Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 36 - Hiraeth - Something and Nothing

"It's no use," I scream the second Kallisté's water freezes over the door. "She can't remember anything since he wiped her memory again. Usually, we'd be making progress on her family by now at least, but she can't even remember her own name. I hoped that by maybe forcing her to memorize the one thing that she always remembered while stuck here, that it'd boost her memory. But it hasn't! The Eternal talked about remaking her, and right now, I'd say he's closer than ever to doing so. Gods and their Saints be with us in the midst of this...this – insanity!"

Throwing my hands into the air, I look at Kallisté and find her staring at me blankly. Right. I'm talking to the one thing in the world who still thinks that there's hope. From where I'm standing, there's not much to be seen as good fortune for the girl. Or the rest of the world for that matter.

"What am I supposed to do?" I ask her.

Follow.

She turns around and heads to the right side wall. I half expect her to fade into darkness, but she doesn't. Instead, she lifts her paw and presses it against the stone. For a second nothing happens, but her light is illuminating the room showing a part of the wall sliding backward and then opening inward to reveal some kind of dark tunnel. It moves all in complete silence, which explains why I can never hear where she leaves from.

I walk over and peek into the darkness, half expecting torches to magically too. They don't, to my disappointment. "So this is how you've been getting in and out of here...Why are you showing me this now?"

Still the same word. Follow.

She starts walking down the dark tunnel, and with one last glance at the still ice-covered door, I do as she says.

I can't see anything in front or behind me aside from Kallisté, so I stick close to her side as we keep walking. It smells like mildew and moss and rat droppings in here. We pass a few other tunnels that veer off in other directions, but she keeps walking straight, so I don't let myself think about trying to venture down them. As we keep walking and don't seem to be stopping anytime soon, my mind wanders into keeping tabs on the girl.

Her heartbeat is still steady, but it's slower than it was a few days ago. I fear that taking her memory isn't the only thing that The Eternal is doing. Every time he does so he seems to kill her a little bit. Her heart will slow slightly, her skin will become paler and her body atrophy so all you see are her bones and places where the last of her muscle fibers try to hold strong. Her vanished memory isn't the only reason why I think she's soon to be beyond saving. She's beginning to look like nothing more than a skeleton with skin on it. She would've lasted maybe a cycle with her health before he wiped her clean again.

Now...days. She has days before her heart just gives out. I can't do more than heal the wounds that they make. Sure I'm gaining more strength with the food and water that Kallisté brings me, but most of it gets used to fix her after torture. What we both need is someone who has the power to heal her.

If I could get my hands on better materials, I could begin helping to strengthen her whole system, then, maybe, I could get her to hold on a little longer. But I'd need a crazy amount of them and time that the guards won't give me to administer them into her bloodstream. A few she'd have to swallow, and she can't swallow without hiking it all back up a minute later. She's dehydrated, weak, organ failure is rising to the surface, and nothing that I have can help her. The Eternal won't be able to remake her if she's dead, but maybe that's what needs to happen for him to get his "dozen mangled and wrongly duplicated facial featured" monster.

My mind keeps trying to imagine the possibilities. Scenarios in which involve the girl making a full recovery and not having red and black eyes. My head is so loud with them that I don't hear the voices echoing off the tunnel walls until my eyes catch on a light source that isn't coming from Kallisté.