Episode 10: Nothing And No One

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Episode 10: Nothing And No One

SLATE

The barracks felt wrong with one bed empty and three days gone without word of her. During the day, I kept the team in drills until their arms shook and their tempers burned. At night, I pushed myself harder than I ever had, trying to get her out of my mind.

Instead of sleeping, I counted the hours and listened for footsteps that never came.

It was uncomfortable to care, but no matter how hard I tried, thoughts of her were never far beneath the surface for me. It took everything I had not to storm up to the castle and demand her release, but that would put all my plans in jeopardy. Plans I’d worked so hard and sacrificed too much for to endanger now.

The last I’d heard, she was alive, at least, which was more than I’d expected after her defiance in the arena.

What in the world was she thinking? Why would she risk her life like that?

Did she truly not understand how powerful the Regent was?

No matter how long I searched my mind for an answer that made sense, I couldn’t find one.

Which was exactly why I should have wanted her dead. A volatile Condemned is a liability to the entire team, and if she lived, she’d keep putting us all in danger. Besides, negative attention on me could put the entire network at risk.

I should have been glad the Regent was dealing with her.

But the ugly ache in my chest said otherwise.

And I hated it.

Over the years, I’d learned the kind of discipline most men only dreamed of. I ruled myself and never let a single emotion distract me from my duty. I did what needed to be done without a second thought. Always.

But the past three days had been torture.

I’d come to the training grounds early to get a full workout in before the others arrived, but after less than half an hour, Orion joined me, silent as shadow.

“Any word?” he asked finally.

“Nothing.”

He nodded, as if he hoped for mercy but never expected it to appear.

Another day of training went by, and even though the team worked hard, they were tense and quiet most of the time, no one wanting to put words to the questions we were all asking.

Even Brim was tense, despite having gotten what he wanted with Bex gone.

By the end of the day, I left the team to run drills as I made my way toward the castle, knowing I was putting everything in danger and not giving a damn.

That’s when a shadow detached itself from the far corridor and came toward me with his head down and his hands empty.

He had the wrong armor for a Sentinel and the wrong gait for a noble.

My heart betrayed me by speeding up at his approach. I nearly grabbed him by the throat, my impatience threatening to control my body in ways I’d never experienced.

“Warden,” he said, stopping exactly two paces outside the line of light.

“What’s your news?”

He didn’t look up. “You didn’t hear this from me.”

“I never do,” I said.

“Word is the Regent’s letting your Condemned go.”

My hands did not move, but something deep inside me shifted. “Why?”

“I don’t ask those kinds of questions,” he said, a brief, poisonous smile stretching across his thin lips. “But the dungeon wall is cracked from the drain room to the east stair.”

A muscle moved in my jaw before I could stop it. “The Regent was keeping her in the soul stone cells?”

“Rumor is your little witch not only survived it, she destroyed it,” he said, unable to hide his admiration. “In her sleep.”

Heat under my ribs flared, the runes I never asked for twisting like a warning. I kept my voice level. I was her Warden and trainer. Nothing more.

“Rumors are a kind of poison, Jarek. Not to be fully trusted.”

“When have I ever told a lie?” He shifted his weight, and the light caught a thin scar along his throat I hadn’t noticed before. “There’s more, but it will cost you.”

I narrowed my eyes into a threat, and he cleared his throat.

“Another member of your team left the castle by the back staircase two nights ago.” He finally lifted his gaze. “Big guy. Half gargoyle, if I’m not mistaken, though there aren’t many of his kind left from what I hear.”

My stomach tightened.

Brim.

Had he been summoned to the castle? Or had he gone on his own?

Jarek wouldn’t have the answer to those questions, but asking Brim about it directly might make the Regent doubt my loyalties if she was watching him.

Of course, loyalty was a strange word in a place where betrayal was the only constant.

I liked the kid, too. But desperation and a desire for power could turn even the purest of hearts into the most vile.

Jarek cleared his throat, bringing me back to the moment. I grunted and filled his hand with gems of various colors.

“There’s one more rumor I heard but couldn’t confirm,” he said, glancing around nervously.

He lowered his voice and leaned closer. “The Amethyst Priestess herself has expressed some interest in your new team. Might be why your witch is still alive.”

I did not show my surprise, but I felt it deep inside.

Attracting the special interest of the Priestess was never good for anyone.

I dropped a few extra gems into his hand.

“I was never here,” he said.

 He turned, and I let him take three steps before I called out to him.

“Jarek.”

He stopped.

“I want to know the moment she’s released.”

He looked over his shoulder, and for an instant I saw the boy he’d been before this place made him barely more than a shadow. “It’s already underway.”

His footsteps faded into the darkness, and I stood in the silence he left behind, jaw tight, staring at the faint reflection of myself in the glass wall. I’d been many things since I first woke up here in the Shard all those years ago.

A murderer. A pawn. A coward.

But now I hardly recognized myself.

She was alive somehow, and I couldn’t decide if that meant salvation or ruin.

I pressed my palms against the railing and looked down into the arena with its memories like ghosts. The four Condemned I’d been tasked with training were down there now, running their drills, but how long would any of them be alive?

And since when did I care?

I’d played this game for decades, balancing between obedience and rebellion, serving the Regent while keeping my people alive long enough to matterBut one volatile witch with shadows in her veins and light in her eyes was enough to tilt my entire world.

And for the first time in forever, I wasn’t sure which side I was on anymore.

The dragonfly pendant flashed again in memory. Sabine’s sign. The price of an ancient favor I’d thought she’d forgotten to collect. I did not know what she wanted from Bex or from me, but the truth was becoming clear. If I made the wrong move now, I wouldn’t just lose the team.

 I’d lose myself.

Reality shivered, overlapping itself for an instant. I closed my eyes, and the future slid into focus like a blade catching light.

It always came like that. Half a heartbeat before reality caught up.

I saw Lavender handing her a golden potion. Sentinels marching her down a violet staircase. She was on her way back to me even now.

I forced my eyes open, pushing the wave of desire down so deep, no one could find it. Not even me.

It was how I’d survived this long. Seeing the world three seconds ahead of everyone else.

But lately… it wasn’t just the next breath or the next strike.

Since the night she touched me, the visions were clearer. Farther ahead in time.

And she was in all of them.

I dragged a breath through my teeth and forced the visions back into the darkness. This gift—if that’s what it was—had kept me alive, but I’d always sensed that it would destroy me if I let it take root.

I couldn’t afford to start believing the future could be anything but pain. Not now.

Not when pain was all I deserved.

I turned toward the sound of approaching footsteps and forced my thoughts back behind the wall where they belonged.

Whatever came next, I’d face it the way I always had.

As if I cared for nothing and no one.

BEX

I came back to myself in pieces.

The metallic taste in my mouth. The sound of voices. Pain that showed no forgiveness.

Underneath it all was a low pulse, steady as a heartbeat. Magic that refused to abandon me. It was still there, even though I’d dreamed of it being pulled from my body in the night.

I tried to move, but the world tilted and sleep dragged me back into its depths.

Once, something cold pressed against my wrist. Restraint or mercy, I couldn’t tell.

Memory came in fragments. The roar of the Shadow Beast. Hands closing around my throat.

Unrelenting shadows all around me.

I woke with a gasp, forcing the blur into shapes.

Where was I?

The ceiling above me wasn’t stone but polished crystal, veins of violet and gold threading faintly through it. The air didn’t smell of rot. It smelled clean. Like a home.

A bed.

I was in a bed.

I sat up too quickly, my head pounding. Every muscle screamed in protest. But I was alive, and I was not in a dungeon.

For a split second, I prayed this whole thing had been a dream. That I was home again, and not trapped inside this prison of a world. But home wasn’t real, either, was it? It never had been. Not for me.

Besides, the thought of leaving this world without my new friends or the answers I was seeking made me feel helpless and lost. So, I guess despite this world being a real horror show full of danger at every turn, I wanted to be here. I wanted to stand and fight against this place.

Against the Order of Shadows.

But why hadn’t the Regent killed me? She’d obviously wanted to there in the arena. I had no doubt that was why she’d set up that entire exhibition in the first place. It was an excuse to put me in the kind of danger that couldn’t be directly tied back to her.

She wanted it to look like I’d lost control and been killed by the beast.

But why go to all that trouble if she was the leader of this Shard? Why not just kill me and be done with it?

The door slid open before I could gather enough strength to stand, and I braced for the Regent’s fury or a Sentinel’s shackles.

Instead, Lavender stepped through, a long braid falling over one shoulder. A tray hovered beside her, balanced by some invisible tether.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“You shouldn’t be awake yet,” she said, floating the tray down to my bedside table. “But then again, you never do what you’re told, do you?”

“To say I’m relieved to see you would be the greatest understatement of my life.” My throat was dry. “How long have I been out?”

“Three days, but this is the first time they’ve let me tend to you.”

She poured water into a cup and handed it to me. “Drink.”

That was one order I was happy to obey. The water was room temperature and tasted faintly of dust, but it steadied the tremor in my hands.

“Why am I here?” I asked, though I already suspected the answer. “I remember… something else. They had me in a cell, I think. I remember the heat of the floor against my cheek.”

Lavender didn’t look at me right away. She mixed up several vials of liquid instead, each movement slow and deliberate. “They’ve moved you,” she said evenly. “The cell was not safe anymore.”

Her gaze met mine just long enough for me to catch the warning in it.

Not safe.

She wasn’t talking about the cell. She was talking about us. This room. It wasn’t safe to talk openly here.

I wanted to tell her that nothing was safe in this world. That someone had been in my room the night before the exhibition, going through my things.

I waited for her to say more, but instead, she reached for a cloth and wiped the soot from the inside of my wrist, her touch gentle but deliberate.

“You’ll do well to remember your place here,” she said.

It sounded like a correction. Like a threat. But I closed my eyes and saw a flash of shattered stone and ash. I remembered the way the floor had burned beneath me before it exploded.

Whether the memory was accessible on my own or because of that water she made me drink, I didn’t know. But what I did know was that the cell I’d been in before this room had suffered a very similar fate to the chamber Maggie had died in just a few weeks ago.

Which meant the Regent had tried to drain my power with a soul stone.

And she had failed.

Lavender seemed to read my expression, and she nodded, her eyes dipping to the spot where the dragonfly pendant rested beneath the fabric of my uniform.

She knew just as well as I did that the pendant had protected me again.

The question was why?

What did my life mean to someone as mysterious as Sabine? Who was she?

Lavender chose a small vial of golden liquid from her tray and placed one final drop into the potion she’d been mixing for me.

“For the pain,” she said, all business now. “You’ll need your strength.”

Another message. Her strength potion had also helped to keep me safe.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I said, downing the new potion as a mix of emotions flooded through me.

I was truly grateful for all this outside help, but what would happen when the Regent found this pendant and took it away from me? Or when Lavender’s potions weren’t there to save me?

I would have been dead at least three times now without them. How would I ever learn to survive this place on my own?

And why hadn’t the Regent just killed me when the stone exploded?

The door opened before I could ask more. Two Sentinels stepped in, gloved hands at their sides.

“By order of the Amethyst Regent, this Condemned is to be returned to her Warden.”

Lavender’s expression didn’t change, but her shoulders went still. “For what purpose?

“To fight in tomorrow’s Games.”

Tomorrow? My stomach flipped over several times. Lavender said I was out for three days. We should have had more time.

Lavender’s mouth tightened in a thin line. “So the Games have been moved forward? She is not well enough to fight.”

“The Regent insists.”

She forced a smile. “We best not keep her majesty waiting,” she said with a smile so sweet it would convince anyone of her loyalty. “However, I request that she be permitted to come to me first thing in the morning.”

The Sentinel nodded, and Lavender stepped back, bowing as they escorted me from the room.

The corridor ahead was bright enough to sting my eyes. Every wall reflected pieces of me in fractured light. I walked between the guards, each step tentative. Nothing hurt as much as it should have, but the memory of the soul stone tugging at my power and coming up empty echoed like an ache inside me.

At the landing, one of the Sentinels pressed a rune on the wall and the glass parted, revealing a winding staircase leading downward. I followed him for what felt like an eternity until we finally came to the places I recognized.

The barracks. The familiar path. The training ring.

My breath caught as the team came into view. Calli, Elara, Orion, Brim… and Slate. He stood apart from the rest, a hardness when he looked up at me that was somehow louder than the crowd of thoughts in my head.

How would I ever explain what happened? Would they even believe me?

“Warden, the Condemned has been returned to your team in anticipation of the first round of Games.”

His face showed no emotion. “After what she’s done?”

“The Regent has granted her mercy.”

Mercy? The word made my stomach hurt.

This wasn’t mercy. This was nothing more than a chess move.

When the guards left, it was Calli who broke first. Her face cracked into something between a smile and disbelief before she darted across the floor and threw her arms around me.

“You’re okay,” she said, pressing her face into my shoulder.

I barely managed a nod. “I’m alive, anyway.”

Elara leaned against a column nearby, arms folded. “Well, look who crawled back from the dead,” she said. “Next time you want to make such a dramatic exit, give us a little warning.”

“Next time,” I echoed, though my throat tightened around the words.

Orion nodded when I met his eyes. There was no anger there, thankfully. No judgment.

But then there was Brim.

He didn’t move when I looked at him. Didn’t speak. Just stood there like a mountain, eyes dark as onyx and twice as hard.

“Look. I’m sure you’re all angry, and I’m not sure what you all saw out there,” I said, forcing breath into my lungs. “But I want to explain what—”

Brim stepped forward, cutting me off. “What we saw was you destroying any chance we had at victory. Because of you, we’ll start the Games at a disadvantage. The lowest team in the group.”

Calli shot him a warning look. “Brim—”

“No,” he said sharply. “She doesn’t get a pass on this one. From what I saw, she was purposely trying to get us all killed. If we weren’t on Slate’s team, the Regent might have tortured us all for her defiance.”

I swallowed back guilt and confusion. “You think I wanted our whole team to die?”

“I think you were doing what you do best. Thinking only of yourself, no matter how it affects those around you,” he said. “The Regent should have ended you for what you did.”

The silence that followed was sharp enough to cut. Even Elara lowered her eyes.

Slate stepped forward, his voice calm but carrying. “Whatever punishment the Regent put her through is likely worse than anything you can say to her now,” he warned Brim before he turned on me.

Even one step closer nearly made my knees buckle. There was so much anger in his eyes.

“If you ever do something so reckless and irresponsible again, I will kill you myself.”

Hot tears flooded the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

I was a fool to think he might feel some relief that I was still alive and standing before him.

But I had not imagined the connection between the two of us. I couldn’t have.

“We’re done for the day.”

Slate started to leave, but then turned as he reached the stairs.

“Get her something to eat,” he said quietly to Calli. “And rest. All of you. Round One of the Amethyst Games begins at dawn.”