of Sword and Flame

Chapter 49: Escape from the Cowardly King

They had done this before. Back in winter, what felt like an eternity ago, they had been in this position. Kyra was locked up, awaiting her certain death. She'd had not a single thing to live nor fight for. And then a boy had entered, his odd emerald eye catching her stare, and his willingness to treat any patient surprising her.

Ren stumbled forward, breath hitching.

"Kyra," he whispered. He approached her, his expression growing even more disturbed the closer he got. He was studying the state she was in. She could see every reaction written across his face. Kyra bit her lip, silently wondering whether he was real. She'd seen so much of him through the golden-eyed guard's gaze already.

"Oh, Saints," he whispered again. He fell to the floor before her, hands finding their way around her back and waist. Kyra stared down at him as his shoulders ached and trembled with pain. His hands found the lock on the cuffs, undoing them as his head rested against her chest. She could feel his warm skin, and she realized he was real. Her now-freed hands came to wrap around his head, pulling him in as she rubbed her fingers through his hair.

"I'm okay," she soothed.

"I'm so sorry." His words came out muffled. He was shaking.

"You're here now," Kyra pulled him closer as if it were even possible. "That's all that matters to me."

"You're hurt," he whispered.

The wrapping across her chest was all that was left untouched. The rest of her skin, pale and flashing through the dark, was marred with cuts and bruises, expansive and persistent in every available area. In the minimal light, Ren could make out every burn scar left behind from years past.

His chest ached. He just wanted to take her pain away. Her words, while hiding the truth, betrayed her eyes. What had occurred? What had transpired while he was off making friends with those who let it happen?

I just want to make it okay, Ren thought as he pressed a hand to her back between the chair. He could feel something odd starting just below the wrappings across her chest, skin that delved inward strangely. What was that?

Kyra finally dared to lift her head. The room around them looked like it was filled with an odd, glittering purple smoke, and it scared her. Was she passing out already?

Kyra slowly rose from the chair with her free hands, Ren helping her along with it. Then, the oddest thing began. Small marks of purple and blue began to appear across Ren's arms. One on his shoulder, his forearm, and across his jaw on the left side.

Kyra let out a surprised gasp. She took a step back, separating from him shakily. In her peripheral vision, the bruises and cuts on her arms began to disappear. Not all of them, by any means, and most were left behind. But those that vanished mirrored themselves onto Ren's body, shrinking visibly once there. The cuts that had been red and smeared with blood shriveled in, turning pale as the slivers disappeared, and Kyra realized the injuries were healing themselves. The purple haze from before continued to spread, circling Ren's arm in spirals. Kyra covered her mouth with her hand.

Ren looked down at his own arms in confusion. He lifted a hand to his eyes, watching the way a slightly shimmery purple clumped around it.

"I don't understand," he uttered. Kyra stared as if his head had been separated from his body.

"You have a gift."

She said it so bluntly. Ren looked up at her, equally stunned. He fell silent while Kyra's mind turned. The pieces began to fit, slowly pushing everything else down into place with it.

"Your illness. It was right after the lab." Kyra's brows pinched in concern. A small cold? Such symptoms were similar to the lieken's effect, only on a much smaller scale than what Kyra had experienced. Vomiting? A fever? Kyra glanced between Ren's eyes. "Ren, do you think that whoever was keeping you captive at the lab gave you lieken?"