— Kaden —

Elaeya was bleeding and screaming so hard, I could hear her voice break. The big black thing was wriggling on the floor and trying to attack her, interrupted every time she smacked her glowing hands on it.

I could only see it in flashes as the light connected with its chitin.

It was the ugliest thing I’d ever seen, and its stench was so powerful I could taste it on my tongue in suffocating disgust.

Elaeya, apparently, could see at as clearly as Ylva could.

I know nothing of what an Other is other than it’s not from around here, and bad, really, really bad.

Ylva said we couldn’t fight it, but apparently Elaeya could. I don’t know what she was doing, but it had an effect. If that would be enough to save her was still left for debate though.

My skin had hardened, fur sprouting all over. My claws were extended, I was half-way shifted and I wanted to tear its flesh apart. I wanted to feel it’s blood on my tongue, and rip its heart out of its chest.

Both Elaeya and Ylva told me to back out.

I wanted to trust them, I really did. But I was barely holding on to my sanity. I wanted violence, more than I ever remember wanting it. But whatever attack I would try would put her in harm’s way, and I couldn’t let that happen. This thought was the only thing holding me from going berserk.

I doubt there hasn’t been a full half-minute past since Ylva came in the hospital room, but it felt like days.

Fights are this way. But this one was not my own, at least not yet, and I hated it.

I couldn’t hold back the snarls that came out of my chest. The reverberations allowed me to see the thing clearer.

It was gathering itself for an attack. I had less than a second to move.

I could not hesitate.

I rushed forward, my arms wide, hoping that I could attack from the sides and spare Elaeya in between. I would probably hurt her, but maybe, just maybe I’d save her.

I felt my heart twist as I knew what was about to happen, what i was about to do.

During this time, she screamed her last, most heart-shattering cry. It was full of desperation, and anger, and madness.

Her hands went through its chest to hit the floor beneath.

I barely shifted my weight in time to move aside to not fall on her, but beside her instead. Sparing her from being a casualty of my attack, as the thing disappeared.

There was a concussion, not unlike that of a bomb, only the sound was subsonic, the air pressure nothing but an odd pulsating sensation on our skin, there was a split second where my senses were completely gone. I could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, the stench of the thing was gone, I could smell no one or anything. I couldn’t even tell if I was upright or falling upside down. And as quickly as this sensation hit me, I regain contact with reality, landing on all four next to Elaeya.

The Other wasn’t there anymore.

Elaeya was kneeling on the floor, her hand holding her weight, her head bend forwards.

But the room was not the same. Nothing was the same.

The explosion didn’t shatter the walls and ceiling. Instead, everything turned to rot.

The floor and every surface looked like it had been part of an abandoned building for more than a century. There was grime, brown, and dark green dried substances everywhere. The smell was that of decay. Our clothes were falling apart at the slightest movement, and had the same kind of fragility you’d see of any fabric retrieved through archeology. The colours faded. But the most significant thing was the symbols. Glyphs everywhere on the walls, floor and ceiling, etched in a language I did not know. They looked rough and ancient, and there was little space between them. They felt mysterious and intriguing.

“Don’t read them,” rasped Elaeya. “It will render you insane.”

I saw Sam snap his eyes away from them, just as I did. Ylva put a hand on the chair to sit down, but it fell apart. The metal so rusted and thin it could not even hold its own weight, let alone Ylva’s. She had her eyes closed. I wasn’t sure if it was not to look at the symbols or to keep her from being sick. Could be from both.

“We need running water,” Elaeya added. “Showers, at least an hour to keep us from being blighted, and quickly,” she was rushing the words out as if she was worried she might not be able to do it later. “Anything in here stays in here, but our bodies. Even clothes. It all has to burn down. Fire will purify it. We need to leave now.”

There was some commotion outside.

Elaeya tried to move but she faltered and I caught her as she fell.

There were massive bruises on her neck, and cuts everywhere on her. There was blood on her clothes, her breathing was laboured, the sweat glistening on her skin.

The door of the room flew open as my men made their appearance, attracted by the commotion of the attack.

Anders was at the door, with the rest of the team behind.

“NO!” screamed Elaeya with her damaged vocal cords. “Don’t step in.”

I raised my hand, palm up at them to reinforce what she said.

“They will be blighted too,” she whizzed barely able to talk now. “No one can enter here, we have to get out. Running water,” she muttered brokenly.

I took her in my arms and walked to the door. Sam helped put the nurse back on her feet.

Elaeya wasn’t moving much anymore. I looked at the nurse.

“I can wash her,” she told me. She indicated for the guys outside where to get bathrobes, we took the crumbling clothes off and wrapped ourselves in bathrobes. The fabric becoming more and more brittle the longer it stayed inside the room.

The nurse was the first to leave, strong enough to carry Elaeya to the showers. Sam followed.

I slammed my hand on the doorway before Ylva marched out, blocking her.

She really looked bad.

“You’re okay?” I asked her.

She looked away from me.

Something was wrong.

She never looks away.

“Ylva?” I asked menacingly.

“I’m sorry,” she said meekly.

What the hell?

“Has this anything to do with you?” my voice lowered dangerously.

“It followed me from Greysky. I never thought it would go for her. I was trying to protect myself. I never thought it could be interested in anyone else.”

“What?” I said carefully, my voice barely audible now.

“No one can fight Others. At least… I don’t know… I’ll do anything Kade… Please,” she was begging me, like I’d never seen her beg. Her guilt clearly eating at her. But right now, I had no compassion left for her.

“You kept this from me,” I said dangerously.

“Nothing could be done,” she said her voice small.

“Of course it couldn’t, because I didn’t know,” I let my words lash at her.

She recoiled.

“You didn’t let me know. I could have tried something, but you took that option away from me, and Elaeya paid for your mistake,” I growled. “You will set things straight. You will burn this room, and make sure it never comes back. You will make sure to find what can be done and you will do it. This is your mistake, correct it,” I spat. “Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes,” she inclined her head.

“Now go take your goddamn shower and get out of my face.”

She slipped out in a hurry.

I left the room slamming the door close. The hinges cringed and the door half fell down, hanging drunkenly.

“Block this thing until we can deal with it,” I told Anders. “And clear as much of this wing as it can be done.”

I didn’t even look at any of them.

I was seething.

I went to the showers wanting to rub my skin raw of all the muckiness from that bloody room.

I won’t be sorry to see it burn.