A Court of Light and Embers

Chapter Seven

I was still not fully in the corporal world. Dragging a groaning Aelin along with me, I scrambled down the identical, white hallways.

Panting, I stumbled to a halt as we reached a large pair of glass doors. Swearing, I sent a blast of fire at the glass, but it didn't break.

"The card," Aelin gasped, a hand shoved against the wound in her thigh. "Here."

I grabbed the blood-splattered card from her hand and swiped it over a metal pad. The doors slid open, and we kept running.

"Feyre," Aelin whispered. "We need to get that bit of metal out of me."

"We can't stop now," I panted, turning us down another corner.

"No... You don't understand. Its iron. It weakens my magic."

I let out a sharp breath. I spotted a small broom closet to our left. "In here."

Aelin crashed onto the floor as I shut the door behind us, that horrible ringing noise giving me a headache.

Aelin panted, gasping as she held her thigh. "Here," she said, handing me a lock-picking kit. "Use these to get it out."

I held up my other hand, and a sphere of light materialised. As it did, I set a shield around us, making sure no-one could get into the room. I gingerly took the sharpest tool I could find.

"We need to wash the wound first," I said, looking around the closet for some water. Buckets, mops, cleaning rags... And water pipes climbing the grimy walls. Using another lock-picker, I slammed it into the pipe, and water burst from it. Slowing it down before it soaked us, I kept a small sphere in my palm as I froze over the small hole, sealing the rest inside.

Dropping to my knees beside her, I gently tipped some of the water I had onto the cleanest rag I could find, then swiped over the wound, washing away the blood. Aelin gritted her teeth, breathing hard.

Once clean, I studied the hole, where a decent sized tube of metal was stuck in her flesh. "This is going to hurt," I warned, lifting the sharp tool.

"Just do it," Aelin ground out. Taking a sharp inhale, I poked the tool into her thigh.

Aelin whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut tight as I struggled to pull the disk from her flesh. Though my Fae eyesight helped, it was still hard to discern the metal through her dark blood.

"Almost... got.. it," I said, biting my lip. Aelin screamed through her teeth, a muffled, pain-filled sound as I dragged the iron from her skin. She slumped as I chucked it into a nearby bucket.

"Here," I said in a hurry, grabbing some bandages I had managed to find. I gently bandaged her leg in the white cotton, halting the bleeding.

"I don't need that-" Aelin started, but I cut over her.

"Yes, I know your body will naturally heal. But you said iron is your weakness, right? Then it will take longer for the wound to close over. So this is just to protect it from infection. Okay?"

Aelin nodded her head, gingerly getting to her feet. Colour had already started to bloom in her face again. "Let's go."

~

Aelin had to admit, Feyre was a decent doctor. Her leg felt a hundred times better as they sprinted down the white halls.

"How do we get out of here?" Feyre panted as they stopped for a breath. Though they had encountered multiple other guards, they had taken them down easily. Thankfully, none of them had sustained any injuries from the attacks.

An idea hit Aelin. Grabbing Feyre's hand, she lead her blindly down another hallway. Yes. A large stairwell stood before them, leading upwards. "We need to go to the roof. That way we can avoid the guards who might be looking for us on the street."

Four more spiralling staircases followed, and by the time the burst onto the roof, they were both soaked in their own sweat. Resting her hands on her knees, Aelin drew large gulps of cool, fresh air into her lungs. "We made it," Feyre panted, swiping the back of her hand over her dripping forehead.

"Not just yet," Aelin said, pointing out over the horizon. Hundreds of tall, high-rise buildings loomed before them, ominous and threatening. "We need to get as far away as possible from this prison and find the Star the prophecy said."

Feyre nodded. "We'll find a place to rest for tonight, then get going in the morning. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted."