The room stank of rust and old fear, thick enough to taste.
Dust hung in the air like a suspended breath, and the floorboards groaned beneath every step, as if aching to confess their sins. A single sliver of light bled through the boarded-up window, the only proof that time hadn't frozen entirely. On one side of the room Kia lay motionless, his skin waxy and pallid, his breaths so shallow they barely stirred the air.
Lucian crouched beside him, his own body, a ruined sunken eyes, trembling fingers hovering just above Kia's chest. Three days without food. Three nights without sleep. His ribs pressed sharp against his skin, hunger gnawing at him like a second heartbeat.
A few feet away, Jace leaned against the wall, arms crossed, dried blood cracking on his temple. He'd taken a hit from a patrol drone earlier, and the silence since had been suffocating. No words left to waste. No energy left to argue.
"He's not getting better," Jace finally muttered, voice rough as gravel.
Lucian didn't respond, he just stayed mute and turned his gaze to the broken window aa light rays spills through and illuminates the old rusty room,deep in thoughts.
Four Nights Ago
Kia had waited until they were both asleep,if you could call it that. These days, Lucian's rest came in jagged fragments, his body jerking awake every few minutes, heart slamming against his ribs like a trapped thing. They were starving. The last can of water had been split three ways, though none of them had the strength left to protest.
Then the soft click of the door.
Lucian's eyes snapped open. The space beside him was empty.
"Kia?" No answer. Just the hollow echo of his own voice.
He cursed under his breath, yanking on his boots and cloak. Jace was already up, blade in hand.
They found him hours later, curled behind a shattered cart, half-buried in debris. A slick trail of blood led away from him,maybe dragged, maybe crawled. His side was a mess of crimson, his breathing wet and ragged.
Lucian dropped to his knees beside him, panic clawing up his throat. "What the hell happened to you?
Kia's lips twitched in something that might've been a smile, if not for the blood staining his teeth. "Found... bread," he rasped.
Jace spotted a weird sign engraved on a wall close by, a clean puncture, edges blackened. " The Shocher's tracker spike," he said, voice tight. "That means they're close."
A chill slithered down Lucian's spine. The Shochers weren't just a distant threat anymore. They were hunting!
Back in the suffocating dark of their hideout, Lucian paced like a caged animal while Jace worked cleaning the wound with what little they had: scraps of gauze, wire sterilized in flame.
By the second day, Kia's breaths had turned shallow.
By the third, it was clear he wouldn't last without a miracle.
That's when Lucian made his choice.
He knelt beside Kia, unwrapping the bandage with unsteady hands. The wound had festered, veins spidering black beneath his skin. No time left.
Jace watched from the doorway, arms crossed. "You're really gonna use that thing?"
"If I don't, he dies."
"That thing drain's your vitality whenever it is being triggered and you're already hollowed out. Push it, and you might not come back."
Lucian didn't answer. He pressed his palms to Kia's chest, closed his eyes, and reached for the ember of power buried deep inside him.
The surge was instant violent, searing, hungry. Light erupted from his hands, blueish and pulsing, threading into Kia's veins like liquid fire. Kia gasped, back arching, body seizing as life flooded back into him.
And Lucian burned.
Every second was agony, his own strength unraveling, siphoned into Kia's broken body. Minutes stretched into eternity.
When it was over, Lucian collapsed and darkness swallowed him whole.
He woke up after three days with a gasp, ribs screaming as if they'd been cracked open.
Kia was sitting upright on a dirty looking mattress, alive but his eyes were hollow, his hands clenched into fists. "You shouldn't have done that," he whispered.
Lucian groaned, dragging himself upright. "You didn't leave me a choice."
"I left because you were starving yourself!" Kia's voice cracked. "You think I didn't notice? Skipping your rations? Giving me your share?"
"So you thought dying was the better option?"
"I thought I could help." Kia's fists trembled. "I didn't plan to walk into a nest of Shocher tripwires. I just..."
"You could've died." Lucian's voice broke. "You still might have."
Silence. Then, softer: "What did it cost you?"
Lucian turned away. "Nothing much."
Kia's breath hitched. "Lucian..."
"Don't." Lucian stood, swaying slightly. "No guilt. Not now. You're alive. That's what matters."
Kia's shoulders slumped. "For how long?"
Lucian didn't answer.
That evening, Lucian stood before a cracked mirror, winding a bandage around his shoulder. The face staring back was older. New lines carved around his eyes, his hair dull, skin ashen.
Core healing didn't just drain energy. It stole time. Years he'd never get back.
He exhaled sharply, pulling on his cloak. Behind him, Kia stirred. "You're going out?"
Lucian nodded. "You're in no shape to move. Jace is still healing. That leaves me."
"I can come"
"You're staying." Lucian's voice left no room for argument. "I already gave enough. I'm not losing you now."
Kia's jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
Jace appeared in the doorway, shadows bruising his eyes. "Take the short blade. If you see Shocher signals, run."
Lucian nodded. Then he was gone.
Outside, the wind howled through the skeletal remains of the city, carrying the scent of decay and metal. Lucian moved like a ghost through the alleyways, his pulse a steady drum in his ears. The Shochers were close. Their tracker tech didn't fail. That spike in Kia's side meant they'd been seen.
Which meant they were being hunted. Lucian pressed on.
High above, nestled in the steel bones of a dead tower,A red haired woman was watching.
Marinette. The Shochers' most lethal blade.
Her red hair was a whip of fire in the dying light, her armor gleaming like a predator's teeth. Her eyes were sharp as knives.she scanned the ruins below. She'd seen movement earlier. A flicker. A shadow.
Lucian. The boy with the cursed blood. The one they'd been ordered to erase.
But he'd vanished too quickly.
Her comm crackled. "Any sign?"
"No," she lied, voice cold. "Not yet."
"The spike was triggered. We had a lock."
"I said not yet."
She killed the comm. This kill was hers.
Because according to her if Lucian lives, the entire realm would burn.
Back in the dim, Kia stared at the empty doorway.
"Come back in one piece," he whispered.
At the window, Jace said nothing.
They both hoping he will .