Wolf Heart

Chapter 62

"Harm's way?" Aelius frowned, and when Rayan pressed Meryn's pod number, the door hissed open in response. "Rayan—"

He gripped his burning thigh and sweltered heat formed sweat on his brow. Limping to the elevator, Aelius assisted him into it, and he pressed the buttons. Out of its constricting environment, he hobbled to Meryn's door, and smacked his palm against the bell chimer. It rang on the other side of the door and alerted whoever was within to their presence.

Meryn answered the door, and stress lines creased his brow. He tugged them both into the apartment. Rayan wiped his face off of smudge, shaking out his hand. "The Sanctum is everywhere now..." His legs burned with his exhaustion and his alertness while Aelius slipped onto the couch, hiding his face in his hands.

Meryn closed the door with his clenched fist, and he stepped back when rage contorted Meryn's features. Stars swirled in the darkness when his hip bumped against the table. It sent a shockwave to his heart, and he grabbed onto the cabinet to stop his descent.

"Can you tell me what the fuck is going on?" Meryn snapped as Aelius rushed to his side, hauling him off the ground.

His world darkened, but he refused to let go without a fight as Aelius leaped to his defense. "Meryn, don't. He's hurt, and he saved my life," his voice wavered with conviction, but Rayan straightened himself on the wall while Aelius placed himself between him and his understandably raging brother. "It was the Insurgents. He came with a warning... that I ignored." He sucked in his lips with a shake of his head.

"As if that makes me feel better!" Meryn bit. "I was watching the coverage! All those innocent lives, gone! If the Insurgency made a move that large against civilians — Rayan's one of their head guys." He swung his hand, but never hit him.

"Yet, here he is instead of with them," Aelius argued.

Rayan lost his grip on the world. "Wait..."

Meryn's anger faded in an instant, and Rayan dug his hand against his support and tried not to puke up the ash. "I just came to drop off your brother," he whispered, where the words danced on his tongue. "I... I didn't want this to happen. I tried." He blinked back into the world, and moved for the door, but Meryn's arm stopped him from fleeing. "I'll... I'll leave, I promise." He stared into the flames which blocked the door. "I will tear the Insurgency apart, and you'll never see me again."

He fought for all it meant.

He choked Meryn's forearm. "Let me go."

Meryn let him go.

Rayan stumbled and limped past the two.

"Wait, Ray!" Meryn reached for him, but Rayan ducked out of reach. "You're in no condition—"

"Your leg—" Aelius joined in the pointless argument.

He only had the flames for company and left the two brothers in the apartment. Pain rocked through his thigh, but he pushed past the flames and through the field of embers. He stumbled to the nearest underground entrance, into a storage unit of the First Insurgency's Kestran branch.

"Fuck." He fell to his knees and cursed his leg's refusal to cooperate. He tapped his compearl and slid against the tunnel wall. "Garcy."

"Rayan? Where have you been?" he asked, loud into his ear. "Aaron and I ducked out of the Eteran base. It went to hell. There's been some infighting, and Aaron pulled the Insurgents who lost faith in Seeto out of there."

"I was doing something personal," Rayan managed and gripped onto the compress. "Are you here at the Kestran base?"

"Yes, where are you?"