Word Count: 1355

~Akara

My body is propped up against a concrete wall when I wake.

Wincing, I shift, tilting my head back and forth. I'm presuming Vaia is the reason for my sudden blackout that has led to a throbbing headache. As I lift my arms, I realise they are pinned down, my wrists cuffed with metal attached to chains pinned to the ground. No matter how much I tug, I'm trapped.

And to make matters worse, I'm in a cell. This is in the prison section, rather than the room where Tai is locked up. It seems Vaia doesn't want to allow me a single mercy in her demented plot to destroy all of us.

I just wish she killed me.

A shadow moving to the right side of me has me rearing back into the corner, tucking up. I'm relieved immediately to see Evolet crawl into the sparse amount of light, chained to the other wall.

"What's going on?" I question, wondering if I'm hallucinating the fact that she is alive. "Evolet..."

She looks miserable, clearly having been beaten also. The way she settles back against the wall, cradling her ribs, suggests her injuries go far further than what I can see on her face. And what I'm looking at has horror grasping the most vulnerable part of me. Is Vaia going to do that to me too?

"We are screwed, Akara. It's over," Evolet drawls, running her hands back over her head. Even her hands are bloodied, like she tried to tend to her own wounds, but has eventually given up.

"What do you mean?" I ask softly, although I already sense her answer.

"Vaia is going to make us drink from the river. We are going to die," she responds miserably, covering her face from me.

My heart plummets in my chest, falling into a chasm that has been growing for awhile. I should have known that Vaia has bigger plans for us than just slitting our necks or beating us to death. She's running out of subjects to drink from the river, and to her, Evolet and I mean nothing, and can just be another person for her to test her cure on. And by the looks of the death count it's already racked up, Evolet and I don't stand much of a chance.

"It's okay, we are going to find a way out of here," I assure her, looking around for something, anything. But there are no guards to manipulate, no debris on the floor we could use to unlock our chains. We are quite literally stuck.

"Akara, you need to listen to me," Evolet says suddenly, as if overcome by an urge to convey her every last feeling to me.

I rest the back of my head against the wall, wincing. "There is nothing more to say."

"No seriously, I need to tell you this, otherwise I'm going to go into the afterlife with this on my shoulders," she snaps.

Frowning, I twist my head to look at her. She is as close to me now as her chains will allow, a frantic look in her dark eyes that captures my attention. A cold, dark feeling creeps across my skin, haunting me before he words can.

"What?" I ask warily.

"I've been keeping something from you...Something I learnt by accident when I was a Noble for Kailor," she says slowly, a sense of dread that I thought I would never hear from someone like Evolet in her voice. There's something unnerving about watching her unravel before me, going from one of the strongest people I know to a frightened, beaten girl.

I tug my legs up to my chest, strangely cold. "What is it?"

I'm already trying to frighten away the dark thoughts of what could be happening to Marek right now, where he could be. I'm not sure how much time has passed, but surely by now, he would have come to save me, if he was not wrapped up in something else.

"I should have told you right away, but I needed Tai in power before I could kill him, so Vaia would no longer be an issue," she admits, her hands shaking as she drags her fingers through her hair.

My mouth is painfully dry. "You want to kill Tai?"

"Taius is a bad man, Akara. I have learnt things about him that are...horrible," she gasps out.

Is she crying? Looking closer, I can see the gleam of tears trailing down her cheeks, dripping down onto the floor. Clutching my stomach, I fight the violent urge to be sick, realising that what she is saying isn't revealing anything unfamiliar to me...I've already had these thoughts, these doubts. I've already started to doubt what Tai has been hiding from me.

"Tell me what you know," I whisper, feeling my own tears starting to build up in the back of my throat. Because even though I'm asking, not sure I want to know, to start dismantling how I see Tai, that man I have grown to love through these months.

Evolet buries her head in her hands. "He's hiding something. It's dark and terrible..."

"Is it in that basement?"

She nods. "I tried to keep it from you, tried to make it so you wouldn't turn on him and tell his people. I failed you, Nakoa and everyone..."

"Evolet, tell me what he has done," I practically beg. No, I need to know this. There is a chance I'll never get out of this, that I'm going to drink from the river and I'm never going to see Tai again. I can't die without knowing what he was keeping from me, what he could have possibly done that is so unspeakable.

Evolet holds my stare with her watery one. As she opens her mouth to explain, a hoard of guards flood in, unlocking our cell door.

I'm unlocked first, hoisted up into a standing position, and then Evolet. My arms are pinned behind me, and I'm forced to face the cell door, where Vaia emerges, the smile on her face telling all. She knows she has finally got us, once and for all.

"Inject them," she demands, motioning for someone else to enter the cell.

I growl as I'm approached by a different guard, who lifts my sleeve and injects with an unknown substance. I can make a guess...It's the cure. Evolet was right, we are going to be forced to drink from the river, and we are going to die.

"You don't have to do this Vaia," I beg, ignoring the profanities that emerge from Evolet's mouth. "I'll do anything, just don't kill us."

"At least you won't be alive to see Tai's death. Consider it my last act of mercy," she smiles, leaning against the cell door like she doesn't have a care in the world. This must be so wonderful for her, to finally rid of us.

"Your people are going to turn against you when they realise your ideas will never work," Evolet growls, continuing to fight against the guards' hold. It's obvious from the pained look on her face that it's taking all her energy, considering her obvious broken ribs and countless other injuries she's harbouring.

"Oh...How excited I am to watch you both die," Vaia gloats, clapping her hands together before she motions down the bleak corridor. "Shall we? There's a magical river waiting."

💚••💚

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"Tomorrow, we don't have to speak of this again." I hardly know what I'm asking. I just know I want whatever it is.

He watches me with an intensity that I know only he is capable of. "Put my hand where you want me to touch you."

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