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“What are you doing here?”
“Apparently the side effect of escaping the Chandelier City is to end up here,” Niklaus answers behind the girl. His black hair is tied back in a bun, and somehow he looks stronger than before. Glowing ocean eyes like he’s just seen war.
My swollen eyes shift between them. “I don’t have time for polite conversation. I’m looking for someone.”
I try to push past them, but the girl holds my wrist again.
“Drop it,” I growl.
“I know you don’t know me, but you’ve done so much for me the moment I needed you the most.” Her voice is lined with yearning gratitude. “Let me do something for you now.”
I watch as her brows knit together, and her bottom lip trembles.
“He’s in the tower on the east wing. It’s a dungeon they use to experiment on inmates.”
Respite and terror wrestle in my core. Experiment? Haven’t we had enough of that shit to last a lifetime? I pull away from her to go after him, but she tightens her grip.
“Don’t hold back on them. It takes something extraordinary to unlock a mind like yours. No one will ever forget this day. Especially not me. Not ever.” She stares into my eyes with a wealth of knowledge I’ve only seen in a few individuals in my lifetime. Dessin. Judas. Marilynn. Asena. The people of the ancient colonies…
And those eyes…there’s something about the colors of her eyes.
“Who. Are. You?”
Her look of farewell is timeless, beautiful, and ethereal as she bows her head, taking Niklaus and disappearing into the shadows.
~
Warrose
He started off murmuring her name.
“Skylenna, Skylenna, Skylenna.”
Now he says nothing at all. Every few minutes he makes agonized noises, the kind I used to hear from a dying animal in the forest. It’s a guttural moan that is so unlike him, raking across my skin like a blanket of spiders. Sweat glistens his furrowed forehead. Every muscle is flexed and excruciatingly tight.
“Alright, that’s enough! This has gone on long enough!” I fight against the bars holding me down, bruising myself until I’m a throbbing mess.
What the fuck are they doing to him?
“He won’t make it out until his brain chemistry toward the girl changes,” Masten says absentmindedly as he glances up at Dessin from an old book.
Niles pants next to me, still sickened and traumatized by the hot poker. I don’t blame him; I’m shivering and wincing at the horrendous burns on my side. But all I care about right now is getting my friend out of his own personal hell.
“Dessin? It’s me, buddy. Fight through this. You love Skylenna, and she loves you. Nothing in the world can corrupt that!” I shout with a sore throat.
But Dessin continues to make awful sounds in the base of his throat. And Kaspias fucking laughs. Before I can even open my mouth, Niles beats me to it.
“You think this is funny?” His snarl is shaped by torment and hatred. “That’s your brother! You’re hurting your brother!”
I watch as Kaspias glances between Niles and Dessin, and his expression goes taut, only for half a second, then morphs back into mockery.
“My family is here,” Kaspias says proudly, hands on hips.
“No.” The room swells with ice and wickedness. “Your family was Sophia and Arthur.”
I jerk my head to look toward the doorway but can’t move past my manacles. However, I don’t need to see the woman standing there to know her intelligent, strong voice.
It’s Skylenna.
