Chapter 15
Peytor
Five Months Ago
My legs dangled over the ledge of my designated floor. The Crystal Mines were really just one giant hole, the size and depth of which was almost incomprehensible. Levels of small sleeping caves and larger ones for eating and shitting were carved into the side of the hole, new ones formed each day we were forced lower into the cavern to hunt for the increasingly elusive crystals. The sun was only visible from the top level, which was occupied by the elite guards and overseers. It was also the only level that possessed a safety barrier that overlooked the expansive black hole. Each subsequent level became darker, lit only periodically by a handful of glowing orbs.
I’d been shoved unceremoniously into a designated cavern on a level roughly halfway down the hole. Not far enough down that I couldn’t see any of the light, but still removed enough that sunlight was only a speck in the distance.
A small glimmer of hope.
I snorted ruefully.
A small glimmer of hope. What do you think about that, Finian?
I’d done this constantly over the past two months—spoken to Finian as if he were here with me and not ashes in the wind.
Perhaps it was my loneliness or my abject despair that forced me to converse with my dead lover. Or maybe it was because I missed him so godsdamned much.
It felt like a piece of my soul was rendered from me and reduced to ash by my sister’s Destruction Magic alongside the one person I loved above all else.
If you could see me now, Finian, I sighed, desperate to hear him speak back to me. If only one last time.
Maybe I could hear himallthe time. Let my soul join the ether and intertwine with his for the remainder of eternity.
The peacefulness of that thought nearly reduced me to tears, even though I’d cried enough for a lifetime.
I gripped the edge of the ledge tighter with my fists, the minuscule crystals embedded in the rough rock digging mercilessly into my hands. Holding my pick tomorrow would be a bitch.
If I was here tomorrow.
I wasn’t the first to debate tossing myself over the ledge into the maw of the mines below, and I certainly wouldn’t be the last. Fuck, it wasn’t even my first time sitting here, contemplating falling.
There were two types of people that jumped—those who regretted it and those who had already accepted their fate. You could tell the difference by whether they screamed on the way down or not.
Not for the first time today, I contemplated which group I would fall in.
Would I regret it on the way down?
Would I feel a calm acceptance?
Would I even care?
The sounds of fucking and fighting wafted up from below; an accompanied wail as whoever lost the fight was tossed over the ledge. I didn’t need to look anymore to know what was happening. The guards here, and even some of the prisoners, were the worst of the worst. Sent here to die in darkness and despair, cut off from their magic and hope. The strongest of them preyed on the prisoners, using their flesh for both carnal and other more nefarious desires. The number of men and women I’d seen with chunks carved from their bodies that festered and oozed with the lack of medical attention was alarming. Some were a bit more subtle, with words and designs carved into their skin, eventually scarring to leave a permanent mark. I guess the marks didn’t matter, though, as none of us were getting out of here alive.
Guards included.
I kicked my legs aimlessly as my head fell back, my long ratty hair falling between my shoulders. The caverns were hell on a person—mind, body, and soul. I’d only been here for two months, and it already felt like an eternity.
An eternity that was only elongated by the sharp stinging pain in my chest that constantly pulsed with the absence of Finian. With the betrayal of my sister.
What was there even left to live for?
“Everything.” The voice was loud in the cavern, and I nearly fell off the ledge in surprise. I quickly righted myself, scrambling back from my precious position as the sharp rocks dug into my exposed skin and ripped through my threadbare clothes.
My heart raced in my chest, a shot of adrenaline forcing me to draw ragged gasps through my mouth. I threw myself against the wall of the mines, my back groaning at the impact, but I paid no mind to the pain.
The life that was suddenly coursing through my system burned through the apathy that fogged my mind. I knew, at least in that moment, I’d be one of the screamers.
