Chapter 64
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Vesper
Everything hurt. Vesper groaned. It was like she’d been run over by a fucking trolley. She was exhausted. The cold concrete beneath her at least provided some relief from the surrounding humidity. And was her skin wet? What the fuck happened?
“Vessie?” Cypress’s small voice came from her left, barely a whisper.
A tentative finger prodded at her shoulder. Her thoughts swam, trying to remember where they were, what was happening before… before…
There was a fight. She’d stepped in front of Cypress, shielding her, and then there was nothing.
Vesper peeled herself off the floor, arms shaking with the effort of pushing herself upright. She rubbed her painfully dry eyes and blinked until the room came into focus. Her ears rang; the only sound breaking through was Cypress’s quick breathing. Her sniffling.
“Cypress?” Vesper whispered. Her throat was scratchy, and her voice came out weak and raspy. She winced—her head pounded. And the shallow, crackling light overhead was almost blinding despite the room being mostly shrouded in darkness.
She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them next, Cypress was staring in front of her, eyes full of fresh tears. The kid was squatting, just out of reach, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking on her feet. Vesper didn’t see any blood though, and she let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re okay,” she rasped. The words came painfully to her. She needed some fucking water.
“Do you hate me?” Cypress whispered, still staring at the ground and hugging herself even tighter.
“Hate… Cypress, what?” She tried to swallow, to dull the pain in her throat, but her mouth was too dry. “What happened?”
Something akin to surprise flickered over Cypress’s features. Her head shot up and her eyes found Vesper’s for a split second before lowering. “You… You don’t know?”
Vesper pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes again and trying to will the pain away. “Know what? Are you hurt? Did they…” She trailed off, there was no need to finish the thought.
“No,” Cypress cleared her throat, squinting, thinking, assessing. She’d stopped rocking. “I’m, um, I’m fine.” Her voice was strained. The kid had never been a good liar.
When Cypress didn’t answer the rest of her questions, Vesper sighed and took the time to look around properly. Cypress’s parents were passed out. They were closer than Vesper remembered them being. Must have taken a few steps before whatever happened…
Cedar was groaning. Her head rolled from side to side. She’d wake up any second. Bellamy… Vesper sucked in a sharp breath, cold fear washing over her.
Bellamy was off the chair. She’d managed to pinpoint her Energy into a molten ball, melting the chain off. Her positioning looked like she’d been trying to crawl to them—to Vesper. One arm was still reaching out. She was breathing, alive.
How was Vesper awake before everyone else? How was Cypress awake?
“How long have you been awake?” Vesper asked, pushing the words out painfully and turning back to look at Cypress. She wished Cypress would go back to her normal excitable self, chattering endlessly so Vesper could stop fucking talking. She’d kill for some water right now.
Cypress shrugged noncommittally, resuming her rocking. Vesper narrowed her eyes. She’d never been particularly good at reading people, but Cypress had always been an open book. The kid couldn’t keep a secret for shit. She was hiding something now, Vesper was certain of it.
“Cypress,” Vesper tried to sound stern but her voice was still raspy. “What happened?”
“I—” Cypress cut herself off, swallowing as her eyes filled with tears again.
She looked up and sniffed. “I didn’t mean to,” she whispered, a pleading look in her watery eyes.
“I-I promise. I didn’t mean to, I can’t—I can’t,” she sniffed again, shaking her head.
The tears flowed freely now. “Everyone was fighting, yelling. It was too much, too loud. I just couldn’t.
You were going to fight, I-I didn’t mean it. ”
Vesper reached out, trying to comfort her, but the kid flinched away, wiping her eyes and shaking her head, mumbling “I can’t” over and over.
“Shh. Cypress. Hey,” Vesper hesitated before reaching for her again.
She had a chilling suspicion of what this meant.
Cypress was a bomb waiting to go off. Vesper had to tread very carefully now.
“It’s okay, kid,” she said soothingly, trying to keep her voice steady, to tamp down the automatic fear that filled her as her addled brain came around to the inevitable conclusion.
She caused this. Cypress did this.
“It’ll be okay. We’ll… We’ll figure it out,” she tried again. It only made Cypress cry harder, and Vesper knew what she was thinking. No matter how much she’d grown over the years, Cypress was always going to be that same—scared little kid Vesper had saved all that time ago.
She knew her. There wasn’t a malicious bone in her body. If Cypress said it was an accident, well, Vesper believed her. They’d get out of here. To safety. Then they’d… figure out how to contain her power.
“Cypress,” she paused, waiting for the crying to subside. “I need you to focus. Tell me the truth, please. What happened?”
She needed to know how dangerous Cypress was, if she even knew what she’d done. Then she’d figure out how to help her.
Taking a shaky breath, Cypress swallowed before admitting, “I can’t control it. I don’t know how. I just… It feels hot, burning inside of me, and then it’s gone, the magic, it’s… I’ve stolen it. All of it.”
Vesper frowned. Stealing magic wasn’t possible. Dampeners didn’t steal magic, they extinguished it, killed it, sucked the life force out of it and everyone possessing it.
“You say you stole it…” Vesper frowned, trying to phrase her next words delicately so as not to scare the poor kid into more tears—or worse. “Do you understand what you are?” she asked slowly, watching Cypress.
Cypress’s silence was all Vesper needed. Pink came to her cheeks as she fixed her gaze on her knees and swallowed again. The guilt. She’d known this whole time. Known how dangerous she was if she’d lost control around Vesper. Vesper tried not to be angry with Cypress for not telling her sooner.
But she should have fucking told her. Vesper was risking her life to hide her, she deserved to know why, to know the risk of being around her as often as she was. Then, she saw the look on Cypress’s face, the frown, the crease in her brows, the tear stains on her cheek.
“Okay,” Vesper said, swallowing and keeping her voice low. “You say you stole it, does that mean you can return it?”
Cypress raised her head, eyes wide in disbelief, and nodded just slightly. “I think so…” she said slowly. “I… I woke you up.”
“All right,” Vesper gave her a half smile, trying to be reassuring even though she almost couldn’t get her next words out, fear keeping them choked inside. “I need you to wake Bel up.”