I nod, fighting back the tears burning my eyes as I brush his tangled, blood-crusted hair from his face. “Yeah, princess. I’m here. It’s me. We’ve gotta get you out of here, okay? I know you’re hurt, but we have to move fast.”
Alertness crashes over him as panic surges into his voice, and his chains clang and rattle as he scrambles to his feet, forcing me to stand with him.
“You can’t be here,” he says, shaking his head in jerky, confused motions. “He’ll… gods, he’ll kill you. Go, Bash!Leave! Get out of here!”
“Not without you,” I insist. “I came for you, and I’m not leaving you behind.”
His entire face crumbles as his forehead falls onto my shoulder. “Please,” he begs into my shirt, the muffled word coming out raw. I’m not sure if he’s begging me to run or to drag him out of this hell, but there’s no question which is happening.
My palms smooth his matted hair back before carefully cupping his bruised cheeks and lifting his face to mine. “I know it’s hard to focus right now, but I need you to try. Where do they keep the key to the shackles?”
He shakes his head, dazed and swaying.
Ego steps closer with a gentleness I’ve rarely seen from her. “Here, let me take care of that,” she says.
She makes quick work of the bands around Xeni’s wrists, and I gather his hair and hold it aside as he leans forward for her to work on the collar.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper as my fingertips trace the back of his neck, loathing the cold bite of metal against his skin.
“Why are you sorry?” he asks, his gaze meeting mine with a vulnerability that pierces straight through me.
What a loaded fucking question.
I’m sorry for so much.
For spending so long hating him, and for allowing that hate to put him in this position. For refusing to believe there was a reason for his actions, even if I couldn’t understand it.
He was always the best part of me. Those hollow, uncertain spaces inside me were full when I was with him. He saw every side of me and loved them all, and without him, I’ve grown cold.
I’m so tired of missing his warmth.
The lock clicks, and Ego pulls the collar away as Xeni stands tall, stretching his neck as he waits for my answer.
Audience be damned, I want to tell him I’ve loved him every minute of every day, even when I swore I hated him.
I open my mouth to find the words, but his ears twitch and he freezes. His gaze shifts over my shoulder a split second before I hear it, too.
Footsteps.
A single pair that moves with utmost confidence through a hallway littered with death. It sidesteps bodies without changing its cadence, unconcerned with the destruction left in our wake.
Xeni’s head whips around frantically, searching in vain for an escape. Even if we weren’t hundreds of feet in the air, the windows are barred. The only exit is the door, and those footsteps are seconds away.
“Get behind me,” he orders, throwing his shoulders back as he makes himself appear larger. His presence takes up the whole room, his magic suddenly stifling.
Xeni has used his powers around me before, but it never felt like this.
Never suppressing and foreboding, and never this intense.
A shadow fills the doorframe, shaping a silhouette illuminated by the faint light in the hallways. They step forward, and I blink in surprise at the person who stands there.
It’s a reflection of Xeni, only one that’s been twisted into something grotesque. His shoulders and chest are broad, and every inch of his uniform is decorated.
Stripes and stars, insignias.
Symbols I recognize as important, even without knowing their meaning.
Long white hair is pulled into an intricate network of braids that are secured behind his neck, and his horns are enormous, twisting things that nearly brush the top of the doorframe.
