THE ASHES OF LIGHT ✔

Chapter Twenty-Three: Valencia

"I'm not with them," Kane answered Valencia's unspoken question, causing her body to visibly relax. Valencia stood up and ran towards him, enveloping the guard in a hug.

She began to sob and pulled him tighter, her body shaking violently as her tears began to wet Kane's shirt.

"Hey, it's okay," Kane rubbed her back, sounding confused as to what was happening.

Valencia pulled away, "I was too late." She wiped away her tears and pointed towards Dad, who was lying on the ground. She couldn't bring herself to look at the body again, but she could tell from the horrified expression on Kane's face that he was just as devastated as she was.

"We need to go," Kane whispered, unable to take his eyes off Dad's body. Valencia was surprised to see a flash of sadness across his face—it made sense since his friend just died, but he usually showed no emotion at all, always staying strong for the sake of everyone else.

"We can't just leave him," Valencia protested, wiping at the tears that continued to stream down her face.

Kane shook his head, "We don't have a choice. Look, something is clearly going on here. First, it's Klara, and now it's Ashton? We can't let one of us be next."

Valencia felt a wave of terror crash into her. If Maythus was in charge and was sending people after them to kill them... well, it didn't feel right. Something had to be wrong, Valencia's gut was screaming that Maythus wouldn't do this.

"Where's Maythus?" she asked, looking up at Kane. Her thoughts were slowly piecing together, causing her to feel even more panicked as she voiced them aloud. "He doesn't like Shadow Manipulation, you know that—my dad was clearly killed with some sort of shadows. And it's Maythus—he's the nicest person I know, he could never do anything like this. We have to find him."

If this wasn't Maythus's doing, then that could mean that he was in much more danger than either of the two of them.

Kane nodded, "Whoever was coming after Klara and Ashton will definitely have him as a target on whatever list of people they're getting."

"Where are we even going to go once we find him?" Valencia asked, hoping that Kane had a plan.

"I'll figure something out," the guard assured her, but his expression said otherwise. His face was paler than usual and his eyes looked panicked, like he had no idea what he was doing.

Kane and Valencia slowly made their way out of the dungeons after agreeing that their first priority should be finding Maythus and making sure he was safe. After they had done that, they could figure out where to go and what to do next.

Valencia was trying not to think of Dad's rotting corpse as she took each step away from his body, as she knew that if she let it settle in, she wouldn't be able to function out of grief.

Kane led the way. Luckily for Valencia, it was still dark outside, allowing for her to easily hide her darkened veins and lightened skin from performing Shadow Manipulation. Kane was too mission-oriented to notice that she looked any different and hopefully, he wouldn't notice at all. He didn't need another thing to stress about—Valencia would have to figure it out on her own.

Kane led her over to a side door of the palace, away from all the crowds of people who had gathered in the plaza. They could hear their muffled shouts in the distance, still edged with rage.

There were surprisingly few guards around, which made Valencia wonder where they all went. So many guards were sent to rescue Dad and her, so it didn't make sense as to why they would all disappear.

They finally entered the palace, shutting the door silently behind them. Valencia was thankful that she had Kane to lead the way, as she had only ever been in a small portion of the palace—never before had she seen the hallways that they were currently walking through.