King's Cage [Completed]

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Soren

When Shade, Cal and Luka come back from the tunnels, they arrive with only a handful of people, broken and bruised. The slow march they make is excruciating to watch, seeing the utter heartbreak on Shade's face. I can only assume he didn't find who he was looking for. But there's something else in his expression that gets me to believe that he has hope. There is still hope, even with a broken band of rebels.

And that's all we are now. Unless we get backup from the Lakelanders, we have about 30 people in all to take Maven down.

It's not impossible. It will just make us that much more impressive.

The small, pale baby that Shade holds in his arms immediately gets passed to Kyra. She is the only woman who is properly functioning right now and Shade doesn't know what else to do.

"Is she going to be okay?" Shade asks her in a gruff voice.

Kyra's eyes go wide in panic. She has no experience with any of this. Yes, she may know some things, but she has never physically helped. I quickly kneel down next to her and kiss her forehead.

"Let's take a look, shall we?" I wink. She visibly takes a deep breath and then focuses on the frail child.

I warm the bottom of her feet and her palms while Kyra listens to the baby's heartbeat, a faint drum. She checks the baby's eyes and mouth and ears and all the wonderful new parts. For a moment I just stare at Kyra. She's magnificent, coming out here with us, being brave enough to jump right in and take charge. She can handle herself good enough but I still want to be the hero and protect her.

I turn to Shade, who is rocking on his heels. "Where did she come from? How old is she?" I ask, trying to get more information on the baby's injuries or situation.

He takes a solid minute to answer me. "She's mine." He blurts out. "Her... mom died giving birth to her h-h-hours ago. She was only 5 or 6 months pregnant."

Kyra smacks my gaping mouth to get me to close it. A premature baby is hard to keep alive. Too small. Too frail. Too cold. Their internal works aren't fully developed. This baby will need to be a fighter.

Kyra gives me a grave look. "She isn't breathing very well and her heartbeat is slow. We really need to get some food in her and clothes to keep her warm." She squeezes her eyes shut and two tears spill out and off her eyelashes, creating two perfectly wet paths down her cheeks. Her voice shakes. "I need to keep her alive... for Shade."

I sigh, pulling her into an embrace. I whisper into her hair, "I know. I know you do."

Hey! Sorry this is short! I just really wanted to write about Soren and Kyra... 😍 What do you think? 😉