Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

" H ow do you know that name?" Only one person calls me that, and by the sound of this male's voice, it isn't Jarek, someone I desperately wish was here right now.

"I'm Wylan. Jarek told me about you."

Jarek…

"Are you… okay?" he asks with hesitance in his voice.

"How do you know him?" I ask, ignoring his question.

"We are…" He sighs, pausing for a moment before answering. "I am his and he is mine."

His soft statement brings a small smile to my face. It feels strange and stiff and quickly drops when I realize I have no right to feel any happiness right now. Not after…

Swallowing hard against the lump in my throat, I focus on Wylan.

"You're the one he was talking about? The one he met not long ago?"

"Yes… Well…" He chuckles. "I've been wanting to meet you for a while."

A while…

I get lost in my thoughts. The ones of Jarek and the smile he wore when he told me about someone he'd met. And the ones now that seem to overshadow everything else.

The dark creature. The kitchen. Blood. Visha…

A sob is wrenched from me.

"Seren? Are you okay?"

"What does it matter?" I whisper, thinking he won't hear me, too lost in my pitiful grief. But he hears me.

"It matters because Jarek is… He means a lot to me. And you mean a lot to him. He is mine, but you are also his, and that makes you mine too. My family."

"It's my fault," I tell him. And everyone. And no one. "It's my fault." My chest grows tight, and a heaviness settles in my stomach.

"What is?"

Cold. Why is it so cold? I glance around the cell as an icy chill works its way into my bones.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asks.

I hear movement to my right as if he has moved closer to the wall between us.

"I let it in," I whisper as the scene flashes through my mind over and over again.

"Let what in?" he asks, but my mind is still replaying the scene again in agonizing detail.

"Talk to me," he pleads.

"It won't change anything." I can't bring her back. I couldn't save her.

"No, but it might help to talk about it," he says gently.

"I killed her…" Admitting the truth out loud sends a painful jolt throughout me. "She's dead because of me… because of…" Because of my foolish choices. Maybe if I had checked on the creature earlier or placed it somewhere else…

I frown, realizing that the only thing holding it was the iron chains. It should not have been able to escape them. But maybe I should have used more.

"How did she die?" he asks.

She would be alive without my mistake. Alive and happy, with her kindness and warmth. But…

"The dark creature," I whisper more to myself than him.

"You brought a dark creature into the palace?" There is no judgment in his question, just a gentleness that wants to understand. And the softness in his voice eases something inside me.

So, I tell him. I don't know why I do. But I tell him everything. About my plan to capture a dark creature and finding the hidden tunnel to keep it chained up in.

"Somebody released it," he says, making me pause.

"The dark creatures are smart, yes, but they cannot unchain themselves from something made from iron. We've tested it. Someone must have set you up."

He's right. I knew it. I knew it the minute I saw the empty chamber. But I had hoped it was not the case.

That means someone must have followed me and found it. Or maybe they were aware of the tunnels and stumbled upon it. But someone had to have unchained it and released it.

"But it doesn't matter," I tell him.

"How can you say that?"

"That woman's death is still my fault. I brought that creature here."

"You didn't set it on people. You trapped it. It wasn't your fault."

I grow silent, knowing that is not true. I am not blameless.

"Do you deserve to die for it?" he asks, so softly I nearly miss it, too lost in my chaotic thoughts.

I pause and start to think on his words.

" No , you don't," he snaps, as if angry with me now. "You have a great deal to accomplish before that. A great deal. Some will not get that chance. But you deserve to live a full life of happy moments." He pauses with a heavy sigh, and something about his words makes me pause.

"Wylan?"

"Yes, Ren. Can I call you Ren?"

I hear the smile in his voice, reminding me so much of Jarek and his playfulness.

"No," I answer immediately, and he chuckles.

"Why are you here in a cell?" Or in the palace at all.

His chuckles quickly dry up as he releases a harsh breath. "Someone betrayed me. And because of it, I am to die."

My already cold body turns to ice.

"In two days." He chuckles again, but this time, there is no amusement in it. "I have two days before I am sentenced to death."

My mind tries to scramble together some form of a plan to get him out. He can't die. Not him too. Jarek will be… I have to get him out. It's the only thing I can focus on that makes sense right now.

"I would have liked to have seen him again. One more time," Wylan says almost wistfully, but I'm already up and moving, searching my cell. It doesn't look like my old one, the layout and bars similar to the one Veles was in.

My eyes slide to my right and narrow as an impossible thought drops into my head. Pushing it to the back of my mind for the moment, I find a basin of water at the side of the cell and shove my blood-red hands into the ice-cold water to wash them.

Turning my head away from them, I try to wash the blood off my hands and arms while focusing on something else.

"Why are they sending you to your death?" I ask, hoping it will pull me away from the small spiral I'm about to lose myself to once more.

"I wanted to help the Sidus. I've seen them suffer time and time again. All I wanted to do was help."

I freeze. "You're not a Sidus?"

He pauses as if realizing his little slip. "No."

Ah. Now I realize why Jarek was too nervous for me to meet him. He thought I would judge him. And he would have every right to think so. I did judge the rebels too harshly without ever really knowing them. And I did the same to the Caligo.

My impossible thought comes to the forefront of my mind, and I reach down, only to instantly feel my Caligo powers. And if I have access to them, surely he does too. Unless… "You're not Caligo either, are you?"

Wylan pauses again. "No."

Getting back to cleaning the dried blood off me, I focus on my small plan now that I have confirmation it may work. The bracelets are still on me, with no way to remove them, so I won't be able to use my Sidus light. But the guards don't know about my Caligo side. And hopefully this new cell doesn't hinder them either.

As I pull my clean hands out of the basin, my eyes fall on the now reddened water. Visha's blood.

Wylan. Wylan. Wylan.

I squeeze my eyes tight, reminding myself what I need to do. Again and again, before I can think of anything other than the blood and what it means.

Wylan. Wylan. Wylan.

Taking a deep breath, I reach down and feel for my shadows. They immediately roar to life inside me.

Opening my eyes, I watch them coil around my hands and move upward to brush against my cheek as if trying to soothe me.

It helps. I don't know why or how, but it does, centering me and allowing me to move ahead with what I must do.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" I ask him while forming more and more shadows around me.

"I wish I could. I wish I could get you out?—"

"No. I mean, do you know how to get out of the palace? Do you know your way out?" The palace is a colossal maze that many could get lost in.

"Yes, I know my way out. But it doesn't matter. The bars on this cell alone make sure I can't use my abilities or leave. That is without the many guards guarding the only exit I know."

I ignore the part about the guards, having a plan for that, but my stomach drops when I realize what he means about the bars.

"The cell has a blood spell on it?"

The cell next to me goes completely silent. "How do you know what a blood spell is?" he asks.

I hear him rise to his feet, and I glance to the wall he's behind, narrowing my eyes on it when my shadows move toward it as if reading my mind.

"Did they place it on the entire cell or just the bars?" I ask.

"Just the bars, but it doesn't matter because it also stops me from using my abilities. Now that I have answered your questions, I'd like to know how you know about any of this."

"Stand back," I order as my shadows continue to build around me.

"What—"

"Move away from the wall between us. Now!"

I hear the quick movement of feet just as I let go, and my shadows slam into the wall, destroying it and leaving nothing but crumbling, destroyed brick.

The dust starts to clear as a man around my age with shoulder-length dark brown hair and dark brown eyes steps over the debris. But as he attempts to move closer, I turn, pulling my shadows back before pushing them out toward my cell door, ripping it from its hinges and throwing it to the side.

Wylan stumbles into my cell, his eyes wide. "How?" He glances around at the destruction and then back at my shadows as I pull them back into me.

"I thought… you're a Sidus, Seren." Glancing at my face, he searches it for something but only frowns.

"I know you have questions, and maybe one day I'll get to answer them, but for now, I need you to trust me. You have no reason to?—"

"I do," he says with absolute certainty.

I pause and search his eyes, seeing it there too before nodding.

"You said we are family?" I ask.

"We are," he says without question.

"Then keep my secret. For it will only get us both killed."

He searches my face once more, but this time, he finds whatever he's looking for. He nods his head. "You have my word."

We turn and head up into the palace. I have to figure a way to get all the guards to follow me. If I draw them to the palace garden, it will be in the opposite direction Wylan is?—

"Come with me," he demands, just as we reach the main corridor.

"I can't," I tell him, meaning it. If I escape, what I'm accused of will fall on my mother and Ryuu. They will be implicated for it and pay for my foolish mistake.

"I can't leave without you," he snaps. "Not only because I know what they will do to you, and I don't want to ever see that happen, but because Jarek will kill me if I allow anything to happen to you."

I shake my head at him while keeping an eye out for any guards. "I need to follow through with this. I will draw the guards to me. Find someplace to hide until they come for me. You should be able to make a quick exit with them distracted."

"And if they try to kill you?" he hisses.

I narrow my eyes on him. "I am not that easy to kill."

"Seren—"

"Go." I push him, turning him, hoping he'll find a good hiding spot while I distract the guards. "And tell Jarek I give my approval."

He stops and turns, giving me a boyish smile. "You do?"

"But break his heart, and I'll rip out yours," I warn him with just a hint of a smile, letting him know I'm only mostly serious.

He pauses and squints his eyes. "I don't know who I should be more afraid of, the lieutenant or you."

"Me. Definitely me," I warn him. But instead of taking my warning seriously, he smiles and shakes his head, a determined glint in his eyes.

"I'll come back for you and get you out of here. I promise."

"I can look after myself. Take care of Jarek for me."

"I will. And I'll see you soon," he promises once more before turning and disappearing into the night.

I turn and head for the guards' watch and soon come upon one of the guards who take me to and from my cell.

"You." His eyes widen in recognition. I take his blade before he notices and give him a smug smirk before turning and running, slow at first so he has a chance to catch up with me.

"Stop! The Sidus has escaped," he shouts out, running after me and making a scene just as I had hoped. It garners more attention, and more and more guards join him.

I make my way through the palace and out to the wide-open gardens. They're on the opposite side of where I hope Wylan has gone.

I stop halfway and turn to them as they surround me.

"How did this Sidus killer get out of her cell?" the guard with the scar on the side of his neck snarls.

Killer… I tighten my hand on the blade. He's right, I am a killer. And was one long before I got Visha killed.

Instead of turning the pain inward, I let it out. I push it into the blade in my hand and strike, attacking the nearest guard.

More and more guards show up, but I don't stop; I keep fighting when all I want to do is lie down and cry. For Visha. For my foolish mistake. For the gut-wrenching pain that now fills my spirit and soul.

I keep fighting because it's all I know. And I don't know how to fill this black hole that has somehow opened up inside me.

I want to cry and scream and shout. But I can't. I can't because I don't deserve to.

It was my fault, no matter what Wylan said. If there was no dark creature here, then whoever released it would not have been able to do so. She would still be alive and I… I wouldn't feel this rock crushing against my chest.

My body moves, stabbing, ducking, and fending off as it comes second nature to me.

With ease, I spin sideways, eluding another guard's attack before advancing and slicing the guard in front of me.

More grunts, snarls, and hisses sound out as I make my way through them with ease.

The guards quickly change tactics and try to overpower me with a distraction while more sneak up from behind. But I sense them immediately and evade their attempt to catch me.

I carve a path through them and fend off another attack, but more and more guards show up, replacing those that have fallen.

They soon overwhelm me, and it gets harder to defend against them all. One falls but another quickly replaces him.

A blade slices against my shoulder, another across my side. But I feel nothing. No pain bar the ache inside me slowly crawling its way throughout my body.

More and more slices cut me, the guards eyes lighting up as they watch me grow slower and more drained.

I can see it in their eyes; they're toying with me. They don't use their shadow powers, because they know I will pay with every cut, every drop of blood shed, every bruise and broken bone.

They know it and I do too. And instead of fearing it, I welcome it. I welcome the thought, knowing I deserve much worse.

"You are all ordered to stop." A shout bellows out from somewhere behind me, but none of the guards stop, and neither do I, continuing our fight.

The guard with the scar tries to outsmart me, but I drive my blade into his shoulder, eliciting a curse before twisting around to my next attacker, when my sword clashes with another. But instead of another one of the guards, my gaze meets with steely-gray eyes full of thunder.

Kestral.