Fire Breather

97.

//This chapter is free of any Onyx Storm spoilers (except Sawyer's recovery) so enjoy before I start posting spoilers in the future chapters!//

   "MOM?" Voice raspy and my head spinning, my knuckles knocked against the wooden door that kept me locked out in the hallway while I desperately tried to get through to the woman on the other side. The same woman who hadn't said a word to me since she was informed of her son's death four days ago. "Mom, please?"

For the last two hours, I had been sitting on the hard floor under my feet, tears silently falling down my face as I tried and failed to hear a single sound from behind the door.

I knew my adopted mother was suffering. She hadn't eaten. She hadn't left the room. Not even a damn sound came from inside.

And it was tearing me apart.

"Just talk to me, please?" I begged, putting more force into the next series of knocks, the abyss of abandonment and guilt growing deeper in my heart. "We can't keep going like this, ma. Just let me in to apologize. Let me make this right."

Once again, I was met with silence.

My legs were already weak with exhaustion from the lack of sleep I had been getting between worrying about my mom and Xaden, who had barely spoken to me.

My brother was keeping a low profile and I understood why, knowing that if anyone caught a glimpse of his eyes when they weren't normal, then he would be executed—which wasn't a fucking option.

But while he was keeping a low profile, he was also keeping me at a distance from him, for my own safety.

It didn't matter to him that I was possibly in the same situation, even though the red ring in my eye had faded just hours after the battle and I felt completely normal.

Despite feeling like myself—not including the tumbling emotions through my body—I couldn't help but often wonder what was happening to me.

Was I turned?

Was I half-turned?

Was being half-turned even a damn thing?

I was overwhelmed with so many questions and drowning in my emotions with no one around to save me.

Axel was dead.

Liam was dead.

Sloane closed herself away.

Garrick was always with my brother.

Bodhi was researching.

And I was utterly alone.

"Please," I breathed, resting my forehead against the door, struggling to take in a deep breath. "He wouldn't want this," I whispered, unable to suppress the shuddering sob that came seconds later, aching my lungs.

"Maybe she's asleep?" a soft voice suggested from behind me, followed by light footsteps.

I didn't bother to lift my head or check who it was as I sunk down to my knees. "She never sleeps when her dragon is away and he was seen flying away this morning," I quietly said, squeezing my eyes shut. "She's in there. I can feel it." Shaking my head, I pressed my palm against the door, opening my eyes. "Please, ma, talk to me."

No one answered behind the door and defeat washed over me like since we won the battle that took more lives than I could count.

"Come on, Little Riorson." A hand hooked under my arm, but I harshly shoved it away, feeling a jolt of her power rush through me before I looked up, locking eyes with Mira Sorrengail.