AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But you are,” I say, and he shrugs. I stare at him, tension growing like weeds in a pasture between us, when a new emotion tickles my webs. Sorrow. Then it hits me. “You’re jealous.”
“Can’t be jealous of something that was never mine.”
“Hey.” I grab Riot by the arm and pull him to look at me. He resists, so I cup his cheeks with my hands and give him no choice. “Talk to me. What’s going through that head of yours?”
Riot looks away, his gaze drifting to the unguarded door, and he huffs. “Now isn’t the time to worry about me, princess. Your friend isright through there. Do you really want to waste your time talking about us?” He says the last word hesitantly.
I want to say yes. I genuinely want to know what’s going on, if there is or could be an us, and what his position as Bash’s personal guard would mean for our relationship. But time is precious. I’ve already wasted enough of Ezra’s, leaving him in the hands of the Crown. So I clench my jaw tight and say nothing.
“That’s what I thought.” Riot shakes his head and strides toward the door, leaving a palpable tension between us.
As we step through the crumbling doorway, the darkness inside envelops me like a heavy cloak. The only source of light is the feeble glow filtering through shattered windows, casting eerie shadows on the decaying walls. The floorboards groan beneath my weight, echoing through the desolate space. To an outsider, the building looks decrepit, to the point where a struggling passerby wouldn’t even want to squat in it.
Riot steps on a spring-loaded plank and a secret door lifts from within the floorboard. The hinges creak as he lifts if open, revealing a narrow set of stairs that descend into a pit of darkness. “After you.”
“Where are the guards you mentioned?” I ask, feeling a familiar buzz hum through my veins. I descend the first step and a chill rushes through me. Tiny invisible ants swarm my body, biting and scratching me, but then they fall away. The pain is gone, the coldness replaced by my own warmth, and I recognize where I’ve felt this buzz before. I can’t see them, but I feel the touch of the blue flames somewhere nearby.
“I said this building was protected, not guarded.”
“A warning would have been nice,” I mumble, and he looks at me curiously. “Your torches are still burning. I can feel the magic of the blue flames.”
“You're still standing,” he says in disbelief.
“What can I say? They like me.” I shrug, hoping Riot files this detail away with all my other secrets he’s learned. I navigate down the dimly lit stairs, the silence broken only by the sound of my footsteps echoing off the damp walls. When we reach the bottom, I stumble, expecting another step. Riot catches me by the back of my cloak and I mutter, “Thanks.”
He walks ahead, twisting knobs to light the lanterns posted between each cell. The corridor is eerily quiet. I spread my webs, searching for signsof life around us. Even with oil lamps burning, the cells are too dark for me to see into. I can't find a single heartbeat. Not one living soul within the pen besides Riot and I, and it makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.
In the very last cell, at the end of the corridor, we finally find Ezra. He sits on a bench, his head hung low, with only a pot to piss in in the corner. The feeble light reveals the toll the captivity has taken on him and my heart sinks at the sight of his weariness.
“Ezra!” I run to the bars that are caging him in.
He looks up, and the toll the curse has taken on him is worse than I expected. His skin stuck to his cheeks, eyes hollow but brown again.
“Khiara?” he asks, then presses his palms to his temples. “Leave her out of this!” he yells, hitting himself in the head.
“Stop!” I cry. "You're hurting yourself!” I look at Riot. "Please let me in there."
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he says, looking past me into the cell.
“Stars, dammit, Riot. This is what we’re here for! Let me in there,” I beg. Anxious energy bounces in my webs. I’m shaking, barely able to control myself, guilt pelting my mind with how all of this is my fault.
I should have never let Bash take Ezra to Tarrish.
I should have stayed with him and fought against Bash when he said they were taking Ezra to the Crown’s dungeons.
I should have listened to my instinct and found Ezra myself, not wasting time with the Culling out of fear of being taken prisoner. I let Aisha experiment on my best friend. I let him suffer for days. I let him become this near-dead, fragile shell of the man I used to know.
I have to get him out of here.
Riot pulls a brass key from his pocket and gradually opens the cell’s door. He holds his arm out, blocking the entrance. “Just hang on. When they turn, they’re not human anymore. They’re faster. Don’t let your guard down.”
Ezra busts his lip and bloodies his nose, hitting himself, and I can’t take it anymore. I push Riot’s arm out of the way and drop to my knees in front of Ezra. He looks up at me and says, “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” I touch his arms and his skin is cold and clammy. “Everything‘s going to be okay, though. I’m here now.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not. You should’ve never come. I can’t control him.”
“Who, Ezra? Who can’t you control?” A damp chill slithers down my spine as goosebumps pepper my skin. I feel the change before it happens, just like I had in Tarrish.
Ezra's breath quickens and red veins appear beneath his eyes, down to his cheeks. His teeth somehow become incredibly sharper. I sense the impending transformation, the shift from human to something else, and a shiver runs down my spine.
I realize that the answer to my question isn't a simple one. The entity Ezra struggles to control is not just awhobut a manifestation of something far more sinister. I fall backward as I try to get away, but I’m not fast enough. He lunges for me and holds me in place, his newly sprouted fangs pressing to my neck, ripping my veins open. I shutter, warmth leaving my body, as he drinks my blood. I try to move but have no control. I vaguely see Riot running into the cell and hear his muffled shouts but I don’t know what he’s saying.
In the span of a heartbeat, everything goes black.
