Page 30

ELIAS

T he prison stinks of old magic and older death. It's the kind of place that leaves a mark on you just by breathing it in.

I move low, silent as a fucking ghost through the crumbling corridors, Kaia tight at my side. She doesn't even need to be told anymore—she mirrors my steps, matches my pace. Like she belongs next to me. Like she's always belonged.

The thought cuts deeper than it should.

We reach the main block, and gods, it's worse than even I remember. Empty cells. Some still occupied, but barely. What’s left inside them ain't worth calling human or anything else anymore.

Kaia stiffens beside me, that golden-amber gaze sweeping the wreckage, her hands twitching like she’s dying to help—but knowing she can't. Not yet.

Not now.

We head for the back.

That’s where they keep the high-value prisoners, the ones they want to bleed dry slowly.

My father.

Tarek Vorn.

We find him shackled to some twisted machine, tubes and wires hooked into his arms and throat, siphoning him like he’s no more than livestock.

I stop breathing.

It’s him. Alive.

But barely.

A broken shell of the man I remember... and somehow even stronger because he’s still fucking here, still fighting, still breathing after everything they’ve done.

A goddamn war cry builds in my chest, but I shove it down.

Later.

I’ll burn this place later.

Right now, we get him out.

Kaia moves first, slipping toward the control panel, her fingers nimble as she searches for a way to release him.

Suddenly, a soft voice, cracked and weak, echoes from another cell.

"Kaia..."

My blood turns to ice.

Kaia jerks upright, turning toward the sound.

I follow her gaze and freeze.

Across the hallway, in a rusted, rune-burned cage, hangs a woman by shackled wrists. Pale, bruised, bloody.

“Mom,” Kaia whispers.

Kaia bolts toward her, all instinct and no thought. I grab her wrist, yank her behind cover just as a guard passes by the end of the hall.

Her chest heaves against mine, her hands fisting in my shirt.

"We have to get her," she whispers, voice shaking.

I stare at Mira, at the wreck she’s become.

And I see the war tear Kaia apart right in front of me.

She's still angry at her, still betrayed—but that bond, that blood, it cuts deeper than all of it. And I know... she'll never walk away.

But we don’t have time.

Footsteps. Shouts.

They know we're here.

Fuck.

I look from Tarek to Mira.

One. Maybe both. But not if we waste another second.

Kaia’s torn in half, and it kills me to see it.

So I make the call for her.

"I’m getting her," I snap. "You get him."

"No—" she starts, but I’m already moving.

I slam my shoulder into her cage door, shattering the lock with a pulse of raw force. I catch her before she hits the floor, cursing under my breath at how light she is, how wrong it feels.

Kaia’s already at Tarek’s side, slicing through the cables with crackling gold magic.

We move.

No hesitation now.

Boots thunder down the corridor behind us. Enforcers, shouting orders, firing bolts of suppression magic that splatter against the walls like blood.

I keep Mira shielded against my chest, Kaia dragging Tarek beside me, her face pale and grim and furious .

A bolt slams into the wall inches from Kaia's head, showering her in stone dust. I roar, covering her without thinking, taking the brunt of the next blast across my back.

Pain flares white-hot, but I don’t stop.

I will never stop.

Not when she's looking at me like that. Like I’m the only thing between her and losing everything.

We burst through a side door, stumbling into the night, lungs burning, blood pounding.

But we’re alive.

Barely.

Kaia collapses beside me, cradling Tarek as gently as she can, tears streaking the grime on her cheeks.

I lower Kaia’s down, checking her pulse. Weak. But there.

When I look up, Kaia's watching me.

Something raw and unspoken passes between us, gratitude, grief, fury, relief—all crashing into one.

I could drown in it.

Could let myself fall right into her without a second thought.

But not yet.

Not until we get them somewhere safe.

Not until this nightmare ends.

I hold her gaze, steady and sure, even when everything else feels like it’s crumbling.

Her lips part, like she wants to say something—but she just nods, clutches Tarek closer, and together, we disappear into the trees.

Into the dark.