit?” Will asked, his voice low, lethal. “Tell me.”
The man swallowed, eyes darting between us. “Second door to the left. Just past the storeroom.”
“Move.”
Will shoved him forward, blade still pressed to his throat. I grabbed Licia’s wrist and followed, dragging her behind me. Her legs shook with every step, but she didn’t fall. The door ahead creaked open. For one brief second, I let myself believe we were free.
Then we stepped through—and found them. Three guards stood in formation, fully armed, heads turning in eerie unison. The moment they saw us, their hands moved toward their weapons.
“Don’t move,” Will warned, yanking the trembling man in front of him like a shield. “I’ll slit his throat.”
It worked. For one heartbeat, it worked. The guards froze. Calculating. Measuring. Weighing the price of one man against two broken girls.
I guess they did the math. And decided we were worth more.
One shifted, his hand inching toward a dagger. Another took a step sideways, trying to flank us. The third… watched me too closely. Eyes narrowing like he recognized something.
The fire stirred inside me. It clawed up from behind my ribs, heat swelling in my chest, begging to be released.
I could’ve done it. I wanted to. I could’ve turned them all to ash right there. But Licia stood behind me. And Will was still in the line of fire.
If I let go, I’d take them with me.
I stepped in front of her, heart pounding like a war drum, using my body to shield hers. Ready to buy her a second. Maybe two.
Then the blur came. Steel flashed through the air. One of the guards jerked, a strangled sound ripping from his throat as blood sprayed across the wall. He crumpled to the ground, limbs twitching violently before they stilled.
Aran stepped over the body, face wild, blade slick and dripping.
“RUN!” he roared.
We did.
Licia and I tore down the corridor, feet slamming against wood.
My lungs burned with every breath, my legs screaming, but I didn’t stop.
Couldn’t. Behind us, the sounds of fighting echoed—shouts, steel against steel, something crashing.
I didn’t look back. Licia stumbled. I caught her.
Dragged her upright. The hallway twisted into shadow, corners closing in, doors and turns blurring past.
Then—
We hit something.
Someone.
I slammed into a chest like stone. I staggered back, nearly falling. Looked up. A man stood in our path. Broad-shouldered. Immaculate. Not a hair out of place. His black suit looked like it had been stitched by royal tailors, not meant for this place.
He didn’t draw a weapon.
He didn’t have to.
Beside him stood a guard, hand poised near his blade, but it was the suited man who held the power.
He exuded it.
His eyes were cold. Unblinking. Calm in the way that terrified me most. And he looked at us like we weren’t even worth the trouble of getting his hands dirty.
“This area’s restricted,” he said.
“Sorry,” I said. “We got lost. We’re just looking for—”
“They’re escaping!” A voice screamed. ”Lock it down!”
The suited man didn’t even blink.
He just looked at me. And smiled.
I could swear the world stopped.
I felt it happen. The way time bent around me like the hallway had folded in on itself. Everything slowed to a crawl. My breathing. The flickering lanternlight on the stone walls. Even the screaming somewhere behind us dissolved into something distant, stretched and warped, like sound underwater.
And I reached for him.
Not for his body, or the pistol tucked neatly at his hip. I reached for the rhythm beneath all that. For the blood coursing through his veins. For the pulse buried deep in his chest, slow and steady, unaware it was no longer his to control.
I felt it.
All of it.
His heart, his lungs, the fragile rhythm of life holding him upright, and I closed my grip around it, felt the shudder run through him like a tremor inside my mind.
I traced the path of it like I’d known it forever.
The artery in his throat, the slow churn through his heart.
I felt his lungs contract, ribs shifting with breath.
And I squeezed.
I clenched my will around his rhythm like a vice, wrapping it tight and unforgiving.
His brow knit in a brief, confused twitch as his hand lifted to his chest, fingers splaying, digging into his ribs as if he could claw the pain out from the outside.
He staggered, just slightly, head tilting as though trying to make sense of what was happening to him.
“Let. Us. Leave,” I growled.
The guard beside him moved, and just like that, time caught up. The stillness shattered as everything snapped back into motion. The guard crossed the space in two strides.
No warning. No mercy.
His hand slammed into the side of my face with the force of a weapon.
For an instant there was nothing, just a burst of white light, a rush of air, then the world snapped back and the pain hit.
My body lifted off the ground, thrown sideways.
I crashed into the wall hard enough to rattle my teeth, and I felt my skull crack against it.
The floor vanished beneath me and then surged up, cold and unyielding, against my cheek.
“KERA!” Licia’s scream tore through the blur, as my vision wavered, fractured into shards of color, then into black.