Ashe Knightley

I couldn't grasp the thought that Nylas was gone. Though I had only known him for a few months, he had been a good friend to confide in. I wish I had time to tell him that all his efforts would not go to waste.

Avaloryn, Henneh, Rysdan, and I all snuck to the large wall that circled that prison building. There were four walls—each one further in being more secured.

"Someone's following us," Rysdan mumbled to us.

"We should get them and use them as bait," Henneh pitched.

I shook my head. "I invited them."

"What?" Avaloryn spun to look at the lousy attempt my guest gave at hiding behind a tree. "They better be a master of weaponry because their stealth is absolute shit."

"I take offense to that." A blond man stepped away from the tree, a smug grin on his face. "But I do agree. How does someone as handsome as me have any chance of blending in?"

"Saints, not this man." Henneh gave a pointed look at me before turning her attention back to the front gates.

"Pleased to see you, too, Henneh."

She stayed quiet.

"You are always so chipper to see me. I just know it."

"Shove it, blondie."

"Well, someone ate the wrong slice of cheese this morning." The man put his arm around my shoulder, tugging me closer to him. "Hello again, Ashey boy."

"Hello, Zian."

"Wait, that's Zian?" Rysdan practically jumped up. "Damn, you look different. Much more... refined."

"I had an attitude adjustment."

"You gained a sense of humor, too."

"Shut up, Rys."

"Boys, can we please move past the reunion and focus on getting our situation under control?" Avaloryn gestured to the gate. "More guards."

"This is my time to shine! Rysdan, how do you feel about shaking things up a bit?"

"The demolition duo has returned." Rysdan and Zian shared a mischievous glance as they both opened up their bags and pulled out their equipment. "I think we should wire this to the central circuit."

"No. Let's have each connected to its own interface. More control that way," Zian countered. He and Rysdan began tying off each wire to its designated place. "Any questions, pupils?"

"What is this?"

"Excellent question." Zian glanced up at Henneh and said, "Remote control rocket launcher. Point it where you want it to go, and it'll go once you click the button."

"So a bomb?"

"I'm seventy-five percent sure this won't explode. It'll just give us a straight path to the main building by breaking down through the four walls." Zian stood up, putting his hands up on his hips. "I engineered this."

Zian had made many of the weapons we'd used. He created a silencer that could muffle the sound of an entire bomb. I remembered needing to use that once when Rysdan and Valarya snuck to the catacombs and tried to blow a hole through the bottom of the library.

"I'm a man of many talents."

"We'll see." Henneh struck a match and lit the wick.

Zian and Rysdan took long steps back. "You all might want to go back just in case this place goes kaboom."

I decided to take Zian's word for that.

The rocket flew and broke a solid hole into each of the walls before blowing up into flames. Zian cleared his throat. "It's a prototype."

"We're going to get caught now!" Avaloryn grounded out, glaring at Zian.

"On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want to kill me?"

"I'm hovering in high fifties right now, moron." Her dry smile had to be one of the most sarcastic things I'd ever seen. "Great, now we tripped ever security measure."

"Don't worry," Zian said, stepping through the hole he'd made through the first wall, "I called in some reinforcements."

"Where the hell are they?"

Zian glared back at Avaloryn. "Probably drinking some tea," he said, rolling his eyes. "How the hell would I know?"

"Stop arguing." I walked through the hole, waving for them to follow. "Stay quiet."

"I have a question," Zian stated. "What's our exit strategy?"

Rysdan snorted. "Our what?"

We all paused and snapped our heads to Rysdan.

"We are going die." Zian gave a small chuckle. "Fun times. Can't get any worse—"

The guards all rushed to the hole and made eye contact with us.

"Ashe Knightley!"

All of us spun around and leapt through the hole in the wall, avoiding those atrociously dressed guards. Honestly, what was the King thinking letting them wear that? Fashion was an important statement to make, and I refused to be caught dead in those.

We didn't make it very far. A wave of guards cut us off from the front. From behind we had those disgusting guards.

Surrounded.

A guard hefted up his steel sword. "Put down your weapons. Surrender and die."

"Uh, don't you mean surrender or die?" Zian called out.

"Not in this country," I reminded him.

Zian's face paled. He must've thought he was still in Kandose.

There had to be hundreds of guards, all fully equipped with the latest Guard-level weaponry. Even Zian's innovations couldn't help us.

There was no other option.

Avaloryn was the first to put down her weapon. Henneh and I followed behind. Rysdan and Zian passed a glance to each other, but soon they put their weapons down.

"All your weapons, Knightley."

I pulled out another knife from my boots.

"All."

And another from the inside of my jacket. They really were more careful this time, damn them.

They turned us to face the prison in front of us. I caught smoke rise from the farthest towers, but I decided to not say anything. After all, those guards deserved a little surprise.

Especially from the two women riding an adult dragon that came barreling toward us in the distance.

Zian's jaw dropped, but I kicked his shin to shut him up.

"Is that a dragon?" a guard screamed out. Poor man was about to find out what the real danger was, and it wasn't the dragon.

"The hell is that?"

"Men, there are people on it!"

"Look out!"

The guards and us dove down, watching overhead at the dragon that flew, coating us in its shadow. A smile crept onto my face.

The riders of the dragon made the smart decision of parking their pet on top of the guards.

The women got down, each holding their own set of weapons.

All it took was two words from her: "Missed me?" Valarya boasted, flipping her dual-welded hatchet over her shoulder. "Because all of you owe us your life."

"Who's this girl?" Zian muttered.

"That," I began, helping her down from the dragon, "is Valarya."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Zian Austruc. I hope you don't plan on telling me to kill myself after saving your ass."

His eyes flared, but not at what she said. Zian's eyes were glued to the girl seated behind.

The ground began to sway when I realized who it was.

"Adonia? The Adonia Wu that killed that one prince many years ago?"

Adonia shot a glare at Zian, then glanced away at me. Holy shit she had grown so much.

"What the hell is my job?" one of the guards muttered.

Valarya swung her hatchet at his back, knocking him clean. "You tell me, buddy."

"Didn't she have a wedding?"

"It's complicated," she said, swinging again and throwing a nitrate bomb into the middle of the crowd. An entire troop flew into the air, their screams following them. "Any other questions?"

They all charged toward us, but Adonia tapped the neck of her dragon, sending them all in flames.

"Now, let's get Kace out of this hellhole. I missed dinner for this, and I'm particularly parched." Valarya walked through the guards, Adonia next to her with the massive dragon incinerating anyone who protested.

She was truly a sight to behold—one that I wished to watch my entire life. Not a single bone was intimidated by this woman. My eyes stuck to her like she was my lifeline, and I didn't mind it one bit.

It didn't take long for chaos to erupt. The walls self-destructed, knocking us back to the ground. The dragon roared and tore away from our sides.

"Well, now what are we going to do?"

I dragged a guard to the ground and pulled out his weapons. "Fight like hell."

They all did the same. We all drove through the guards, each of us using a unique strategy. I had to admit, though—Zian was one dramatic assassin. Every time he saw a corpse, he grimaced and nudged it away with his foot.

Our backs clung onto each other as we pushed through each wave. One by one we took turns picking them off. We'd break off in two, beating them with whatever weapon we could get.

It didn't take long for us to break down the front gates and storm it.

And it didn't take long for them to get a knife at each of our throats.

Wait, no. Those weren't people. It was a trap, and those blades at our throat were retractable spikes.

A wall rose, dividing us into separate rooms. Some of us were alone, while others were paired off.

Valarya and I met eyes. Then, the wall closed us into the room together. The spikes retracted and the room began to flood with water.

We didn't say anything, but we began searching around the room.

How the hell was I supposed to talk to her if she hated me?

"The water is coming from the ground. Water jets." She grabbed my arm and pulled me down with her. "We need to drain the water. Look for any place we can wedge a hole."

Nodding, I scrambled up, trying to find any kind of gap.

There it was. Where the wall met the ground was small hole the was where the ground was drilled in. "Start digging at the holes. It'll drain into the basement."

The room's water reached my hips and her waist. Without saying anything, I held her closer and brought her head farther up. "Keep going!"

"What if we can't get enough water out?"

I didn't want to think about it. She was not going to die, and I didn't care what the hell I had to do to make sure of it.

"Just keep going." I called out to her.

"I'm diving under!"

The water was grazing my chin and my chest felt tighter. "GO!"

"Don't you dare die on me, Knightley!" She dove down, her body disappearing in the darkness of the room.

With my final intake of breath, my head went under.

*~⚜️~*
Valarya de Mertaire

Hell. It was hell when I felt his body graze mine underneath. I just needed one more puncture. Just one more.

His hands joined mine and thrusted, wedging them in between the wall and ground and pushing downward. I kicked my foot up to put more weight down.

My chest burned. I didn't even know how to swim. The world was fading in and out—black to blue. Even through death, the only thing I cared about was he did not die.

Our hands dug further in.

The burning was too much. I needed to breathe something, and even if it was air, I didn't care.

I released my breath.

Black coated my entire vision, and my nose began to flood. I couldn't tell if it was blood or water in my mouth. A coppery sense filled me.

Our hands went through.

The water rushed out. Arms wrapped around me and propped me against something hard. My lung's burning travelled up and I coughed out the water and blood.

The water was gone.

I was on his back and hoisted higher. His legs gave out as he fell to the ground with me on top. My eyes wanted to completely shut, but I knew I needed to stay awake and stay alive to make sure he was all right.

"You better be alive, Valarya. I swear if you aren't, I'll drag you through a fire pit," he rasped out, coughing out water as he held me. "Open your eyes again, damn it!"

I spat water into his face.

"You... I despise you so much." He lowered his head onto mine, our foreheads together. "I missed you so much."

I shoved him away from me and rushed to the wall that began to go down.

His hand grasped mine. "No, wait. I need to tell you something. I promised myself I would tell you immediately—"

"We have bigger issues—"

"I am Nicholyn Holland."

"As if that's a surprise. Thank you for trusting me sooner," I bit back. His eyes dropped to the ground. "Don't bother explaining. I understand."

"I'm scared."

"What?"

Nicholyn stared at me with no emotion crossing his face. "Whatever you think is wrong. I didn't tell you because of political issues; I didn't tell you because I'm scared. I don't want to be involved in politics. I don't want anymore pity from anyone. Please, forgive me. I—I can't do this alone anymore. I can't trust anyone because—"

"Shut up," I demanded, walking up to him as I felt something pierce through my stomach. The only movement I could do was hold him by his shoulder and shake him. "Because we are both lonely little idiots, but we could have helped each other. Because I would've been here for you whenever you needed me. We could've been friends."

His eyes widened at the realization as my arms fell off him and my body sank.

My vision faded to black, and all I felt was his arms around me as my blood pooled the ground underneath, and an arrow protruding out my stomach.

The last person I saw was none other than my dear sister Whila.