Chapter 56 The Blood of The Prison
Sapphire
Krimson stands on one side of my father’s bed. I am on the other.
It’s midnight. The fireplace sends a smoky aroma of burning wood, cloves, and cinnamon wafting through the bedroom.
This space used to scare me, encourage rage and bitterness…
Now, it’s the sweetest place in the whole world.
My father sleeping in the center of the room.
Krimson watching me with his silhouette outlined by the amber blaze of the fire.
“Tell me where you are,” my brother demands.
He is usually so calm and level-headed. But not right now. Under his eyes are swollen and dark. His forehead strung together. I’ve never seen him so stressed.
“The Vexamen Prison, at least fifty years in the past,” I say quickly, unsure how long I have with him before the dream disappears again.
“No way…”
“I’ve been to asylum when Mom burned it down. I’ve been to Uncle Niles’s house when he was being influenced by Absinthe and Albatross. I’ve seen Aurick Demechnef when he was living with Mom…I can’t control it, Krimson!”
“Okay, slow down—”
“Niklaus is hurt. I need to get us home, but I don’t know how this works. It happens when I’m in danger or when I’m emotionally distressed. I cannot do this anymore. I won’t survive it. Our parents grew up in a horrific form of hell!”
“I bet I have the gift too. I will come get you. I will find you!”
I run my hands through my hair. “You could get lost too though. Have you told Mom what’s going on?”
Krimson’s gaze slides to the door and back to me.
“Yes. She’s with me now.”
“Good. We can’t do this alone.”
“She got Uncle Warrose, Aunt Ruth, and Aunt Marilynn involved.”
Chills rise each hair on the back of my neck.
“Aunt Marilynn?”
“Yes.” He gives me a knowing look. “She knew this was going to happen. She’s trying to teach me how to access the Nightlung to come get you.”
I sigh. “Oh, thank God.”
“But Sapphire, is Uncle Niles okay? It looked like he was in the Blackspire Ward of The North…”
My eyes throb from the sudden purge of tears. I stare at my brother, battling that little girl inside me that just wants to fall to pieces and let him fix everything for me.
“I don’t know…” I sob, throwing my hands to my side. “Fuck, I don’t know! I think he is there, but I’m a prisoner now too—and I can’t seem to control where I go or when. If he is a captive there, we have to save him. I’ll never forgive myself…”
“We’ll get to him, Sapphire. He’s smart and has been through much worse. He’ll know how to survive until we get there.”
As I observe my brother standing there, I can see now that we don’t look much alike. I’m far more resemblant of my mother. But he is the spitting image of our father from what I’ve seen of the past.
“And Mom doesn’t know how to travel through time?” I ask.
Krimson shakes his head. “Just the Void. Apparently, it’s like a sibling of the Nightlung.”
I knew the answer, but disappointment still pours through my body like an ice shower.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Krimson watches our father sleep. “He’s probably the only one that could figure out how to save you, Niklaus, and Uncle Niles before any of us.”
I watch out father’s chest rise and fall.
“Then maybe it’s time I woke him up…” I say.
“Are you sure you’re up to eating in the commissary?” I ask as we walk down the hallway with the other wounded inmates.
Dirty looks. Shoulders slamming into us. Cruel remarks in Old Alkadonian.
We are the new enemy to these men and women wearing the same uniforms. Not the sentinels and guardians that pulled the trigger to the Jester Mist. We are the ones who refused to kill each other in that fighting ring.
So, the punishment continues for us.
“Yes,” Niklaus rasps, breathing heavily. His back is far from healed, but he isn’t in as much pain this morning as he was in last night.
“I can bring you a tray, and we can eat together in your cage,” I whisper.
He looks ahead, visibly shaken at the sight of the showers.
“I’m not letting you walk around here alone.” Those stern, chilling blue eyes flick down to me.
I scoff. “How could you be worried about me right now? I’m not the one who’s hurt.”
Niklaus smirks though the joy doesn’t reach the quiet room behind his eyes.
His large hand slides up the nape of my neck, fingers tangling into my hair.
He leans down to my height and kisses the top of my head.
The pressure of his lips to my scalp lights me on fire with minuscule tingles that spread like a dustbowl down to my toes.
I give him a surprised, sappy smile, and he laughs.
“Because you’re my girl. That’s why.”
“He does have charm, I’ll give him that,” Jack says with his red back facing us.
Sophia gives him a playful shove, and they both snicker.
“We have to get them out of here,” I whisper to Niklaus. “I’ve been thinking about the Vexamen history books since we’ve been in here. Before our parents, there have been documented cases of other escape attempts here, remember?”
Niklaus keeps his head lowered so I can continue speaking to just him.
“Do you remember the log about a couple of teenagers who escaped? The notes were that they had help. They didn’t do it alone. What if we were the help? What if we’re the ones that freed them?”
His pupils shrink as the shower gets closer.
“It’s risky.”
“I know. But…” I watch Sophia help Jack along as he winces and limps from his injuries. I watch my grandparents lead the way down this tunnel. “I can’t leave them in here.”
Niklaus tilts his head to look at me. To really look at me. There’s a quiet hunger there. He watches me the way someone would watch a candle in a storm. Careful, reverent, and ready to risk it all to keep that small flame in his sight.
“Okay, Spitfire.”
“Okay, what?”
That expression is a low, sustained ache. It pulls at a string in my chest.
“I promise. We’ll get your grandparents out.”
I’m elated and desperate to touch him all at the same time. My hand reaches for his, curving my fingers into his shape, and holding on tight.
“Viézteix! Demechnef!”
Niklaus pushes me out of the way before a heavy baton can land on my back. A Guardian strikes him across the shoulder. Once, then again right on the burned, raw flesh of his upper back.
He flashes his white teeth as he growls, twisting his head to the side and taking the quick beating without flinching.
I try to pull Niklaus away from the Guardian, but he won’t move. And as I twist to tug him forward again, I see why. We’re next to enter the showers.
He’s unable to step foot inside.
“Niéxv! Niéxv!” the Guardian shouts, winding his gigantic arm up again and slamming the baton back down on Niklaus’s back.
And I know the fear of stepping foot back into this shower must be all-consuming and eating him from the inside out—because the pain of the baton striking his wounds aren’t enough to make him budge.
He’s a statue, hand hardening like concrete around mine.
“That’s enough!” I shriek at the Guardian. “Give him a minute!”
But the Guardian attacks again and again. And Niklaus takes it.
“Stop!”
I’m not thinking. I forget where I am and the consequences of certain actions in a place like this.
My hand rotates out of Niklaus’s stone grip, and I block the next hit with both hands, using the gargantuan man’s weight against him—unsheathing his other weapon hooked to his belt and slicing into that veiny forearm.
A spray of hot blood finds my chest and face.
And the Guardian fails to contain his disbelief.
“He’s not ready yet…” I try to justify my actions, but it’s too late.
“Spitfire!”
What have I done?
“You silly, moronic little bitch!” The Guardian throws his long whip of black hair over his shoulder and backhands me. The force is that of a galloping bull. My teeth clack together. My body spins and smacks to the floor.
“She opened the flesh of a Guardian!”
Hands are shackled around the base of my neck, under my arms, stapled into my rib cage as I’m hauled from the damp, mildew ground and dragged like a dog. Chains are hooked to my iron collar. My legs and core scape along the brimstone, textured ground.
I scream as my skin is torn and grated raw.
“Krimson!” I cry out.
I believe in you, Krimson! Come save me. Please.
I hold my head up as the great mammoths continue to trail my flopping body behind them like a fish on a hook. The cuts and burns take such a beating against the rough floors, I start to go numb.
What’s going to happen to me?!
Aunt Ruth lost her legs.
Oh god. Please. Please, don’t take my limbs.