Page 73 of Bound By Darkness

The iron door slammed open as thunder rumbled through, loud and demanding.

“The stench is volatile,” a voice cracked.

“Hush,” an aged voice spoke. “Do your job.”

The woman grumbled, eyes scanning the prisoners on the wall before flicking the lever by the door. The chains rattled once before losing their tether, dropping all of us to the ground.

My neck hurt as I angled it at the woman gliding in. She was dressed in fighting leathers, and no speck of dirt or blood stained them. They both looked ethereal as the taller woman’s gaze struck mine.

A gasp left my lips at her white eyes. No pupil sat in the middle as she blinked twice. Her feet glided over the ground with years of grace and wisdom.

Her ebony hair was wound into tight coils that slid over her shoulders and back. A few pins stuck out from the top of her head, where her remaining hair rested. Stark features crossed her face, her cheekbones jutting out beneath her skin. Her lips were painted purple, a few white dots resting in rows across her chin.

Her lips parted, revealing white teeth as she spoke, “Release them. Find them some clothes as well to cover themselves, Naexi.”

“Don’t order me around,” the younger woman, Naexi, grumbled.

“Do not bite back,” the woman simmered.

Her hands gripped the edge of my chain as she inserted a small, rusted key. The lock clicked, and the second followed shortly after, both chains dropping to the ground with a forceful thud.

“Can you move?” the woman demanded.

I nodded, my eyes wide. “Yes.”

The woman assessed me, her fingers gently caressing my shoulder as her eyes narrowed. “Dislocated,” she muttered to herself. “Are you afraid of pain, girl?”

“No.” Nothing would ever be as painful as my time in these walls.

With a quick twist, bone reset against bone as a sharp cry left my lips. I had no time to rest before she popped my other arm into its socket, tendons snapping and bending into place.

“Do not move them unnecessarily.”

I nodded as I cradled them to my chest. The ache lingered, but I embraced it. Pain was the one thing I knew how to control.

“Iyanna, hurry,” Naexi grumbled. “Here.”

She tossed a bundle of clothing onto the floor. “Found them in a storage closet outside. Grab what you can,” she said to no one in particular. Her foot tapped against the stone, a diamond-encrusted sword sheathed on her back. “We need to go.”

Iyanna gracefully stood, a dagger resting against her hip.

As the prisoners scrambled to dress themselves in proper garb, Iyanna splayed her hands on her hips as her voicetraveled through the cracks—through the thundering of heaven.

“If you wish for freedom, fight for it,” she said, the rocks shivering in her presence. “We cannot guarantee your safety outside of these walls.” She gestured around the cylindrical room. “War is ravaging in Galar, but the Hideaway came to rescue you, citizens of Cethales.”

It hadn’t been thunder shaking the tower, but instead a war cry. The rebellion had come to tear Galar from the inside. They had come back for revenge.

Naexi flicked her blonde braid over her shoulder. “Follow behind us. If you falter and stop to stare at the carnage, you’ll be left behind to your demise.”

The rest of us lined behind them like children flocking their parents.

As I glanced behind, I stared at the iron cuffs in the muddied mixture of my blood and filth. I refused to be shackled again. I wouldn’t let them take me. I wouldn’t let my father control my life a moment longer. I left the sheltered, timid girl behind as we marched down the spiral staircase.

Thalia was right. Complacency did not win. Not in a world abandoned by the gods.

Stepping over sentinels and guards, I couldn’t help but admire the deaths plastered on the stone steps and walls.

These women had killed them all effortlessly without a second glance.

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