Page 128 of Us Dark Few

No sleep would be had for Khalani that night as she tossed and turned in bed. After a few hours, she gave up. She sat on the cold floor, restless energy prickling inside her, untethered and expanding.

Her chest rose with a deep breath as she wrote her very last poem in Braderhelm.

Songs of Surrender

These walls built to contain, whisper in my ear

The Songs of Surrender beckon me closer

Those barriers represent eternal fear

While the music tells me to be my own composer

Letting go is the hardest thing

Holding on to time as if it equates to meaning

But now I know the truth and raise my own wings

Barricades may block the physical, but they can’t contain the feelings

The sweetest lies will drown out the soul

While doubts beckon you to remain

Darling, do not wait for those bells to toll

I beg of you to rise and break the chains.

31

Don’t take tomorrow with a tender hand.

Seize it with all your passion and might.

Khalani paced the confines of her chilly cell, tapping her palm incessantly against her thigh. Her fingernails were bitten down to jagged stubs as she waited in the hallowed dark for hours. The prison lights would power on soon.

Where were Takeshi and the others?

Barely audible coughing came from the cell to her right, and Khalani’s ears pricked up at the sound of a body slumping to the floor.

Takeshi must have turned on the gas.

Minutes passed, and the soft patter of footsteps made her muscles constrict.

She quickly turned toward the metal bars, and Takeshi emerged like a deadly assassin in the night. The bars quietly opened, and his imposing presence quickened her pulse as he entered her cell. Takeshi’s face was difficult to make out in the limited light, but his characteristic deep voice cut through the shadows.

“You ready, Kanes?”

She tried to steady her breathing, but her feet felt rooted to the ground. Once she stepped out of those bars, there would be no turning back.

“Didn’t think you were coming for a second,” Khalani admitted.

“As if that would stop you.”

The silence stretched between them, and she didn’t have to witness his obsidian eyes to know they burned right through her. His intoxicating aura made it hard to think. Breathe. She cleared her throat and moved to leave.

“Wait.” Takeshi pulled a black handgun out of his pocket. “Take this.”

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