“We’re breaking them out,” Skylar announced to the others one morning once the days without the others had made the pain unbearable.
She was met with three different responses at once.
“What?” Alice asked, confused as she had just woken up.
“Are you crazy?” Peter sounded exasperated, staring at Skylar as if she was mad.
“Let’s do it,” Adalene said, her expression neutral yet determined.
“We’re breaking them out,” Skylar repeated, “I’m not asking you, any of you to come with me, but I’m going to get Luke and the others out of there. Today.”
Alice nodded, and Skylar knew Adalene was prepared for a fight.
Peter sighed. “Alright, alright, let’s do this. But what’s your plan?”
Skylar told them it would be basically the same as what they had done the last time they had tried to break the prisoners out, the time which had ended in the capture of three of their group.
“What?” Peter repeated, “Skylar, that didn’t work. That’s why we’re in this mess in the first place. This is never going to work.”
“It will because they won’t be expecting us to repeat the same plan as the previous attempt,” she told him, “Look, you don’t have to come with us, but I’m going to get them back. I have to.”
“Skylar,” Alice’s tone was gentle, “I know you want them back. I mean, we all do, but…don’t you think your emotions might mess with this plan a little bit? We can help you come up with something if you want.”
“No,” Skylar shook her head, “No, I can do this myself. I’ve come up with plans many times before, this is no different. And my emotions aren’t messing with this. I need them back just as much as you guys.”
“But zis is more to you,” Adalene stated, “Your lover is in prison. Perhaps it is best to let ze others make the plan.”
At the sound of the word “lover,” Skylar’s face flushed, but she knew that Adalene had a point. Maybe it was best to let them take the lead.
“Fine,” she sighed, “Fine, you guys can come up with the plan.”
…
Before she knew it, Skylar found herself in front of a cell door. One of the hundreds of others. But she knew that this was the one.
She opened the door to find Luke crumpled in a corner, his left arm gripped to his chest.
“Luke,” Skylar gasped as she rushed into the cell, cupping his face in her hands.
“Oh, Luna, are you okay?” Skylar began to panic as she searched his eyes, and her answer came in a smile.
“Hey, Skye,” Luke smiled, his face, although bloody and bruised, still retained his smile.
“What did they do to you?” she asked him, her heart gripped with fear.
Her hand grazed his arm, causing him to gasp in pain. “Luke…”
“I’ll be…” he gasped out, “fine. Don’t worry about me…”
She knew that he was lying, that something was incredibly wrong with his arm. But Skylar needed to get him out of there, and fast. Grabbing his right arm, she helped Luke up off the floor and placed his arm over her shoulder.
It was like at the beginning of this journey when Luke had gotten sick because he gave her his cloak. But now, he was in here because he had turned around to help Richard and Helen. And Skylar hadn’t followed him.
She wouldn’t let him out of her sight again.
It was harder to carry him out of the cell without Richard’s help, and Skylar found herself struggling to keep Luke off the ground. He was weak and nearly dead weight against Skylar’s side, but she held him up despite herself.
“Sorry…” Luke murmured, his smile still bright, “Don’t wanna…be a burden…”
“No,” Skylar turned back to him, “You are not a burden. Don’t you ever tell yourself that. And, besides,” she struggled to say as she took her first few steps across the cell, “I would never leave you.”
Luke was quiet, however, his expression was unsure.
“But…” he protested, “You did leave me, Skylar.”
She stopped, biting her lip. Skylar knew this conversation was inevitable, but not here. Not now. “Luke…”
“I know…I know,” he nodded, “But…whether you wanted to or not...whether it was to protect me or not…you left me, Skylar. You…left me.”
“When you let go on the Cliffs of Abdomes…” he continued, “It…broke me. I don’t know if it was…because of my father…or because I cared about you too much…but it broke me. I wasn’t the same after that.”
“I know,” Skylar answered, ashamed.
“But…” Luke’s fingers grazed her face, his eyes filled with awe and wonder, “You’re back. I found you…and you’re back.”
Skylar blinked back the tears, remembering all the pain she’d gone through to be here with him at this point. She remembered Sebastian and his father, Tobias, and how she had ruined their lives by just being there.
Skylar still hadn’t told Luke and the others about them.
“Luke, I-”
“Hey!” came a shout in the hallway as a guard spotted Skylar trying to desperately hold Luke up.
“Put me down,” Luke pleaded with her, his eyes filled with fear, “Put me down, Skylar.”
She was conflicted, knowing that Luke was hardly in any condition to sit, let alone stand.
“You’re not supposed to be out of your cell,” the soldier continued, and she finally helped Luke down, making sure that he was sitting against the wall.
Drawing her bo staff, Skylar stood defensively in front of Luke, her face set as she glared at the guard in front of her.
He drew his own sword, standing at the end of the hallway as Skylar prepared for a fight to ensue.
The man charged at her, his blade aimed for Skylar’s chest, but she easily blocked his attack.
Holding her own against the soldier, it became a game of block and attack, each of them switching between who would block and who would attack.
As Skylar tried to block another swing from his sword, the edge of the blade grazed her left hand, causing her to let go of the bo staff.
Dodging away from another strike, she pulled her hunting knife out of her sheath and desperately tried to fend him off.
It was harder to fight against a sword with a smaller blade, and Skylar found herself closer to danger by the second. She just hoped the others were nearby and could hear the chaos ensuing.
The adrenaline began to kick in, and she blocked the soldier’s next attack with a struggle, his blade grinding against hers that made her grit her teeth in concentration. He disarmed her again, knocking the knife out of Skylar’s hand but she swooped her leg in another kick, knocking his legs out from under him.
Reaching for the knife, Skylar jumped for it only for the soldier to grab her legs. She turned as he tried to pick up his sword.
Kicking her foot, Skylar continued to reach for the knife, its handle mere inches away from her fingers. The soldier pulled himself up a bit, his hand still locked around Skylar’s ankle.
She was closer to the knife, her fingers just grazing the handle, only to be met with an arm across her neck, preventing the air from getting to her lungs. Skylar gasped for breath as he grabbed for his own knife, she desperately reached for hers.
Just as her eyes were beginning to go black as consciousness faded from her, her fingers gripped the knife’s handle, and she brought its blade deep into the soldier’s back.
He grunted in pain, falling off of Skylar as she struggled to breathe. The soldier groaned for a moment on the ground, before his face slowly becoming devoid of life.
Panting from the adrenaline and panic, Skylar sat as a pool of blood poured from the fallen soldier’s body onto the stone floor. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think, just sat there. She didn’t even want to retrieve the knife.
The blood touched her hand on the ground, its warmth a disgusting sentiment as she knew that the soldier’s body would soon become cold as the life left it.
She’d killed someone. She’d just killed another person.
Skylar wanted to stop, to cut herself off from the world as her body began to shake uncontrollably but was brought back at the sound of Luke’s voice.
“Skye…” she looked over to see Luke struggling to stand, leaning heavily against the wall. Skylar pushed herself up, wiping the blood off on her shirt before picking up her bo staff and lifting Luke’s arm over her shoulder once again.
“Are you…” his voice was still weak, but the concern was clear as day, “going to be…alright?”
She still stared blankly into the distance, in complete and utter shock after what she had just done. At least with the death of the witch, she had been at a distance, shooting her with an arrow. But this…this was closer. More personal.
“I…” she began to say, wanting to tell the truth. That she was not alright. That she would never be alright. She had killed two people now, and that didn’t sit right with her.
But Luke hadn’t killed a single person. He wouldn’t understand. And besides. She didn’t want to worry him.
“I’ll be fine,” she attempted to smile, taking a note from him as she knew that whenever he was truly in pain, he would make an attempt to smile. But Skylar knew that she was failing miserably.
Luke frowned, confirming Skylar’s worries that he had seen through her mask. He knew that she was suffering and wouldn’t let anyone in to help. It was something she struggled with greatly.
“Skylar!” Peter’s shout came from across the hall. “Are you guys-” he stopped. He didn’t seem surprised by the sight of Luke, as he was one of the people they were looking for. But Peter’s eyes trailed over at Luke’s left arm, hanging limp at his side as he leaned against Skylar. They glanced over at the spot where Skylar had rubbed off the soldier’s blood.
“What…what happened?"
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