“Frid, the temple!”
Victor was right behind me. I lowered my head and pain exploded in my throat. We would be lucky not to run into the crawler dragons that were partial to this abandoned city. I dove below, slashing the chilly night air with my wings. Victor followed me all the way down. After all the time I spent on the surface, I knew exactly where to go. I flew straight to it, cutting corners, leading us right to the doors of the temple. Finally,I landed on the platform in front of the entrance and swiftly transformed, taking out my weapon. Everything seemed quiet. A moment later, Victor landed right behind me. I opened the door and checked the room while he shapeshifted. When we got inside, Victor closed the heavy door and locked it with a steel rod that was conveniently left on the floor.
I picked up a torch and lit it. The flame ignited, painting the surroundings with gold shimmering light. Victor’s suit was opened in the front, his face was covered in blood, even his hair had streaks of crimson in it. There was something odd about his posture. I could not figure it out. He was right handed, but he was barely using his right arm. It dangled lifelessly by his hip.
“What happened to your arm?” I asked.
He shifted his eyes to me and I saw a piece of glass sticking out below his eye.
“Victor!” I stepped forward.
At first he stilled, then moved his head, not allowing me to touch him.
I remained standing with my hand outstretched. Deep sadness seeped into my chest. He was angry with me, because of what I did. While blindly following the lies, I never listened to him. I only tried to do what I thought was right, but I placed both of us in danger. He had the right to be mad, but I just could not stand this new version of him.
“You broke your thumb... and your wrist,” I said, lifting my eyes to his face. “What happened?” I repeated.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“The fucking sisters.” He took a step into the room increasing the distance between us.
“The sisters?”
“You asked me why I couldn’t transform to talk to you. I wanted to. I tried to. I would’ve done anything just to talk to you.” He glanced at me briefly. “While you were flying the missions, they wanted me to stay put. They drugged me at first, but that wasn’t enough. They started keeping me tied up.”
“What?”
“They didn’t want me to transform. They never trusted you. They wanted to keep me as collateral in case you went rogue.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I looked at his hand, noticing the swelling and almost purplish bruising on his skin.
Victor frowned, a streak of blood traveled from the wound on his face to his neck and disappeared behind the open collar of his flying leathers.
“They made me understand that I would put you in danger.”
“Why did you let me think that you were...?” I shook my head, stopping myself. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. How did you find me?”
“I heard your voice. You called me,” Victor said quietly.
His gaze was full of deep underlying meanings I was not able to decode. For some reason, now more than ever before, I wanted to know everything he was thinking.
“How is that possible?” I whispered.
“I would do anything . . . to find you.”
This time it was me who pulled back. Whatever it was that bloomed deep in my stomach, I could not think about it now. I had to get us to safety. Victor’s eyes hardened. He was silent as I stepped around him, and moved toward the pitch black tunnel.
The dark stripes of shadows stained the walls, blurring into the pitch black void.
“Let’s get you to the pool.” I picked up another torch and softly blew fire on the carefully wrapped oiled fabric.
The light from the flame sailed across the walls, exposing the uneven bricks as we travelled along the ceremonial path through the tunnel. I vividly remembered every time I had come down this way, fighting for my life. I clenched my teeth, reliving the last time when a crawler dragon had followed me. The smell of burning flesh in the air, and so much pain that I thought I would not be able to make it. Then, I thought about my conversations with the high priestess when she claimed that every temple is considered their territory.
“I’m wondering if this place belongs to sisters too,” I mumbled.
“They’re definitely not going anywhere tonight,” Victor responded.
