And now, it was creeping in. First along her spine, where it always started. Then up to her neck. Just twisting in place sent a spasm through her. She wanted to vomit from it wrecking through her body.
Hadrian must have seen it on her because he grasped her arm and slung it over his shoulder. She cried out as the shoulder joined the neck and spine. Then, he carefully slid his arm around her waist and supported most of her weight.
That helped some. It took the pressure off of her back.
He was speaking, but she couldn’t gather what he was saying. He started to walk, and she picked it up. He wanted her to go with him.
It had been a long time since she’d hurt this bad. In her early years, before she’d found loch, before her parents had dare dreamed of giving it to her, knowing she’d be addicted her entire life, pain had been a constant companion. This level of hurt would have been manageable. But now, it felt like sharp stabs of death at every step.
At least they were moving, avoiding the worst of the crowds and the rubble. There were dead bodies splattered all over the ground. Heaps of bodies. She tried not to look at faces, to remember seeing her world upside down like this once before. The dead all around her in the catacombs.
She blinked away the memory. She couldn’t think of it. She couldn’t think of anything but this moment. Because they’d lost Kerrigan and Fordham. No use in looking. They needed to get to safety.
Red Masks flooded through one of the open alleyways. Hadrian pressed her against the remains of an overturned building as they passed. They held their breath, not daring to move a muscle until they were gone. Clover’s back seized, and she gritted her teeth to keep from groaning.
Then, they were past the worst of it, and Hadrian hurried down the alley. Their feet thundered against the rubble. Neither daring to speak. They needed to escape this horrid place. She couldn’t believe the protest had dissolved into this. How had it even happened? The Society Guard were never their friend, but they were supposed to protect and serve the people. Did that only mean Fae? Had they sold them out to the Red Masks?
Her breathing was ragged as she pushed those intrusive thoughts away. They’d just bring more fear. And they had to survive first.
Hadrian helped her out of the mouth of the alley. This side of the street was much better than the other, but the people who had escaped were now being targeted by awaiting Red Masks. Blasting them with the black smoke bombs or using magic to hurt them. It was a war zone, and Clover had no magic. Hadrian barely had enough to get by. Certainly nothing like Kerrigan or Fordham.
“Scales,” she coughed out.
“There.” Hadrian pointed to a grate back in the alleyway.
They pushed back out of the way of the Red Masks. Hadrian rested her against the building wall and then pried the grate up to reveal the sewer system beneath the city.
“This isn’t going to be fun,” he yelled over the explosions. “I’ll go first, then you lower yourself, and I’ll catch you.”
She nodded because speaking hurt too much. She didn’t know if she had enough strength in her arms right now to lower herself down. But if she didn’t, she’d die. Hadrian dropped into the sewer tunnel as if he’d been doing it all of his life. She went to a place in herself where pain no longer existed. She shut a gate over the pain and then crawled down to the grate. Her body shook with exertion as she put her legs into it and then slid the cover back over part of the opening, hoping it was enough to conceal where they’d gone.
“I’ve got you,” Hadrian yelled up.
And then without letting herself consider what else might be down there, she fell into the sewer.
Hadrian’s arms came around her tight, and this time, she couldn’t stop herself from screaming.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.
He set her on her feet and then hustled down the sewer with no light to guide them. The street above them rattled, sending dust and the gods only knew what else raining down on them. She coughed again as fear that the tunnel would collapse seized her.
“Here,” Hadrian said.
He was shaking. She realized that he’d been keeping it together for her. But fear and pain lanced through his face.
What he’d found was a small break in the wall big enough for the two of them to huddle together, unseen in the tunnel. She didn’t care how he’d found it or if he had known it was here all along. The only thing that mattered was safety.