8. Hear Me

8. Hear Me

Skylenna

At the end of thehall, we stand in front of a wide brass door. It’s old, rusted, and covered in claw marks. Kaspias steps around me, unlatching the door and tugging it open. A fog creeps out, carrying the stench of gunk from the inside of a drainpipe and bad breath.

“I heard you aren’t fond of dark, enclosed spaces,” Kaspias purrs, keeping his back to me.

I gulp, and my hands tingle with anticipation. Leaning forward, I try to get a better look inside. There is no floor. Only brimstone walls, and a black, endless drop.

I step back, ready to fight him on this. I’m half his size, half his brawn. But I know how to fight, and unfortunately, he probably does, too. Getting a good look at him, he’s tanner than Dessin. Arms and chest have more hair. And he looks like he’s scarred from head to toe.

He smirks. A lip ring glinting in the dim light. “You think you can fight your way out of this?”

“I think I could slit both your wrists before you had a chance to blink,” I say calmly. If I wanted to, I could reach into his mind. I could pull his least favorite memories to the surface. I could make him drown. But he’s Kane’s twin brother. He’s Kaspias Valdawell. Taken as a baby. Forced to train before Kane was ever taken by Demechnef.

Despite his previous trick, the ease with which he could betray me without remorse, I have to give him the chance to show me he has the same heart, the same blood, as Sophia. There must be a soul deep down.

“I’m going to enjoy hearing you cry. Can I get one tear before you lose your footing?” He has this expression that I can’t help but find annoying. A childlike taunting. An immature inflation of self-esteem.

“I’d never cry for you,” I whisper, feeling my vision start to blur. “But by the time I leave this prison, I’ll watch you weep like a child.”

“Such a sweet sister-in-law,” he says as I sway right into his arms. The room tumbles around my head, making me hold my stomach and pray I don’t vomit again. “Have a nice timeout.”

I’m pushed forward. My head hits the brimstone wall first, scraping into my hairline. I fall into foggy darkness, cold like the winds of the North Sapphrine forest. It stings my skin, slaps against my hair, and I don’t have a moment to scream before smashing into the shallow water. Pain explodes up my spine, boiling into my limbs.

My back, arms, and legs hit a gravelly bottom. The chunky, polluted water only cushioning my fall enough not to knock me out. It’s as if I’ve been tossed down the pit of a half-empty well. I cough out the splash I accidentally inhaled on impact. It tastes like dirt and decay.

Shit. Dessin is going to lose his mind.

I look up at the flickering slit of light above my head, feeling Kaspias’s presence as he waits for me to cry. To scream. To beg for release.

But I’ve conquered this fear already. I’ve learned to deal with it. I remember reaching up for Young Kane’s hands as he pulled me from the darkness. I remember that the basement can’t hurt me. It never did.

Groaning quietly, I pick out the piece of brimstone jabbed under my scalp. It slides out like a thorn with blood trickling from my hairline.

I have to get out of here. Dessin might get himself killed trying to get to me. And Warrose will help him. But what will that mean for Ruth and Niles? We have too much to lose if anyone steps out of line. Kind of like we did today. Ugh! Dessin will blame himself for this. For losing his temper. For attacking the serving staff.

I slap my hand down in the ankle-deep water I’m lying in.

“I’ll be around when you’re ready to cry on my metaphorical shoulder. You know, since I’m up here, and you’re down there.” Kaspias snickers before slamming the door shut. A teeth-rattling boom echoes down the well.

“Fuck you,” I breathe.

After a moment, I reach my hands around, searching for a dry space where I can sit. But it’s all water and bumpy walls. And it’s fucking freezing down here. A windless chill like the temperature in Aurick’s ice chest. I rub my hands up and down the backs of my arms to get some friction, create heat. But I’m shivering. Sucking in stuttering breaths.

Is he trying to give me hypothermia? I’ll die down here before he can get me out.

With a deep grunt, I stand, holding on to the slimy walls to keep balanced. I just have to climb up the wall and put my toes and fingers into the crevices until I’m hoisted to the top. When I reach the door, I can kick it open. I can find a way out.

I latch on easily, then begin climbing.

It’s sad, really, how quickly I fall back into the disgusting well of water. My fingers and arms dig into the rocky wall as I come down, scraping into them like knives through tissue paper. I howl as my tailbone collides with a sharp rock, cutting into the thin material of my uniform. Broken fingernails. Gashes the length of my thumb. A bruised ass.

I try thirteen more times. But I’m weak, shaking, hungry, thirsty, sliced up, exhausted.

Slumping against the wall, I close my eyes, trying so hard to block out the heavy stench of sewage. And although my body is tired, harmed, begging for comfort—my mind is stronger than ever.

I touch the perimeter of the void. Feel its luring presence imploring me to step within its boundaries. It’s like a soft rain during the fall weather. A swift wind of red leaves and a cold mist falling from the sky. I take a deep breath and let myself sink into the abyss.

My arms wade through the night, searching for that memory that wants to reveal itself. But amid the peace, there’s a pull in a different direction. A sound that breaks the glass of silence, a noise that is so familiar, I could name it if I could just get a little closer.

Swimming through the dusk of the void, I follow that song like a beacon, guiding me, singing my name. A tune only I can hear from a great distance. And I’m flying out of the void, over the Vex Mountains, across the Midnight Sea, and back to the Dementia. The wind gusts over my face, drying my skin, sifting through my tangled hair. And that soft tune turns into a roar.

A mighty thunder from a great beast.

On the shoreline of one of the seven forests, I’m pulled downward, tumbling through the air and clouds until I see him.

Our friend.

Our protector.

DaiSzek.

His powerful stance of black fur and russet feet brace into the sand as he howls. A devastating cry for his family. For me.

“DaiSzek!” I scream from a great height above his head.

DaiSzek looks up, meeting my floating figure in the sky.

Oh, how I’ve longed to see those great cinnamon eyes again. My heart dips and soars at the sight of him. At the sight of Knightingale creeping out of the forest line behind him, wiggling her butt and perking her tall ears. She can see me, too!

I land in the sand with a silent thump. Without a moment of hesitation, I throw myself around his thick neck, gripping him like I might never get this chance again.

“Oh, baby boy!” I sob, scratching his back, kissing the top of his head. “Can you hear me? See me?”

DaiSzek chuffs in response.

I kneel in front of him, signaling for Knightingale to come closer. She greets me by nudging her nose aggressively under my hand to give her pets, too.

“I need you to get help,” I tell DaiSzek.

He lifts his giant head a little higher in sudden alarm. He understands me.

“We’re in the Vexamen Prison. And I think we’re on the precipice of war. I need you to find the Stormsage Keep. Lead them to the other colonies. I’m hoping they’ll understand that I’ve sent you. That I need their help. If their prophecy is accurate, they’ll know where we are.”

DaiSzek sighs loudly and presses his head against mine. Those beautiful eyes close. And I want nothing more than to stay with him. Tears sting the backs of my eyes.

“Don’t come to Vexamen, okay? It’s too dangerous for either you or Knightingale to get caught.” But DaiSzek straightens his back and stares into my soul with an utter look of defiance. “Please,” I beg.

He releases a long, devastating howl and takes off in the forest with Knightingale tailing right behind him.

Something cold and sharp latches onto me, yanking me back into the void by force, a delirious motion of nothingness that rushes past me until I’m back. I’m sitting in my own body being reeled upward toward a dim light.

“You still alive?” Kaspias calls down with a smile.

I rub the backs of my arms, trembling so hard my bones start to ache. My wet hair only makes the biting chill that much worse. I long to be wrapped in a blanket, sitting in front of a fire in the forest with Kane. I summon the memory of when we were children. When he would keep me warm at night under the twinkling stars.

“I hope your legs still work. It’s either run or die.”