Page 57 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
As we crunched through the grass, the edges of my vision began to soften. By the time we reached the foot of the wall, I could barely stand. My mind slowed, then was quiet.
I felt Kieran lift me and hold me against his chest, positioning my legs around his waist and draping my arms over his shoulders. “I know it might be difficult, but still try to hold on to me if you can. Okay?”
It was the first thing he had said to me in hours. Maybe all day. But all I could say through the cloud of the potion was, “Okay.”
From there, everything was a blur. Flashes of the wall, of buildings, of the streets. Things I thought I was seeing, but could have been dreams. Then I was in my apartment. In my bed. Someone was pulling the covers up to my neck. I said, “Wait.” In my mind or out loud, I wasn’t certain. But they needed to wait. Because somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, where some semblance of thought was trying to fight its way to the surface, I realized that we had never discussed when I would see them again.
IfI would see them again.
There were silver eyes. Silver that I could see somehow, even in the dark. I felt something soft brush against my forehead. Like Irene’s lips when she would kiss me goodnight each night. But this was different. It was sweet, gentle, but not the kiss of a sister. I would decide later that that part, definitely, was a dream.
I don’t know how long I was asleep for. Only that when I woke up, it was still the middle of the night.
And I was alone.
CHAPTER TWELVE
It was happening again. I could taste the smoke…feel it burning my nostrils…enveloping me. Panic was a lightning strike through my veins.
Everything around me snapped into focus. I saw the shadows of the flames, which I knew were billowing just behind me, flickering across the faces of the Enforcers. I saw those mysterious white guns, which I knew they had every intention of using, drawn and aimed at us. And I saw Irene, gripping her injured shoulder, standing in front of me. Shielding me with her body. I knew the words that were about to come out of her mouth before she uttered them.
“She doesn’t know anything.”
What didn’t I know?
Leon would speak next. Leon, the Mentor of the Enforcers. Leon, Irene’s personal mentor. Leon, the only person left in this entire city, in this entire world, who gave a shit about the two of us. Whatever was happening, whatever this was, he would make it right.
That’s what I thought the first time. But I had lived this too many times. I knew better now.
We needed to run.
Run. Run. Run. Fucking run.
“I mean it,” Irene said, a note of desperation creeping into her voice. “Maila’s just a child. She doesn’t know anything.”
“That seems unlikely,” he said flatly, in that gravelly voice that will haunt me forever.
“You have my word.”
Irene was back to being calm, strong, unfazed. Or at least she had mustered everything in her to appear that way. Inside, I wondered if she was terrified, like I was. I could feel the tears burning my eyes, but I was too scared to release them.
This time, I would get out. This time, I would make it stop.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I opened them. The scene before me was the same.
“Your word doesn’t mean much, now does it?” Leon sighed, pulling me back to the conversation and back to what I knew was going to happen next.
At this, all the men shifted on their feet, eyes darting around uncomfortably.
Leon could feel their unease. He looked each of them in the face, one by one, ten in total. He saw them staring at my sister with pain in their eyes and knew he was losing them. She was their fellow Enforcer. Their friend. How many times had one of her comrades told me Irene was “the best of them?”
Leon needed to act fast. I saw this now as I saw it then, and I knew what was coming. He stalked over to my sister and jerked her down to her knees.
Now came my part in this.
In the blink of an eye, I was jumping to my feet and sprinting toward him. My brain was running through every weak spot that existed on his body. Should I kick? Punch? Claw?
All I knew in that moment was that I was going to kill him.
