Grounding the Storm ✓

Chapter 36

I don't see Renit for the rest of the day. When he returns to his chambers, I'm already asleep, and the door is locked before I can get across the hall. I want to know what happened after I left and I want to talk to him about what will happen next. If there's a way for us to spare lives of innocents in the mines, then I want to do it.

Too many lives go to waste already and we can't lose anymore if this kingdom plans on staying afloat. With soldiers off to war, witches slaughtered in the streets, and slaves murdered around every corner, the number of witches left to sustain the future is little-all to come for Silas's reign. Unless that's the king's plan, to wipe out any bit of hope before it's taken away.

I find Renit's door unlocked the next morning when I'm dressed early and ready for a full day of training. And voices hum through the inside, from the wooden door. Relief spreads through me as the lock clicks but that sense is quickly ripped from me, my heart torn from my chest. I stop, my hand gripping so tight onto the knob I might break it off. There is Renit, sitting on a stool in the middle of the room-his back to me. And Hallie, standing in front of him, talking low.

Her whispering stops when she sees me. I'm frozen in the doorway, staring at Renit's back. He was whipped. After I left, the king whipped him. Streams of dried, caked blood cover a layer over the tattoos on his back and the red gashes are still dark and muddled against his skin. I clamp a hand over my mouth and bile sours my cheeks.

Whipped. Because of me. Because my power is too weak. Renit turns to look at me, his eyes cold, and a sob breaks loose from my throat at his black eye. The king beat him. His son, the prince.

They're both watching me as I sink back into the hall and bound down the stairs. I don't know how fast I'm moving or how I'm even able to make step after step when my knees threaten to buckle. Renit calls after me and footsteps follow, echoing off the stone walls in this confined stairway. I need to get out of here. My chest clenches and relaxes and breathing becomes difficult.

As I reach the bottom stair, ready to run, Renit grabs my arm from behind and pushes my back against the wall.

His hands wrap entirely around my forearms as he told tight and forces me to stare at his chest. I won't look at him, I will not. I will not look at his black eye or the wounds covering his back. I won't.

"Look at me," he growls.

I shake my head and lock my eyes onto the floor, on our boots. "No," I croak.

Hallie's heels click down the stairs a moment later. When she sees the battle I won't win, she says, "I'll give you two a minute."

"I'll summon you when I'm ready." Renit gives her a nod as she departs back down the hall, hips swaying as she goes.

Renit yanks me back up the stairs, forcing me to stare at his torn up back instead of allowing me to walk in front. He keeps a tight grip on my wrist, forcing the titanium band to dig farther and farther into my skin until it's burning and the tears in my eyes aren't just from the guilt but from the pain.

The door slams behind us once I'm in his chambers. He walks over to me, takes both of my shoulders, and sits me on the edge of his bed. My hands are shaking, my entire body is shaking, and I still can't find enough air in my lungs. Every breath is one I can't complete.

"Look at me," he orders again.

When I shake my head, whimpering quietly, he grabs my chin and forces me to look at his face. His hand is trembling around my skin and I realize he's afraid-of what I might think. I take a shuddered breath and reach up to brush my fingers along the swollen and bruised skin around his eye. He sighs and closes those glistening silver eyes as my hand drags back down to his split lip; Hallie had barely gotten the chance to apply a glistening salve against it before I burst in.