Page 102 of Pet: Torment

I recognize the voice. It’s Sky. It takes me a moment to come down from my adrenaline-induced panic, and I blink several times for her to become clear enough that I can not only see her, but I am now aware of my surroundings.

We’re in a cave.

The mouth of the cave opens up to the ocean, and there’s still water around us, but we’re on the slightly elevated ground with rock and sand beneath us.

“How—” I break off into a coughing fit, my throat angrily punishing me for speaking so soon after I nearly drowned.

“Shhh,” Sky murmurs. Her voice is eerily soothing, and I note that as I focus more on her, she looks terrible. There’s dried blood near her forehead; her hair is wild and filled with dirt and sand and her eyes are tired and bloodshot. The dress she wore is dingy and torn, and she has multiple scrapes along her body. Despite that, she is finally conscious from the attack, and somehow survived our fall into the water.

Iam somehow alive.

“H-how?” I whisper.

The last thing I saw was Remus being held down as he screamed for me. I felt the rock crumbling under me, the frigid chill of the water, then nothing. Sky lowers her head, shifting it in the opposite direction of the cave. I follow her gaze, my eyes widening when I see a body.

“Noah,” she murmurs. I saw him get thrown over the side of the cliff by their mother. I didn’t realize he could have survived until now. But the longer I focus on his body, the heavier my heart sinks.

He isn’t moving.

“I-is he…?”

Sky nods, wiping her eyes.

“A few hours ago…his body couldn’t take the strain anymore,” she murmurs.

Tears spring into my eyes as well, and I shiver as another human becomes part of the list of those to mourn who were caught in the crosshairs of these powerful beings. I slowly shift, the world blurring as pain shoots from the wound their mother inflicted on me. She had zero regard for our lives, using me to not only taunt Remus, but draw him to her trap so she could do the same to him.

“You shouldn’t be moving,” Sky says, helping me, but I wave her off.

“What about Ezra?” I ask.

She shifts her attention to the back of the cave and I follow it. Ezra’s lying still with his eyes closed.

“He’s alive, but I don’t know for how long. Their mother did something…but I don’t know if it’s enough,” she says.

“Help me up,” I murmur to Sky. She hesitates, obviously not wanting me to move. But I need to see for myself where we are. I wrap my arm around her shoulder, and she helps me to my feet.

“Agh!” I cry out as pain radiates from the wound, settling in my veins. My breath hitches as we both limp to the mouth of the cave.

“How long have I been out?” I ask.

“It’s been hours. Ezra hasn’t stirred. He’s breathing, but even that is shallow,” she says. I don’t know how he could have survived something like that. Each time I close my eyes, I see Remus and thatCelestivinefighting like it’s nothing as they destroyed their surroundings. Ezra’s survival is only thanks to his mother.

“Where’s Xion?” I ask in confusion. I can’t recall anything after being stabbed. But I know she was with us. There’s no way something like that could have taken her out.

Sky shrugs.

“All of them are missing,” she says.

We finally make it to the mouth of the cave. It’s barely light out, so I can see that we are somewhere at the bottom of a cliff. But I see no way out. Or up. I shift my attention to the sky, my eyes widening at the empty space. The rings are gone and this time, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I look around, seeing a shore in the far distance. We need to get there and we need fresh water, or we’ll die in this cave before we can figure out who won this battle.

“We need to find a way to—ngh!” I flinch as pain radiates from my injury, my legs giving out.

“Iris!” Sky calls my name, but my body feels paralyzed as I collapse onto the edge of the water. I glare into the sky with wide eyes, the sound of my heart beating in my ears. My hands try to find the wound, to stop the pain, but Sky grabs them, shouting at me not to touch it.

She talks me through breathing, telling me that the pain will pass and everything will be okay. But I hear the uncertainty in her voice. I hear the tremble as she fights tears. There is no one coming to save us. Remus won’t be appearing out of nowhere. He’s either been taken or is dead by now. We’re all alone in this alien world; our desperation to survive unable to help us this time around.

Chapter Forty-Five