Page 10 of Shadowlands Omega

“I’m going…to get you all out of here…” I say, voice funny, chest heaving. It’s hard to breathe. I don’t feel well and am struggling.

I go to my brother first. His fingers are clenching uselessly and he’s got spit on his lips as he tries to talk. “Kia, are you…”

“I’m fine. Fine, just…just…tell me what to do.” I rattle the thick metal ring around his neck and hands, but it’s bolted into the wall.

He grits his teeth, but I don’t let my gaze linger over his face. I don’t assess the carnage. He’s covered in filth and soot. I can’t tell if he’s burned or bloodied. His eye is swollen and he’s got an abrasion in the distinct shape of a rod or leather strap across his chest. He looks like he’s dying. But he’s fighting.

“You aren’t strong enough to pull out the bolts. They’re loose, though…can you…with your magic…I think if you can get the bolts hot enough where they go into the rock, I can break them or…or pull them out.”

“Hot enough?”

His gaze pans to mine. He looks at me with such confidence, he gives me no choice but to feel it. “You took the fire away, I figure you can create it.”

“Createfire? Me?”

He smiles at me and his teeth are so white against the blood on his lips. “You can do it. I know you can.”

My lower lip curls down. His confidence in me makes my heart hurt. I try to fight it but the tears are coming… He shakes his head — tries to. “Don’t do that, Kandia,” he says, smiling — trembling out of the exertion it costs him to not choke to death, but still smiling. “Chin up. Don’t cry. Just try. Try for me?”

I nod, lip still curved all the way down to my chin as I fight valiantly against the sobs rattling through my chest. I secure my blanket and press my palms flat to the metal ring on either side of his hands. That’s where the bolts are. Nothing happens at first. I glance into my brother’s eyes, worrying my lower lip between my teeth. I can’t help him, but I can’t tell him that — not with him looking at me like I can do anything.

And then he screams. “Fuck!” My brother jerks abruptly forward, ramming straight into me as the bolts explode free of the wall. The bracket clatters to the stone and we land beside it, him on his back and me on my butt.

My family is all talking at once, but I focus on Cyprus as he pushes up into a sitting position. He kicks the bracket across the floor, closer to me. I flinch from it and Cyprus chuckles, “You did it, Kia. Fuck, I knew you could do it.”

“You really are an Omega,” Audet whispers.

“I can’t believe it. My baby…” My mama’s grinning at me with half of her mouth. The other half is sagging a bit, her upper lip busted. She’s missing a front tooth she wasn’t before the night started. Luckily, she doesn’t look like she’s been struck. Right now, she just looks proud of me.

“Alright. Alright, let’s uh…let’s do the others,” Cyprus says, standing to his full height. He limps once, then seems to walk a little more easily as he takes a few more steps around the dungeon. He rolls out his neck as he crosses the room and stops before Zelie. “Help me, Kia?”

I nod, so confused, but I use his surety for my own and join him at Zelie’s side. He grabs the chain attaching her ankles to the ring on the floor. “Can you heat up the ring? Where it attaches to the floor?”

No. “Yeah.”

“On the count of three,” he starts, and the ring grows bright, bright orange by the time he finishes counting us off. He pulls and, together, we break Zelie free. We do the same for the rest of my family and by the time we’ve finished unchaining our father, Zelie, Owenna, Audet and my mom are already gathered in the middle of the floor.

“Here!” Audet says, “come help us with this.”

I stagger over and see that they’ve gathered around a trap door. One that’s latched and barred shut but that’s made of wood, not metal. I nod and stretch my hands forward, pressing them to the wood. The wood starts to char, burn and then flake away. My brother catches me by the shoulder, keeping me from falling into the abyss that opens up beneath. I sway, feeling drained and depleted, too drained even to recognize my magic for what it is.Incredible.

“It…it should be enough for us to squeeze through,” Owenna says.

“It’ll have to be,” my father says. He leans further down, but lurches back up just as quickly. His large hand covers his mouth and nose. “Zelie, take this.” He takes off his shirt and starts tearing it into strips. “Tie it around your faces.”

I understand what he’s doing the moment I take my next breath — my first breath in minutes. “No.” I lurch up, bile rising in my throat, and vomit. I throw up all over the wall where Cyprus once laid.

“Zelie, go on.”

“You want me to go down there?” she squeaks, staring down into the void. “I think I see dead bodies.”That’s what it smells like, for sure. Bodieslongdead.

“There aren’t bodies floating there. There wouldn’t be. The water is rushing. It’ll take us out of the castle,” Owenna says, shimmying past her into the cubicle of darkness, a wrapped cloth around her nose and mouth. “We have to go now.”

Cyprus grabs her shoulder. “You don’t know where it leads.”

“If water is moving it has to lead out, and out is our only chance for survival. He won’t let us live and if he does, it’ll behere. He’s going to skin us along with them.” Her chin jerks towards the two remaining cells. I feel my chest clam up as I notice that Trash City is still in their cells. They watch us with apathy, but don’t ask for help. They look resigned to whatever Yaron has told them he has in store. Or…maybe not so resigned. Perhaps, bored? As if, they’re waiting for something…

Owenna moves again towards the dark hole in the floor. I whisper, “He’s really going to flay them?”

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