All I can do is learn from my mistakes and keep trying harder.
Still, I whisper an apology to Teman as I bow my head in mourning. And that’s when I notice the other bodies.
Strewn along the edges of the room in careless piles like fallen leaves. Ordinary Windwalkers in regular clothes. We’ve always been an isolated race, scattered through the high places of the world, where the winds flow free and the groundlings rarely go. But Raiden must be hunting down every sylph one by one, forcing them to swear fealty or die.
A few even look like children.
I have no idea how long I stand there, staring at the indescribable cruelty. But voices coming from another hallway yank me back to reality.
Close voices.
I don’t have enough time to run to safety—and when I hear Raiden’s deep, booming voice, I don’t want to. I can’t understand what he’s saying, but I managed to catch one word.
“Vane.”
I want to cry when I realize there’s only one place to hide, but I force my legs to carry me to the tallest pile of bodies and wriggle my way inside. Sickly gray dust crumbles around me, and I hold my breath, hoping it doesn’t make me cough.
Or vomit.
Please let this be quick.
Please let them not see me.
And if I live through this, please erase this moment from my memories.
The footsteps draw closer, and I pick up more snatches of their conversation—words like “prepare” and “demonstration”—but it’s all too vague and choppy for me to make any sense of. And by the time they reach the room, all I can hear is deep, throaty laughter. It echoes off the cavernous walls, so cold and cruel in this place of death and despair that it twists everything inside me with rage.
I hold still as the chains clatter and someone with a low, nasal voice asks, “Can I help you, my liege?”
“Yes, I want this one’s pendant for my collection.”
I don’t know which makes me sicker: knowing that Raiden’s collecting the blackened pendants of the guardians he’s murdered—or the fact that he’s only a few feet away and there’s nothing I can do to end him. I can’t make a move in a place where he holds all the power.
The footsteps draw closer, making the ground tremble beneath me.
“Something feels off,” Raiden murmurs.
“Off?” a new voice asks.
“Yes.” Raiden takes several steps away. Then moves closer again. “There’s something over here. A hint of life.”
He knows I’m here.
I curse my stupidity as the footsteps thunder closer.
It’s over.
He’ll find me and feel the Westerly wrapped around me and that will be the end. I’ll fight until my dying breath but I’ll still be the next withered body dangling from the ceiling.
“This one, over here,” Raiden says, his voice agonizingly close. “That one’s still alive.”
“You’re right,” the Stormer says, moving closer as well.
The load on top of me gets lighter, like someone is grabbing bodies and tossing them to the side. I wait for the burly arms to reach out and snatch me—but they drag a different body away.
“I’ll string her back up,” one of the Stormers offers.
“No need to bother,” Raiden tells him. “We’re almost done with this place. Just set her on the ground and I’ll take care of it.”
I hear a thud as the Stormer obeys, and then I hear a couple more footsteps.
Then a sickening crunch.
I bite down on my cheek, hoping it will distract me enough to stop me from throwing up.
Somewhere in the panic and pain I hear Raiden say something about a gathering and a long-awaited prisoner. Then I hear their footsteps walk away.
I should count to five hundred to make sure they’re truly gone, but I barely last another minute in the dust and decay. I claw my way out of the pile, smothering my coughs with my fists as I crawl across the floor, hating how close I am to Raiden’s newest victim.
Her hands are stretched out like she was reaching for freedom. But her skull’s been crushed in the center. Stomped in by one of Raiden’s boots.
My chest tightens and my eyes burn, but I manage to fight back my sobs as I pull myself to my feet.
I want to run, attack, tear Raiden apart piece by piece for every horrible crime he’s committed.
But now is not the time.
Soon, I promise myself as I start the long climb back to the surface.
The path gets brighter as I walk, and when the sunlight starts to blind me, I press myself against the wall and check for guards. I see no sign of any Stormers, but I still slide slowly toward the exit, keeping to the shadows as I slip into the empty crevice.