My hands tremble, but I keep them anchored, unable to blink as I watch Caben breathe, cough, live. After the initial shock of being jolted back into his body, his blue eyes find me. And I finally release the breath stalled in my lungs as they look at me with recognition.
“I feel like I’ve been hit with a building,” he says, his voice hoarse. I laugh.
Tears streaming down my face, I laugh so hard my debris-riddled lungs ache. “That’s because you have.”
His lips stretch into a smile. A full Caben smile that, oh my goddess, I haven’t seen in so long. My lips crash on his. And though he’s weak, he meets my greedy need for him with as much force as he can. But all too soon, the reality that we’re not free yet comes barreling back into my conscience.
Breaking the kiss, I ask him, “Can you move?”
He licks his lips. “I feel numb. I don’t know.”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll carry you.” I stand and motion to Bax. “Everyone ready?”
Eyes wide, he hikes his wiry eyebrows and clears his throat. “For…?”
“We’re taking this thing”—I wave my hand around, indicating our shelter—“with us. But I don’t know how long I can keep it going.” After the intense healing session that was needed to restore Caben, my strength is waning quickly.
Kaide links Whip’s arm around his neck and nods to me. “Her leg is broken, but we’ll manage.”
I frown at Whip, who hobbles next to Kaide with her teeth gritted against the pain. The others are in the best shape they can be considering, so that leaves Caben to be carried. I kneel beside him and bring his arms around my neck. “Hold on as best you can,” I say.
He groans as I lift him into my arms. “I will never live this down, will I?”
A smile stretches my lips. “Never, Prince. Never.”
His almost smile, the one not quite reaching his eyes, suddenly vanishes. “Please, never call me by that title again.”
My forehead creases with my confusion, and I want to understand his reasoning, want to ask—but Bale’s figure blinks in and out of my fringe. A prickling sensation swims down my chest to my stomach, and I turn to see her stony eyes looking directly at me.
She remains frozen, still in her pose of ejecting the wreckage…only she now faces us. She moves just as slowly as the units, but with one, disturbing difference: she is aware. And she’s working hard to break down my barrier.
Her lips begin to move, the only part of her body gaining speed. She mouths: soon.
Fear slithers down my spine, and I’m lifting Caben higher into my arms. “But not today,” I whisper.
Then, we break for the remains of the entrance. My last action is to look back—to see the protectors left behind. My stomach bottoms out, my heart heavy. There will be nothing left of them soon.
? 32 ?
Caben
“I’M GLAD I BUILT this place,” I say to myself, propping my leg up on the cherry oak table in my den. “You have excellent taste, Caben.” Although, I wish I’d have found another location for my hideout during my…possession. My treehouse feels tainted now.
Lilly, graciously ignoring me talking to myself—as I still do at times, and to which I’m trying to overcome—grabs her transmitter and sits down on the couch opposite me. She’s been searching for new updates on Bale’s whereabouts for the past few days.
Possession. I can barely think the word, otherwise voice it. Regardless of Kal’s acceptance, her declared forgiveness, I can’t forgive myself. For any of it.
Though everyone is tired of hearing my apologies, I’m sure. Ready to punch my face in at this point. Hell, I’m so ill at hearing my own, whiny voice, I want to punch my face. B
ut something has to be done to account for all the damage I’ve caused.
Bax, for one, continues to give me suspicious looks, unable to accept my recovery back to this living plane. I don’t blame him. Though we’ve researched it some, delving into tombs of ancient magics, nothing comes close to explaining what Kal has done.
By all accounts, I should be a monster. Some creature of death who’s able to walk, breathe, and talk, but not think or reason. Not a fully functioning member of society—almost. I don’t think society is ready to have its banished prince back just yet.
But, according to some lore, if death is brought upon by unhuman means—such as Bale’s ascension—then the soul never actually leaves this plane. It becomes trapped. Able to be summoned and returned to a body. Otherwise, a natural human death cannot be reverted.
Somehow, I feel we’ve cheated fate. And I’m in debt to repay my existence—that should have ended the moment the trade for Bale’s was made. I believe we’ve yet to see the full extent of our consequences.