Exodus - The Khiara Banning Series Book Two

One

Cael

"No, no, no," my heart feels as if it has been discarded on the ground, shattered into a million pieces, and stomped on with a great amount of force. "You can't die, no, you can't."

"She's not dead, Camael. Stop!" Verchiel is talking to me but I can hardly hear anything.

"No!" It comes out as a choking sob, but I don't care. I don't care. I don't fucking care.

Khiara is gone.

I'm being pushed out of the way, I think. I'm not sure of anything anymore.

"She's still breathing! We need to get her to the hospital, now!" Shouts Cara.

Cara. She wants to be a nurse, doesn't she? When did she get here?

I close my eyes and let the tears fall. I don't know if I'm breathing anymore. It doesn't matter anyway, because I can't die. Not like that. I open my eyes to see Cara squatting in front of me. I can't find Khiara's body until I look around and see Leliel cradling her to his chest like he would his daughter.

"Cael," Cara says and my attention is drawn to her again, "we need to get her to the hospital. She's still alive. She didn't die. Do you know what that means?" I shake my head and she makes an agitated sound in the back of her throat, "She's in Limbo, Cael."

I want to tell her not to call me Cael; I don't want anybody to ever call me Cael again. That's what Khiara called me, it's my human name and I've never felt so unbearably human.

"I can't get through to him, he's catatonic and we need to get Khiara to the hospital now." And all of a sudden I'm being hefted into a car; Leliel's car. Lisa is crying in the seat next to me. I want to comfort her but I can't make myself move, can't make myself speak English. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recognize that Khiara is in the back part of the van with Cara, who is trying to heal her as much as she can.

Verchiel reaches over and strokes the crying girl's cheek. "It'll be okay," she says in our lilting language, and then realizing that Lisa doesn't understand, she repeats herself in English.

Lisa chokes out, "She's not dead is she?"

She looks over at me and Cara's words echo in my head.

Limbo. Khiara will be sent to Limbo. I break out of my stupor, if only slightly.

"No," I whisper, my voice hoarse.

Leliel's throat clears from the front, clearly having heard my thoughts, "Cam's not in his right mind, sweetheart, you know he loves Khiara very much."

"Yeah, well we all do," mutters Verchiel. I want to smile at that, because she's right, but I can only manage what probably looks like a grimace.

"Uncle Cam," says Sam from his seat next to me. "It's my fault she got hurt. I ran, and she was tryna catch me."

Somehow this snaps me out of my daze completely. "I don't blame you," I tell him, and his big eyes fill with tears. Sam whispers into my mind. But I know where she is. I can see it. She's falling. She's on her way to the Trials.

Oh. The trials.

How could I forget.