10. The Side Effects

10. The Side Effects

Skylenna

One cage automatically opens.

I’m unaware of the person above me as I get scooped up, carried, and held in someone’s lap.

“She’s cold as ice. What do I do?” Warrose asks in a quiet panic.

I breathe in through my nose. He smells of a winter storm, of dark spice. I try to focus on that as I tremble ferociously as if I’m seizing. Ice coats my bones, splinters through my veins.

“Mm⎯ake it st⎯op,” I stutter through chattering teeth.

This is much worse than last time. When I took Aurick to the prison void, I was cold for a few long moments, but it passed. This feels different. It’s as if I’ve been tossed into a blizzard without an inch of clothing. It’s as if I’ve been frozen at the core of an iceberg.

It’s agony.

“Her lips are blue,” Warrose says to someone. “Why is this happening?”

“She went to the prison void again,” Marilynn suggests.

“Take your pants off, Warrose. She needs body heat.” Dessin. His voice is hoarse, strained, broken. I want to reach out to him. I want to tell him I made it. I made it back to him.

Warrose sets me down. Moves quickly. I hear pants hit the floor.

“I’m sorry. I have to,” he tells me in a rush, then hisses. “Christ, her skin is ice.”

But his is fire, and damn, it feels good. I’m held, squeezed, and secured tightly in his naked lap. He puts my face in the crook of his neck, wraps his large arms around my body, rubs up and down until the friction builds warmth.

“Bring her closer to my bars,” Ruth begs.

Warrose doesn’t object. He swivels to the left, bringing our naked bodies closer until a pair of arms are holding my legs.

“Tell Dessin—I made it,” I whisper to Warrose. My breathing is low, but I need him to hear it. I need him to know I’d do it again to be with him. I can’t imagine the stress, the anguish, he went through worrying about me.

Warrose nods, sighing. His head tilts away from me to look at Dessin.

“She wants me to tell you that she made it.”

Dessin’s cage is silent. No response. No good job. No faint laugh. Only utter quiet from his space within those bars.

I peel my eyes open despite how swollen and raw my face is. Through the tiny slits, I see Dessin is crouched in the corner of his cage, face in hands, shoulders quivering slightly.

Oh, Dessin. How it must kill him not to be able to hold me right now. It’s unlike him not to break every rule to come rescue me. But he can’t do that anymore, not in the way he used to. I must be given the freedom to stretch my wings and fly over men, just like Asena once told me.

“Why does this happen when she goes into the prison void?” Ruth breaks the silence.

Tingling is brought back to my toes, seeping its way up my feet. She massages my legs softly, then brings my hands to her lips, blowing hot air on them, dropping quick kisses on the knuckles. I smile into Warrose’s neck.

“I think it’s because she exerts too much energy into that place. It’s easy for her to go there alone now that she’s had time to explore it, but not for her to bring someone along.” Marilynn’s voice is like a smooth glass of wine. Refined and silky as it touches my ears.

“Skylenna, did you bring any of those monsters to the prison void?” Niles asks.

I nod. “All of them.”

The group makes an “oooh” sound.

“What did you do to them?” Warrose’s breath grazes the top of my head.

“Made them scared.”

“Huh. Not super creative, but I’ll take it!” Niles says.

I roll my eyes, but wince at how badly that hurts. Two heavy marbles pressing against my tender sockets. I can’t breathe through my nose, can’t wrinkle my brow, can’t even swallow right. As the adrenaline wears off, the aching sets in. My arms burn from where they scratched me. My stomach has its own pulse, a steady beat of poison running through each bruised organ.

It rushes over me like a tsunami.

“Fuckkkkkkkk,” I groan.

“What?”

“It hurts. Everything hurts.” I can barely speak. My jaw is hardened to one open position. I wonder if any bones are broken. I guess I have no way of finding out until the swelling goes down. God, I’d give anything for a drink with Aquarus in a hot bath.

“We have to get her cleaned up,” Ruth whispers to Warrose. “I don’t even know where most of this blood is coming from.”

Is there a lot of it? Is it bad that I don’t even care? Sleep is my only escape, my only way out of this constant throbbing. And I’m so damn tired. My eyes droop, my breath grows heavy, and I want to float away now.

“We will tomorrow. She’s been through too much to move her now.”

“Warrose?” I mutter sleepily.

“Hmm?”

“Will you—tell Dessin something else—before I fall asleep?”

A small movement tells me he nodded.

“Tell him I love him. Tell him I’m gonna dream of that castle he promised me.”

Warrose’s chest moves up and down. He places a soft kiss on my head.

“I’ll tell him.”