Page 19 of Where We Belong

The room falls silent.

“He’s the most skilled alchemist…” Lili repeats. When I walk back in, she’s on her feet, eyes wide.

“Hang on,” Tobian says. “Did you check Vale? Leander?”

Leander almost looks offended as he points at him. “No, I didn’t. That’s your job. And why would I? He’s King Aeron’s advisor.”

“That’s exactly why.” Lili’s eyes dart around the room. “Nyk…it’s insane, but it’s the only lead we’ve got. He’s known Kaed since he was a baby. He was his father’s best friend. It doesn’t make sense. But…”

“But it does.” I sit back down, resting my palm against my forehead. My stomach drops. It fits. He knows the palace, he’s in charge of the wards, he has the King’s ear, his trust. He keeps going missing. My heart races at the thought that we finally have a sliver of something to cling to.

“He had iron on his clothes today, I could smell it, and I thought for a second, just a second that I could smell Kaed too, but I got distracted. We need to get into his quarters,” I chew at my thumbnail, recalling his skittish behavior at the temple, his ripped clothes. His blatant lie about where he’s been. “But they’ll be protected. And we all know I’m not great with spell work, so I can’t break through whatever wards he has up, but it’s treason, so I won’t ask the rest of you to follow my wild swan chase.”

“We definitely know your spell work is poor, as are your idioms. It’s wild goose chase.” Tobian says.

“Just leave the wards to me,” Lili says, hope plastered across her face. “Vale taught me everything I know. And why would you do this alone, Nyk? He’s one of us. We’re all in.” She looks at Tobian and Leander.

“All in,” Tobian says, “Till eternity or insanity.”

We chuckle at the old saying we had crafted in our youth. We had said it whenever we were about to embark on something that was wrong, stupid, and bound to get us caught. So naturally, we said it every other day.

For the next few hours, we work through plans, most of which we discard almost as quickly as they come, but finally, we settle on something.

“We move at dawn,” I say, standing and stretching, my joints cracking from the hours spent hunched over.

“Let’s hope you’re wrong, Nyk,” Leander says. “But if you’re not…”

“I hope I’m right to be honest with you, Lee. I want this shit over with and our brother free.”

Chapter 22

Ashley

my spirit cries out to the Holy One,

Hallel for I am reformed!

Every single atom in my body aches. My fingers, my toes, my face… hell, even my hair hurts. And I don’t know how the heck I ended up on the floor. The last thing I remember is that bastard tying me to the chair, followed by a hard thump in my chest that warned me to protect myself. Then, the room dissolved into nothing. Groaning, I lift my head, every movement a little war. My eyes find the Captain immediately. He’s in his usual spot. That chair. But blood is pooling under him and seeping into the cracks of the stone floor. With everything I’ve got, I haul myself to my feet. The cell bars are melted, like they’ve been cooked in a furnace, and he is a mess. Long, jagged gashes up to his thighs, thick splotches of blood soaking his shredded top. My stomach churns at the deep wounds climbing his shuddering torso.

“What happened?” My throat is burning. Like I swallowed a lit match.

His head hangs limp, but his dark lashes flutter ever so slightly, and something in my heart leaps in desperate hope. A shadow of whatever I felt that night he took those steps towards me. A shadow of magic.

“Please… Captain? If you can hear me, I just… I just want to go home. Can you let me out? Please?”

I cling to the bars with bloody hands. His eyelids flicker again.

Confusion wars with panic, and I try to drag in air, but it doesn’t feel like enough. “Kaed?”

He repeats the motion and I try to make sense of it. Is he trying to tell me something?

“My door?” I ask. He blinks twice, though his eyes are half closed. I ask him again. And again. The blinks are too uniform to be a mistake, so I stagger across to the door of my cell, gripping the iron bars as I go. My heart pounds in my ears when I push against it, and it doesn’t budge.

“I don’t understand. I don’t—” My words are coming out in bits and pieces, forced out between the sobs I’m trying so desperately to pull back into my throat. Not to mention how sick I feel begging a man for help, when does that ever happen? But the more we communicate, the more that tingle of power grows in my heart. Only slightly, though, it feels tired, like it’s been used and it’s exhausted. Like it’s injured. For the first time, a frown creases his otherwise blank expression. His fingers twitch, again. Urgh, I get it, the fucking door. But what? I press my cheek to the bars and look through them, toward the front of my cell door. My heart skips a beat as something catches my eye.

“Oh,” I gasp. “Oh! The key. Thank you, Kaed!”

It hangs from the lock on the other side. “Can you unlock it for me?” My voice is so messed up, I must sound like a hundred-year-old smoker to him. But I hear a child. A desperate little Victorian orphan trapped in a broom cupboard. He doesn’t move, so I guess that’s a no. My trembling fingers stretch through the nearest gap in the bars. But it’s too far. My muscles scream at me as I try and try again. Fuck. And again. Fuck. Kaed’s chest is rising and falling in shallow, wheezy breaths, his blood still flowing onto the floor. And I don’t know why, but it’s making me feel things I shouldn’t. I’m sad, but it’s not normal; it’s mixed with an anger at whoever or whatever did this to him. But he doesn’t deserve my sadness, considering what he’s done to me. Right? Even as those thoughts wind through my mind, I don’t think I actually believe them. But why help me now? It could be another trap or maybe he just needs me to help him. Though it doesn’t feel like that. Good God, Ashley. My reasoning right now is it doesn’t feel like that. He must have removed some of my brain for their little experiments whilst I was knocked out.