I knew the answer, but disappointment still pours through my body like an ice shower.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Krimson watches our father sleep. “He’s probably the only one that could figure out how to save you, Niklaus, and Uncle Niles before any of us.”
I watch out father’s chest rise and fall.
“Then maybe it’s time I woke him up…” I say.
“Are you sure you’re upto eating in the commissary?” I ask as we walk down the hallway with the other wounded inmates.
Dirty looks. Shoulders slamming into us. Cruel remarks in Old Alkadonian.
We are the new enemy to these men and women wearing the same uniforms. Not the sentinels and guardians that pulled the trigger to the Jester Mist. We are the ones who refused to kill each other in that fighting ring.
So, the punishment continues for us.
“Yes,” Niklaus rasps, breathing heavily. His back is far from healed, but he isn’t in as much pain this morning as he was in last night.
“I can bring you a tray, and we can eat together in your cage,” I whisper.
He looks ahead, visibly shaken at the sight of the showers.
“I’m not letting you walk around here alone.” Those stern, chilling blue eyes flick down to me.
I scoff. “How could you be worried about me right now? I’m not the one who’s hurt.”
Niklaus smirks though the joy doesn’t reach the quiet room behind his eyes. His large hand slides up the nape of my neck, fingers tangling into my hair. He leans down to my height and kisses the top of my head. The pressure of his lips to my scalp lights me on fire with minuscule tingles that spread like a dustbowl down to my toes.
I give him a surprised, sappy smile, and he laughs.
“Because you’re my girl. That’s why.”
“He does have charm, I’ll give him that,” Jack says with his red back facing us.
Sophia gives him a playful shove, and they both snicker.
“We have to get them out of here,” I whisper to Niklaus. “I’ve been thinking about the Vexamen history books since we’ve been in here. Before our parents, there have been documented cases of other escape attempts here, remember?”
Niklaus keeps his head lowered so I can continue speaking to just him.
“Do you remember the log about a couple of teenagers who escaped? The notes were that they had help. They didn’t do it alone. What if we were the help? What if we’re the ones that freed them?”
His pupils shrink as the shower gets closer.
“It’s risky.”
“I know. But…” I watch Sophia help Jack along as he winces and limps from his injuries. I watch my grandparents lead the way down this tunnel. “I can’t leave them in here.”
Niklaus tilts his head to look at me. Toreallylook at me. There’s a quiet hunger there. He watches me the way someone would watch a candle in a storm. Careful, reverent, and ready to risk it all to keep that small flame in his sight.
“Okay, Spitfire.”
“Okay, what?”
That expression is a low, sustained ache. It pulls at a string in my chest.
“I promise. We’ll get your grandparents out.”
I’m elated and desperate to touch him all at the same time. My hand reaches for his, curving my fingers into his shape, and holding on tight.
