Red Princess

73. Labyrinth

"Kai..." I managed to mumble with my weak voice, my throat dry and heavy with tears simultaneously.

I first noticed the nostalgic colour of his eyes. Those emeralds laced with terror bordering on tears stared back at me as his hand caressed my cheek. He unlocked the bindings on my limbs next, and before I could lift myself up, his arms wrapped around me and pulled me up into an embrace.

"It's fine. Everything is going to be alright." My entire body ached in places I couldn't even name, and my head was bursting with the memory of that torturous mirror maze. I barely had any strength left in my muscles, but the mere mention of his reassuring words and the feel of his comforting arms around me gave me peace.

I let the scenery before me sink in. I was in some sort of a laboratory with various monitors and equipment surrounding us, now broken and shattered. I could recognise the familiar faces of my teammates holding the people I saw earlier at gunpoints on their knees.

"How do we deal with them, Black Wolf?" One of them asked. I felt his fingers caress me on the back of my head. Gently, he lowered my head to his chest, making it difficult for me to witness what was happening behind him. Before I knew it, he answered, "Leave the head researcher. Kill the rest."

What?

"No, Kai-" Whatever stamina was left in my weak limbs, I summoned it to struggle against him, protesting against his command, but I barely even managed to grip his arms. I remembered I was shot when I tried saving him. I couldn't recollect what happened after that, but the searing pain in my back told me the injury was still new. It hadn't been long since I was brought here. But whoever they were, I still didn't want them to die.

My protest had little effect as I heard the sound of several gunshots resound inside the room, followed by the falling of the bodies on the floor. Kaidon's chest hid the view from me, but my mind couldn't help visualising it. Even if they were the enemy, I felt like a part of me broke away because I was the reason all this happened.

Another teammate approached me, and I recognised her from one of my older missions. She nodded to Kaidon as she helped me up while he let go. My eyes didn't leave his figure, and I watched him approach an elderly man who I assumed to be the head of the facility. Kaidon lifted him off on his feet with a grip on his shirt collar and pushed him against the wall, his hand squeezing on the man's throat.

"Tell me what was happening here if you don't want to end up like them."

The man looked him in the eyes, unfazed by the fear of death. "You can kill me right now, but our legacy will continue to live."

Kaidon didn't relax his grip while the old man coughed, and I tried to get down from the table to stop him. All I wanted was for us to go home and leave all this behind. I was exhausted, in pain, and revenge was the last thing on my mind, but Kaidon seemed to have other plans.

His free hand went to his earpiece and he told the person on the other side, "Bring them in."

His attention then turned back to the old man as he threatened him, "You know I can use my powers to make you confess, but I'll not. I'll torture your family, your wife, your daughter just how you tortured my person, and I'll make you watch. You'll witness it until you are begging for death yourself."

As if on cue, Sey walked inside the room with two other teammates pushing ahead two women blindfolded and bound in handcuffs, who I assumed were the man's family. They were in shock, with uncontrollable tears falling down their eyes. My expression mirrored that old man's as the blood drained down our faces at the sinister picture he painted before our eyes. My hands instinctively reached up to my mouth to cover them at the sound of that horror.