"Operation Crimion was supposed to be simple," Karras began, peering at her from the corner of his eye. "We'd been staking out the building for nearly a month, memorizing and cataloging the routines within the Compound. We picked the perfect date and time, a significant portion of the staff were going to be away due to some conference Trace was holding..."
Faine felt her knees pressing together, her entire body locking up. She could tell Karras was either afraid or uncomfortable looking at her, keeping his gaze fixed on Saesin when he wasn't trying to gauge her reaction. Those tiny side glances revealed a pained expression cloaked in shadow, hidden from her.
They'd been sitting in strange silence for the last five minutes, waiting as Karras attempted to find the words. He'd begin and trail off without fully forming a thought, until the facts started pouring out of him.
"The plan was so simple... Faine, you and I were assigned an extraction team. We were supposed to break in through the left gate and storm through the Compound's Medical Bays, our team would rescue as many Shifter's as possible and evacuate before the next team arrived..."
Saesin hummed to herself softly and flicked something off the end of her nail, examining it further. Despite her split focus, Faine could tell she was lingering on every word Karras spoke, as if she was giving him the privacy to continue at his own speed. She found it admirable in a way.
Karras began to rake a hand over his head, pausing only to realize he was not touching hair. A bitter laugh escaped him.
"It was a trap," he explained, leaning back in his chair. "They were waiting for us. Every prisoner had been left detained, leaving an ambush of armed Physicians to take us down. A few were able to escape, you were even holding your own until someone detained me– They captured me from your six, incapacitating me. The rest is murky..."'
Faine blinked, swallowing back the heat of pain and sadness burning in her throat. "But the collapse... The fire..."
He nodded, his head tilting to see her. "For the next several months we were... examined... From what I understand, Naisene bombed the facility. I heard some of the hospital staff whispering about the decision, how they concluded the loss of life was expendable compared to the threat."
Saesin finally lifted her gaze and dropped her hands into her lap. "Yes, I can confirm as much. Though, the local news is providing a cover up. Something about a gas leak."
"A gas leak?" Faine snapped. "What, they sacrifice hundreds of lives? Their own men? Without a modicum of honor?"
Her outburst sent the lights flickering throughout the room. Karras tensed, one hand reaching out to grab hers before stopping. Faine stared down at the slim space between their fingers, knowing if she lifted one up she'd graze through his shadows.
"So how did you escape, Karras?" Saesin asked, propping her elbows on her knees. "Not without some difficulties it would seem."
If darkness drained warmth, the room would've become arctic. The shadows wreathing his frame began uncoiling and lapping off his body like stoked flames, ebbing and flowing with a control he clung to desperately.
Faine saw it, how much those memories haunted him too. Beneath the shadows, beneath the darkness, Karras was scarred just as she was. Even if they weren't physical.
Her finger twitched, grazing the back of his hand. She didn't pass through him this time, a smooth solid force meeting her skin.
Karras sighed and slouched deeper. "The explosion killed my Captor on impact, leaving my door wide open. I had time to flee the wreckage but I wasn't leaving without you..."
As if she could feel those amber eyes boring into her, heat flooded Faine's body and rushed over her cheeks. He wasn't speaking to Saesin anymore, not directly.
"You're door was melting closed, it was almost impossible to get in and when I saw those collapsed beams crushing you, I..." he cleared his throat, shaking his head. "I shifted to get to you, using everything I had to free you from those broken beams and try to heal your body but the burns were so bad..."
Saesin's eyes narrowed when certain details were mentioned, committing the story to memory so she might understand.
"I remember..." Faine whispered. "I remember you breaking down the door to save me... I could hear you yelling unt–until the roof collapsed."
He nodded.
Karras clasped his hands together and dangled them off his legs. "Somehow, when the roof collapsed on me, I got stuck like this."
"You said the Compound was built to imprison Shifters?" Saesin asked, lifting a brow.
Karras nodded again.
She mumbled something incoherent before standing and coming to kneel before him.
Faine watched in awe as Saesin's eyes flashed a brilliant silver and she sighed. "The building was constructed using Iron and Silver, yes?"
"He told me that," Faine answered. "When I was trying to break out of my cell, he told me everything was built with Iron and Silver... What does that mean?"
"Shifter's are Therianthropes," Saesin said, still critically examining Karras' body. "Unlike Lycan's, they are the last known descendants of the Fae which make them weak to both Iron and Silver."
"Okay, but what does that actually mean?"
The witch grunted, picking away at his aura and scowling. "It means that if there are fragments of either stuck in his body, then it would explain why he is stuck in an astral form."
"Is there anything we can do?" Faine blurted out before Karras could respond.
"Without your memories, you'd just be in the way," Saesin muttered. She pulled away from Karras and rubbed her eyes. "Another thing I will try to remedy in the mean time."
"Multitasking, are we?" Karras taunted.
Her deadpanned stare was enough to wipe the tension out from the room. Saesin stood up and strolled over to her cabinets, rustling through drawers and pulling out various tools and instruments.
The sharpest ones – a pair of tongs and some carving knives – sent chills trickling down Faine's back. Much to her relief, Saesin never approached her with them. She plucked leaves out of a jar with the tongs and scraped a gelatinous substance out of a jar with a small spoon..
Still muttering to herself just as when they'd found her.
Faine looked back at Karras and leaned close to his ear. "Should we even bother asking what she's doing?"
He chuckled and shrugged.
"I used to ask you the same thing," he replied.
When Faine's brows furrowed in confusion, it seemed to dishearten him briefly until Saesin whisked her way between them, swishing something around in her hand.
"You're both staying here tonight," she stated. Her authoritative tone made the nerves churn in Faine's gut. "Not that it looks like you have many options."
"Thank you," Faine said softly.
Saesin nodded and handed the small vial of liquid to Faine. "You're not to take this until you're in bed, understand? The side effects could be a bit nasty, but this should merely put you to sleep. Don't be surprised if your night is filled with dreams."
"Dreams or nightmares...?" Faine murmured.
The witch chuckled. "Dreams. Perhaps some strange ones, but nothing of concern."
She nodded, still uneasy as she admired the shimmering bottle in her hands. The cork capped vial contained violet liquid which glinted in the light. She smelled lavender and chamomile, with a hint of minted greens. Faine wasn't certain if it would taste anything like warm tea, but the tonic reminded her of the safety she so distantly knew.
"I've only got one extra bed but that shouldn't be a problem for you t–"
Saesin's sentence died in her throat, swallowing uncomfortably and pivoting on her heel as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Excuse me," she interrupted herself. "Faine, darling, do you mind finding your way upstairs? I've only got a few questions left for Karras, but I'll return him shortly."
Faine hadn't been truly alone since the Compound, the idea of it terrified her. Sensing the strange tension between them and swallowing past her fear, she bobbed her head and found her way to the interior staircase. Faine took several steps before pausing to think about what Saesin needed privacy for.
Straining her hearing, she braced herself against the handrail, gripping it tight to steady herself.
"Have they found him?" Saesin whispered.
"No," Karras answered. "And as far as anyone knows, Naisene isn't even looking."
Faine felt her heart hammering in her chest, reverberating into her throat and deep within her gut. Him. There was only one him. Trace. It had to be him.
"Why not?" She asked.
"Because the Compound was destroyed. As far as they know him along with it. Even the staff was heavily eradicated, nothing remains."
It felt as though someone had sucked all the air out of her. She'd lost everything. Without memories, Faine had nothing left and yet no one was searching for the man who broke her. Who broke them.
"Does Faine know?"
"Know what? That Trace could still be alive? No, God no. Of course not."
"You're playing with fire, Karras."
He sighed through his nose, grumbling. "She's been through enough, Saesin. I won't be traumatizing her further without all the facts."
"Have there been any sightings?" She asked finally.
Karras grunted. "Supposedly, though none have been confirmed."
Faine could hear the clinking of glass and ceramics, then running water. "Be careful. You know how things went last time..."
"That will never happen again," he bit out.
The information swept through Faine like a hurricane, her organs burning with heated rage. The rational part of her understood their secrecy, their hesitation. Yet still the anger soared within her, leaving her with only seconds to fly up the stairs and find a mostly empty bedroom.
The biggest priority was healing Karras. He was suffering in his astral form with shards of metal destroying him from the inside out.
She could consider her next steps later.
Faine strode into the spare room and immediately set the vial down, shucking off her outer layers and crawling into the sheets.
Naisene might believe this was over, but she didn't.
She'd get those memories back if it killed her.
And then she would find Trace once and for all.