The Exodus

by Ali Winters

  Kain closed his eyes and sighed inwardly as it hit him. It wasn’t just his heart hurting from their fight the night before they left for the island. He’d been selfish for acting as if he was the only one to deal with the consequences of his words, and her lack of them. Of course she cared for him, Kain had always known she had. Demanding she say something before she was ready had been self-centered on his part.

  “I’m sorry,” Nivian spoke so quietly that he almost missed it. Her apology caught him off guard. She was wringing her hands, a habit she had when she was nervous. Kain wanted to reach out and place a hand over hers to still her movements and comfort her, but there were still things that needed to be cleared up first. “I shouldn’t have stayed quiet, you deserve better than that,” she added.

  Ahead of them, Jack cleared his throat loudly, distracting Kain. “This can’t be the right way, we should turn back.”

  “How would you know?” Camira spit out, earning a glare from the man.

  “Why are you here?” Jack demanded through gritted teeth.

  “Look, Hunter, I don’t need your approval. I’m so sick and tired of being questioned like this. Why is everyone so blind to what I can do when she’s around?” Camira snapped, her finger shooting out toward Nivian who stood wide-eyed and slack-jawed at them dragging her into their argument.

  It was a strange thing to say. It wasn’t just that Camira didn’t like to be questioned. She clearly blamed Nivian for more than he could possibly know about. These feelings weren’t new, but had been festering for a long time and explained the way Camira had been treating her.

  Azira and Nivian both looked questioningly to Kain. He knew he wore the same look upon his face at the heated exchange.

  “I’m going back to find a path that will lead us somewhere, who knows where you’re trying to take us.” Jack turned and pushed his way past everyone. Azira stumbled against the rocky wall as he shoved her to the side. Kain barely managed to pull Nivian out of the way of the furious man.

  “Jack, wait!” Azira called as he disappeared around the bend.

  “You should just let him go,” Camira grumbled.

  Azira faced Camira. “I appreciate you helping us, but we need him. I’m bringing him back. Just give me a minute.”

  Kain grimaced as he watched Camira glare at Azira behind her back as she passed them. While he knew it was safer for them to be five rather than three, he couldn’t help but wonder how much more peaceful this would have been if it had only been him, Nivian, and Azira. The animosity and attitudes from Jack and Camira were exhausting to be around.

  A movement in the peripheral of his vision drew his gaze back to Camira. Before he had a chance to process the movement, a low rumbling sounded. Dirt rained down from above as the ground began to shake, first only a soft vibration, then violently. An earthquake?

  Nivian fell against his side and cried out. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed their bodies against the side of the tunnel. Larger clumps of hardened dirt fell, striking his arms and back.

  Rocks rolled down the slopping path. A scream echoed through the cave over the thunderous sound of the crumbling tunnel. “Azira!” he called out. She had run into the thick of the collapse after Jack. “Jack!”

  As suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

  Nivian’s hands grasped at the front of his shirt. He looked down to check her, and found wide, ice blue eyes staring up at him. A layer of dirt covered her, but no cuts marred her skin. “Nivi?”

  “I’m fine,” she interrupted him.

  Kain nodded then stood, helping her up with him. He brushed a hand down her hair, smoothing it and assuring himself that she was okay. She was a Reaper. “Stay here,” he said, then dropped his hand and ran down the tunnel. “Azira! Jack!” he called out again.

  The tunnel they’d come down was dark, and many of the pale green stones that had lit the way had come loose and were covered in other debris or shattered. A black wall of rock loomed ahead.

  He squinted into the dark adjusting his sight. Two forms lay on the ground. Kain’s feet skidded to a halt and he fell to his knees next to Azira’s body. Footsteps sounded behind him. Nivian let out a gasp falling to the ground next to him. Azira’s chest rose up and down, the movement was barely noticeable in the dim light, but it was there. Cuts marked her face, and her pulse was strong.

  “Make sure she’s okay,” Kain said pushing off the ground and falling to Jack’s side. A knot formed in his stomach when he realized that heavy rocks covered the man’s lower body. He began rolling them off Jack’s unconscious body.

  “What happened?” Azira asked weakly.

  Kain ignored her, focusing on trying to free their companion. His hands bled from multiple cuts caused by the jagged edges, but he didn’t notice. He didn’t care. He remained focused on his task.

  Jack coughed violently as Kain removed the last of the earth from his chest. Nivian and Azira joined him and moved to uncover his legs.

  “Can you hear me?” Kain asked as Jack tried to move. Blood dripped from his mouth. The man’s face was almost unrecognizable through the swelling and bruising. They wouldn’t be able to move forward with his injuries as bad as they were. Kain’s mind raced, searching for a solution.

  “Kain,” Azira said, her hand grabbing tightly to his arm, forcing him to look. He followed her gaze to Jack’s left side. Blood darkened his shirt, spreading like a fire through a dead forest, a broken stalactite jutted out of his hip. His leg bent at a sickening angle in the middle of his thigh.

  “Get this off me,” Jack demanded, his head rolled from side to side as his fingers grasped at the ground.

  “Don’t move,” Kain said, unable to tell him that they’d already cleared his body.

  There was no way they could go back the way they’d come. The entire tunnel behind them had caved in. Kain’s eyes sought out Nivian’s. She turned her face away and he knew Jack wouldn’t make it.

  “Well, there’s clearly no hope, we should get going now,” Camira said as if discussing the weather.

  “What? We aren’t going to just leave him here like this!” Kain stood to face the cold-hearted Reaper.

  A strange glint sparked in her too-wide gaze. Camira was staring down at Jack. He groaned and writhed on the ground. Her mouth twitched causing an unsettled feeling to wash over Kain.

  Camira wove her hand through the air, and a bright golden light lit the cave. The glowing thread made his eyes water, but it captured his attention and he was unable to look away.

  “Cami?” Nivian whispered. “Stop. What are you doing?”

  NIVIAN

  Camira exposed Jack’s life thread.

  “Cami!” Nivian yelled, but all eyes remained fixed on the hypnotizing thread that floated above them.

  “It’s too late for him, Nivian. Shouldn’t a Silencer know when it’s time?” Camira asked, emphasizing Silencer.

  She was right; it was too late, but… “No watch.”

  “What are you gibbering about?” Camira snapped as the thread pulsed in the air.

  “We don’t have a watch for him, you can’t reap him here.”

  Nivian looked to the closest friend she’d had for centuries. She looked like the same Reaper, but in that moment, bathed in the light of a Hunter’s life force, Nivian didn’t recognize her. She watched in horror as Camira pulled her scythe from her pocket and expanded it. Without hesitation, without an ounce of uncertainty, she swung the blade and severed his life.

  A last, soft breath of air passed through Jack’s lips and his heart halted forever. The life force curled in on itself at Camira’s commands.

  “How?” Nivian asked as she stood and closed the distance between them. Camira ignored her.

  The energy floated, hovering between them and moving ever closer to the one who’d severed it. With a flick of her wrist, Camira called the energy to her.

  “Cami, no! You can’t do that!” Nivian shouted, but it was too late. It sank into her chest as she gasped,
tilting her head back as she absorbed the power as only a Reaper’s watch was meant to.

  Nivian fell to her knees as a wave of vertigo possessed her, throwing her universe off center. She caught herself with her hands, and panted as she waited for the world to right itself.

  “Nivian, are you okay?” Kain asked as he gripped her shoulders and pulled her into his chest.

  Black moved in on the edges of her vision as tension invaded her body. She wanted to be sick. Kain’s voice continued to reach her, but she couldn’t focus on his words. It felt as though she was underwater and the world had gone hazy. She was drowning in pressure that threatened to suffocate her.

  “I don’t see a watch here for him, do you?” Camira’s sharp voice broke through the force holding her down, and popping it like a bubble.

  “No,” Nivian admitted and allowed Kain to help her to her feet. “We can’t do that. His life force can’t be renewed now.”

  “His life force would have vanished and wouldn’t have been renewed anyway. It would have upset the balance. Nivi, don’t you care?” Camira spoke to her as if she were a child. “He can live on through me now.”

  It wasn’t right, as much as Nivian didn’t want the energy wasted, what Camira did was wrong. Caspian and Silas would never have permitted this. It was a transgression against their ways.

  “Look, he was never going to make it, and it’s over and done with now, so there’s no point in debating it further. Do you want to find Silas or not? Because sitting here crying over a Hunter that clearly hated you isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

  Tears formed in Nivian’s eyes. What had happened to the sweet girl she’d known since her beginning, since the day Silas had created her? Cami had always been her best friend, but this Cami was cold and angry.

  Nivian knew she’d been a terrible friend to Camira. The anger that rolled of her in waves was because she’d been left on the brink of destruction. She never even asked Cami how she’d escaped, never asked what she’d gone through. Could there have been a good reason for her to take in the life force? Was it possible that she knew something that Nivian didn’t?

  Kain squeezed Nivian’s hand and pulled her into him. “Az, are you okay?” he asked over her head, his fingers soothingly running through Nivian’s long hair.

  “Yeah, I’m a little banged up, but I’m fine. I can walk.” Though her words were confident and calm, tears spilled down her cheeks. Azira’s face was already flushed red from crying.

  Nivian turned her face from Kain’s chest and rested her cheek against his shirt that was covered in a thick layer of dirt. Azira’s eyes were locked on Jack’s lifeless body.

  Shamed by Camira’s actions, Nivian couldn’t bear to look at the fallen Hunter.

  Without another word, Camira turned from them and walked back down the way they’d been headed. After a moments pause, Kain, Azira, and Nivian, followed silently after.

  Nivian allowed Kain to keep his arm wrapped around her waist, lending her desperately needed stability as her mind wandered over the events that had unfolded. Kain and Azira hadn’t fought Camira’s reaping. She was right about that. It had been too late, and they could not leave him to suffer in a state between living and dead for an unknown amount of time. Reaping had been the right thing to do. Kain and Azira didn’t know enough about their ways to understand the gravity of Camira absorbing the power into herself. Even Nivian didn’t know the ramifications of such an action.

  Nivian chewed on her lip as she tried to figure out what she would have done in her place. To let the life force vanish into nothing, fading without a vessel to hold it or…?

  Taking energy into herself like that had never crossed her mind. She didn’t think it would be possible. She would seek Caspian’s council the first chance she got. She didn’t want Camira to get in trouble, especially not with everything she’d gone through in the past months, but Nivian couldn’t let her do something that would jeopardize the balance.

  Time passed, but the darkness of her thoughts consumed her and she wasn’t sure how long it had been.

  “Wha—” Azira muttered.

  Kain turned, letting go of Nivian. She moved with him to face Azira whose puffy face was now gasping down at the compass in her hand.

  “What is it?” Kain asked.

  “My compass… I just pulled it out to look at it and—it’s going crazy!” Her sharp eyes met theirs.

  “What does that mean?” Nivian asked.

  “Yeva is near.” Azira swallowed audibly.

  “Hello!” Camira’s shrill voice called to them. “What are you doing now?”

  “I’m getting a reading,” Azira said harshly.

  “Ooh, a reading!” Camira mocked. “How about we get moving? We don’t have all day!”

  Nivian pursed her lips but said nothing, entranced with the dancing needle and the implications that came with it. Knowing Yeva was near complicated things even more. Was she involved with Silas’s disappearance after all?

  She blinked rapidly when Azira placed the device back in her pocket.

  Kain and Azira followed Cami, but Nivian hung back trailing behind. Camira’s personality had changed, she was harsh and upset, but she was still helping. There was still some part of her old friend that remained. Nivian frowned. She felt terrible, and she vowed to do everything possible to right the wrongs she’d done to Cami. But her attitude was beginning to worsen the further they went. She could only hope it wasn’t a side effect of taking energy in like she had.

  Minutes later, they rounded a bend in the tunnel and stopped short. A yawning opening waited yards ahead of them. Bright light shone through, blinding Nivian temporarily after spending so much time in the dark.

  An ancient city of ruins with a sky like the ocean was on the other side. It was magnificent in its beauty. The architecture, though crumbling, still spoke of a more powerful time. A time when power and life was new and the world was still settling into its existence.

  Camira moved into the light and strode forward without fear or caution.

  “Cami, stop!” Nivian gasped, her hand reaching out to grasp her friend but she was already out of reach. She pulled back as if the light would burn her. “What are you doing?”

  “Yeva’s somewhere out there, stop!” Azira hissed.

  The three of them called to Camira as she stepped into the open space, but she didn’t heed them.

  Exposed in the bright light, she stopped to look back at them. A brief look of shock crossed her face before dropping to a bored expression as she turned away and continued walking.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  NIVIAN

  CAMIRA STEPPED OUT into the open, not heeding their cries to stop. Nivian’s breath caught in her throat as she watched on in horror.

  “What is she thinking?” Azira bit out. “She’s going to blow our cover!”

  No signs of life presented themselves as Camira walked confidently into the open space. Nivian wondered if it was possible that Yeva wasn’t as close as Azira had thought. Either way, she couldn’t just let Cami go out there alone. She owed it to her friend to accompany her.

  Nivian stepped away from the shadows and walked toward the opening, stopping only when Kain grabbed her hand.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, his brows drawn in concern.

  “I can’t just let her go alone,” Nivian confessed. She knew it was unwise to follow her friend, but her heart demanded she try and make up for the wrongs she’d committed to their friendship.

  “It’s too risky. We don’t know if Yeva’s out there waiting for you, or…”

  Nivian placed her other hand on Kain’s face and smiled. “I’ll be fine, I promise. We can’t hide forever. We’re running out of time to find Silas.”

  Kain dropped his hand and nodded. “Okay, Az and I will go with you then.”

  “Get out here and stop being so scared of everything,” Camira yelled back at them.

  Nivian cringed and ran out of the cover of shadows. The oth
ers caught up seconds later. Camira was asking for them to get caught. She looked at them with amusement, one corner of her mouth lifting into a half smile.

  Light danced on the ground, shadows swirled and swayed. It was unlike anything she’d seen before. Clouds had never moved in such a way. Nivian looked skyward and her jaw dropped in wonderment. The ocean hovered above them, fragmented light moved in slow, graceful movements. Shadows danced ahead, created by a school of fish. All this was held at bay by a force unknown to her.

  Sometime during their walk through the edge of the city, Kain had taken her hand. The small comfort helped calm the knots that had formed in her stomach.

  They climbed the steps that led to a central square, surrounded by broken buildings that Nivian assumed to have been the city’s center. She could almost feel the specters of the people who had spent their lives walking this space, trading, living, loving, and eventually, dying. She ran the fingertips of her free hand along the stonewalls that had remained standing, the surfaces smoothed over by the trials of time.

  Whimpering pulled Nivian’s attention from her examination of the city. Five humans covered in a layer of grime sat against a wall. Their hands and ankles bound as they huddled together, trying to vanish into their surroundings. Across the way, a figure dressed in a pale green gown with long auburn hair falling down her back in waves, stepped into view, followed by a figure in black.

  Silas? What is he doing here with Yeva?

  Kain, Azira, and Nivian, ducked, hiding themselves behind a pillar. They exchanged glances.

  “What’s going on?” asked Kain. Nivian only shook her head, too confused to respond as she watched Camira continue walking forward.

  “Cami, get down!” she whispered harshly. “She’s going to see you.” Nivian’s heart pounded in fear for her friend. They’d known it was a possibility of crossing Yeva, but she wasn’t prepared for anything like this. From the confused expressions on the other’s faces, they hadn’t been either.