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“Can you hear me? We’re going to remove the cuffs.” Yunez slid into place beside me as he hovered a hand over each cuff.
The hood fell back, revealing a white haired man with sunken cheeks and a few missing teeth. It was a struggle for him to lift his head, but when he did, my entire existence froze in that one moment.
His eyes. They weremyeyes.
His wide set mouth held the exact same frown I often sported.
My epiphany was unique to me because he squinted like he couldn’t focus on my face. “Who are you?” His voice was barely a whisper on the wind. It was something scratching and painful.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. There was nothing I could say.
“Lars, it is good to see you alive, my friend. I know a few people who will rejoice with this news.” Yunez cut his gaze to me for the briefest second, then finished removing the cuffs.
“Is that…” I turned my head, but it was so difficult, like trying to move through quickly cooling wax. There was one other prisoner here. If this was Lars, then there was a good chance that the other prisoner was…
“Nerro,” Lars said. Nato and Yunez helped Lars up from the ground while Jari and Rand helped me to my feet.
“Who?” My voice was like sludge in my ears. That wasn’t Ishana?
“Ner—” he coughed, hacking up something nasty—“Nerro.”
“It’s a man,” Sage called with an insurmountable amount of regret in his voice. He knew this would break my heart before I could even comprehend what I wished for.
“Friend.” Lars started coughing again and a long string of drool and blood dangled from his mouth. Twisting his head, he wiped his face on his cloak. “Met here.”
Two more explosions went off in quick succession. I glanced up at the ceiling.
We needed to be upstairs, working with the Fennins to help save the realm. Yet, how could I fully engage when I had just met my father? Maybe I would feel differently if I’d met him on the street as we both ran toward the fight, but I hadn’t. We’d discovered a severely mistreated and malnourished man instead.
If we left him, with the battle going on up above, I might never see him again. And that would be so incredibly cruel.
“We can’t leave him here.” It was a statement. An order.
“We are not leaving him here. But neither can we take him into battle. That would surely sign his death warrant.” Yunez readjusted his arm around Lars.
“We—”
“Iss,” Yunez snapped. “We will not leave him here. This is my promise. We will find a different place to let him rest while we join the fight.”
“What if someone finds him?” I tried really really hard not to get emotional. I wasn’t an emotional person. Not before I found my LL. But the stress, the shock, the building frustration, or maybe a combination of all three blanketed my mind until I had a swirling cocktail of unwanted fear and anxiety.
Nato grabbed my shoulders and gave me a small shake.
When I met his concerned yet troubled stare, he dipped his chin just a bit. “Someone might find him. He’s in no condition to watch after himself. We can’t guarantee he’ll make it, and I wished like fuck I could. But we can’t spare anyone when innocent people are suffering. We can’t. Not when our presence could mean life or death for thousands of Fennins. But we’ll do everything we can to make sure he comes back.”
The heaviness of his gaze held me captive, providing a warm comfort I wouldn’t have expected in that moment. When I was able to draw in a breath, I gave two sharp nods. “Let’s find as safe of a place as we can before going up…Please?”
“You got it.” Nato let go and turned around. “You heard her. Let’s find Lars and Nerro a cubby to hide in.”
Sage and Rand had the cell door open. Lars and Nerro each had two men half helping, half carrying them as we escaped. The dungeon was one entire room. Except at the very bottom of the stairs.
One small door stood on either side. I opened one, finding a half bath. Spinning, I threw the other door open, and bottles of liquid crashed to the ground. More than a few shattered and the sharp scent of bleach hit my nose.
“Damn it. That would have been the perfect hiding place.” All relative, considering there were no good hiding places during an all out war. Although, the fact that there was a bathroom and cleaning closet in the dungeon struck me as hilarious. I would have laughed if the tension crackling in the air wasn’t so smothering.
“I got it.” Jari placed a hand on my lower back as he stepped around me. He crouched down, placing two fingers on the ground and the stone floor immediately shifted and reshaped. The stench of bleach was still there, but not even a tenth as bad as it was.
“You impress me every day, Jari.” I touched his back.
