average human’s Reviews > One Small Echo > Status Update

Eiko swore beneath her breath, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff. He eased himself against the front of her body, his big arms caging her against the counter. She loved the strength of Ren. The warmth of him. The corded muscles of his arms and back, and the smooth, deep voice that had girls flirting with him wherever he walked. Or maybe they flirted because of his face. It certainly wasn’t for his riches. His skin felt rough to her, his jaw firm and stubbled. His eyes always crinkled in a smile when she tried to trace them.
He lowered his lips to hers in a soft kiss. “Are you dressing up for the Kingsfete?”
“I’m Ky’s date for the dinner.” Her arms loosened, reaching up to twine about his neck. She pulled his head down for another kiss, savouring the scratch of his stubble against her chin and the flex of his fingers at her waist.
This thing between them was tentative, and since he was Kaito’s best friend, it was also a secret. Her brother would lose his mind if he ever found out. Still, it wasn’t exactly new. They had been playing this game for two years now. Two years, and it still felt fragile as a twig holding up against a strong wind.
“Should I be jealous?” Ren murmured against her lips.
“Very,” she assured him. “I’m going to be a lady. Lady Eiko. I only have to murder his older brothers, and then I can be the Lady of Stonesigh.”
He chuckled against her lips, but the sound melted into a groan as her nails caressed his scalp.
“Take this off,” he demanded quietly, deft fingers working the dress to hang from her shoulders.
“Actually,” she gently pushed him away, “I need your help to get it on.”
“Only if I can take it off later.”
“Only if you rip it off later.”
“Eiko,” he groaned.
“It’s Lady Eiko to you,” she teased, drawing a deep laugh from him that she wanted to hold close, cradled to her fluttering heart.
He helped her twist the dress around and lace it up properly before the squeak of Kaito’s bed indicated that he was stretching out to watch her tame her hair.
“Where’s Kaito?” he asked as she sat before the window, brushing the long, riotous curls that fell to her lap.
She loved to sit there with the dying rays of the sun teasing across her cheeks and forehead, waiting for the arrival of the nightjars and their trilling nocturnal song. Ren always stopped by around this time to make sure her house was full of light before the sun set—but it always was, because Rion always stopped by an hour earlier.
“He said he’d pick up an extra shift today, but he’ll still make the Kingsfete later,” she told him.
“Are you sure you want to go to this dinner?” Ren ventured after a few more moments. “Won’t they be hosting the entire royal family?”
“I doubt they’ll even notice me there,” she reassured him, though his words had sown a little seed of doubt.
What if she did more harm than good?
She gently pushed the thought aside, unfurling to her feet and padding over to the wardrobe. She only had two pairs of shoes. Boots and slippers, both in black. Choices were for people who could see them. She plucked out the slippers and pulled them on.
“How do I look?”
“Like a dream,” he purred. “Come here.”
“Ew, not on my brother’s bed.”
He was on her in a second, tackling her to her own bed, but a knock at the door had them both freezing. He sighed, his breath heating her cheek, before he planted a quick kiss to her lips and helped her up.
“Cane,” he said, pressing it into her hands.
“Thanks.”
“Have fun, Lady Eiko.”
“Thank you, peasant. You may escort me to the door if you wish.” She drew her hand through his arm, and he dutifully led her to the door, pulling it open.
“Eiko,” Ky sighed, “as my date, you can’t also bring a date.”
“This blithering lowborn was escorting me to my carriage,” she announced primly, pulling free from Ren and brushing off her hand as though afraid his poverty was catching.
She heard Ren biting back a laugh behind her. “Just came by looking for Kaito,” he explained. “Congratulations, Ky, on the engagement. And the murder of your older brothers.”
Ky made a sound halfway between a laugh and a groan. “You forgot my father,” he said, presumably to Eiko, “if your plan was to ascend to the top.”
“We can wait him out,” she assured him as he took her hand and led her from the house. “Introduce him to bacon, maybe?”
“He’s well-acquainted with bacon.”
“Cake?” she asked.
“That too.”
“Bacon cake?”
“I don’t believe he’s met bacon cake.”
She snapped her fingers. “Make it happen.” She planted her feet after a few steps down the road. “Where’s my carriage? I was promised a carriage.”
“You were promised an entrée,” Ky corrected.
“Not even dinner?”
“Not if you plan on murdering my entire family.”
“Your sisters can live,” she allowed. “And your younger brother. But if I hear the slightest glimmer of aspiration in his voice, then …” She drew her thumb across her throat.
“All right, killer.” He patted her hand, and then, after a moment, he added, “You look lovely.”
“So do you.”
He pinched the back of her hand.
“What?” she asked, feigning confusion. “I thought we were handing out meaningless platitudes?”
“I meant it, you asshole. You look nice.”
She grew quiet and contemplative. “My dress is black?”
“Like everything else you own, yes.”
“Then I look like I’m attending a funeral.”
He snorted. “Fine.”
“For your budding relationship,” she added.
“Asshole,” he reiterated. “I can’t believe I asked you to come tonight.”
“Rion would have been a better choice,” she agreed.
“But nowhere near as entertaining when she accidentally sets the curtains on fire.”
“Light protect us.”
He burst into laughter. “Light protect us,” he agreed. “Can you act like we’re in love?”
“Absolutely. Shall I call you darling?”
“Is that what Ren calls you?”
She gasped, shaking his arm. “That is a hateful rumour.”
“You told me six months ago when I had to carry your drunk ass home. You kept insisting his house was your house.”
“Guilty, darling.”
“Nope, that doesn’t work.”
“We can workshop it. Shall I stare at you adoringly?”
“Give it a try.” He stopped walking, and she turned to face him. After a moment, he clicked his fingers. “I’m over here.”
“Sorry.” She readjusted.
“Has it … started?” he asked.
“Yes. This is as adoring as I know how to look.”
“Eiko. This is the way you look at everything.”
“I adore everything. My heart is full of love.”
“Try harder.” He pinched her cheek. “Pretend I’m chocolate.”
She melted, her mouth watering.
“That works.” He sounded pleased. “Do that. Just make sure you’re doing it at me and not my brothers or sisters. Or my mother or father. Or the King of All. Or his sons. Or his wife. We don’t need anarchy.”
“Speak for yourself. The only thing I love more than chocolate is anarchy.”
“The fete is unpacking,” he said, ignoring her comment and taking up Rion’s job of describing everything as they strolled through the valley. “The train is shinier than ever. I think they’ve set out more fires than usual—are you cold?”
“I’m wearing a coat,” she pointed out.
“This is my first time courting a woman. I’m trying to be a gentleman. Looks like everyone’s waiting for the fortune teller to finish setting up. I think … yes, it’s the same one. The one with the wrinkled gold skin and the iron shackles. She’s the one who told us both we’d travel all over Lyra a few years ago, remember? She wore those big iron shackles and told us she was accused of being a witch and sentenced to death in Frostwail, but she gave herself over to the Kingsweep instead.”
Eiko did remember the woman. She had been full of tales, and there was no telling which of them were true. The people of Stonesigh didn’t go around accusing people of being witches and sentencing them to death, but Frostwail was a wholly different region.
Ky continued to describe the train and the gathering crowd until they reached the mountain, and then he fell into a nervous silence, escorting her into the great big stone hall, where the sounds of hurried footsteps and laughter seemed to bounce from one polished cavernous side to the other.
They walked up several staircases, with open windows cut into the rock at each landing. The Kingsfete was growing louder, the noises spilling in through the windows, along with the cold night air.
“Here goes nothing,” Ky whispered, stopping again.
They had paused outside a room, the muted sound of chatter floating out to them. Eiko squeezed his arm, trying to comfort him. He didn’t make any move to step forward or to open what she was fairly sure was a door.
“Ky?”
“Yeah?” he asked, voice suddenly sad.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I might stab your father with a dessert fork tonight for what he said to you.”
“I know.”
“Is that permission? It sounded like permission.”
He made an amused grunting sound. “Eiko?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re my best friend.”
“No, I will not marry you.” She shook her head in disapproval, and this time, his laugh was genuine.
He stepped forward, pushing the door open and muttering beneath his breath, “Here goes nothing.”

11%

She began to sweat, unsure how to address the speaker.
“She is, Your Grace,” Ky answered for her.
“I don’t see any scarring,” the queen mused. “Your eyes are such a striking colour. Like pearlescent clouds. Positively frightening.”
Eiko’s mouth popped open. She was at a complete loss for how to respond. Pearlescent clouds? What the fuck? Who speaks like that?
“Was it an accident, I wonder?” The queen spoke mildly, apparently not done with the subject. Was she just musing out loud, or asking?
Eiko had the distinct impression that the queen had become so bored over her husband’s discussion with Lord Erendi that she had decided to turn Eiko into her dinnertime entertainment.
She assumed she was supposed to supply an answer, so she did. “Yes, Your Grace.”
She waited.
The rest of the table waited.
They were all so quiet. Nobody was eating anymore.
“Well, go on.” The queen laughed, the sound a delicate tinkle. Eiko wondered if she also had another voice, like the king. She wondered if it would be as sharp as his, as heavy, when only a select few were listening.
“It was an encounter with the Quiet, Your Grace.”
The room had been silent before, but now it was worse. It almost sounded like everyone was holding their breath.
“You Silenced a monster?” the king demanded, his voice more distinct than anyone else’s at the table, a drop of sharpness leaking into his tone.
He had Silenced. She wasn’t sure why that thought occurred to her at that moment. Everyone knew the king was the most powerful man alive, that his monster was the most powerful monster alive, that his monster had gifted him more powers than she had fingers on her hands.
She hadn’t ever actually met a person who had successfully Silenced a monster. His tone had her questioning if there was some sort of law about it she wasn’t aware of.
“No, Your Grace.” She swallowed, so nervous she could be sick. “I refused to. The monster blinded me in retribution.”
“Refused, did you?” The king laughed like she was the funniest thing he had seen all day, even though most people’s first instinct would be to refuse an all-powerful, murderous monster attempting to fuse with their very mind and soul. “What did they offer you?”
That was extremely personal, but nobody at the table dared to intervene.
“A horse, Your Grace.”
“Just a … a horse?” a woman from across the table balked. “Light protect us, how disturbingly simple.”
Someone scoffed quietly towards the front of the table where the king and queen sat. “She speaks half-truths.” His voice was a deep roll of sound: velvety, lazy, bored.
“Where was the horse taking you?” the king demanded, catching on to the meaning of whoever had seen through her words.
“Anywhere,” she answered honestly, since the man with the deep, velvety voice had already called her out on her white lie. “Everywhere.”
“She wants to see the world.” That same snippy woman as earlier—most likely Ky’s sister—mocked her from across the table. “No wonder the Quiet blinded her. How … underwhelming. How simple.”
Eiko slipped her hand out of Ky’s and picked up a fork, holding it in her fist.
Call me simple one more time. I dare you, bitch.
Ky quickly confiscated the fork and recaptured her hand, his grip tight as he held it hostage beneath the table. She picked up her knife with her free hand, palming it in her fist and planting her fist against the table.
Go on, open your mouth again. Do it.
Further down the table, she could have sworn she heard a low male chuckle. That same velvety register as before. Whoever it was, there was something very magnetic about him, and she couldn’t even see him. All she knew was that her ears were pleasantly pricking, straining to hear more of that deep cadence with the rich, fluid Goldmoor accent. But he didn’t speak again, and they seemed to forget all about her after that, growing bored and moving on to other matters.
As soon as the royal family gathered to depart, Eiko and Ky slipped out, avoiding any parting words with Ky’s family.
“That was awful, as expected.” Ky spoke flippantly as they hurried down the steps again, Eiko’s cane knocking lightly against each one.
“I didn’t stab anyone,” she said. “That has to count for something.”
“You stabbed me. With a fork.”
“What a stupid place to put your hand. Right beside a blind person’s plate. I thought it was a pea.”
“You’re supposed to scoop peas. Not stab them.” He broke off into laughter. “It was hilarious to see their faces when you just kept stabbing your plate like that, sending peas scattering everywhere. You should come to every dinner party. I’ll never forget that. Thank you, Eiko.”
“Oh my god, stop being so serious with all your ‘thank yous’ and ‘will you marry mes.’”
“I haven’t once asked for your hand.”
“You didn’t ask for it. You just kept it prisoner half the night. I want silver for the healer, by the way. I think several of my finger bones have been crushed.”
“I literally bled.”
“So you say. I saw no blood.” She sniffed, ignoring his sound of exasperation. “So, what did they look like? Tell me everything.”
“Queen Noemi is still the hottest woman in Lyra, and King Grigori is still the hottest man in all of Lyra, but his sons are coming in close second. I’m not a total fucking pervert, but if I was⁠—”
“Yes, you are⁠—”
“If I was, I would say something right now about making family reunions clothing optional.”
“You should float the idea to them, see how they feel about putting you in charge of organising their seasonal gatherings. So what do the princes look like, now?”
“If Prince Corvan didn’t blink, birds would mistake him for a gold statue and perch all over his shoulders.”
“How nice for him. And for the birds. And the others?”
“Prince Ceran is … unique. He’s the one who exposed you when you claimed you asked the monster for a horse.”
“Unique? Like ugly?”
“No, not like that. He’s just … there’s a sharpness in his eyes. It’s … a little terrifying. My sisters stared at him through the whole dinner, trying to get his attention. He only perked up for you, though.”
“And by for me, you mean⁠—”
“To expose you, yes.”
“And the youngest? Prince Chasin?”
“Wasn’t there.” Ky squeezed her hand in silent acknowledgement, but neither of them would talk about the cave incident from ten years ago. Not with so many ears around. Not inside the mountain.
“Eiko! Ky!” Rion called out as they stepped from the mountain and into the frigid night. She happened upon them in a rustling of skirts. “How was dinner?”
“Barbaric,” Ky said, a smirk hiding behind the word.
“You’re a dick,” Eiko grumbled.
“So …?” Rion pressed. “Good? Bad?”
“Could have been worse,” Eiko admitted. “Nobody got stabbed.”
“Once again, I got stabbed,” Ky insisted.
“Oh, ouch,” Rion said in sympathy, apparently inspecting his wound. “Is that from … a fork?”
“I thought he was a pea,” Eiko defended. “Will a drink make it better?”
“I think I’m the one who owes you a drink,” Ky said. “Let’s go find ourselves a fire.”
There were times when Eiko felt the burden of her life: the strain on Kaito to keep the lights burning and their bellies full, the press of the Quiet against the back of her mind, and the loss of her sight. The pressure on her friends to keep her physical body shrouded in light to keep her safe.
She no longer ran into the night or scaled the rocky mountain in her brother’s hand-me-downs. That dream nestled deep inside her heart that the monster of the Quiet had tried to exploit all those years ago was dead. There were times when she felt the loss, but she tried to acknowledge those moments in the briefest, most gentle way possible. They were like the wind, and she couldn’t demand the wind to stop blowing; she could only stand there and wait for the moment to pass.
“Let’s go,” she agreed, but before they could spill into the joyous bustle of the crowd, her two friends pulled up short.
“Why are the guards marching this way?” Rion whispered. “What else happened at dinner?”
To an outsider, it may have sounded like a joke, but Eiko and Ky both paused to think the question over seriously.
“Rion Shulin,” a gruff voice declared, the faint tapping and clinking of keys against a belt and the scent of oiled leather drawing close. “You need to come with us.”
The three of them drew closer together, clinging to each other. Eiko twisted her arm through Rion’s tightly.
“Just her.” The second voice was sharp with warning.
Ky pried Eiko’s fingers free and wrapped them around his own forearm instead. As the son of Lord Erendi, he should have felt an inflated sense of importance and invulnerability around his father’s guards, but the slightest tremble in the muscles beneath Eiko’s grip told her enough to convince her to stay quiet. She held on to him as their friend was marched away.
“Follow them,” she whispered, huddling into Ky’s side and tucking her cane beneath her arm to move faster. He led her silently through the crackling flames and bustling crowds, the gathered people too distracted to notice a sight that would have halted all activity within the valley of the Sigh on any other day.
Rion wasn’t a lady, but she was a well-dressed and well-respected commoner. Her flower cart at the marketplace drew a crowd of admirers so vast, Lord Erendi’s steward was forced to reserve Rion a permanent stall in the corner large enough to accommodate the lines that formed for her attention.

13%

“The fete is the other way,” Kaito declared, falling into step on her other side. He still stunk of the mines, making her nose crinkle.
“Did dinner go that well, then?” Ren quipped—never far behind her brother. “Is that why you two are sneaking off into the forest?”
“They took Rion.” Fear made Ky’s tone snap.
“They?” Kaito asked, confused.
“The guards,” Eiko specified. “Be quiet, or they’ll hear us following.”
Their small group fell silent, Kaito taking her other arm to help Ky direct her as they moved away from the noise of the fete. Ky and Kaito didn’t bother to warn her of snags in her path—they simply lifted her smoothly clear of them without breaking stride.
“They’ve gone past the tracks,” Kaito warned quietly as they crept around the front of the train, the terrain changing beneath her boots. “Get your glitterstones out. There’s no marked path. They’re heading into the woods. What the fuck is this?”
“Only thing out here is the old prison,” Ren whispered back as they slowed their pace. It was necessary, with the uneven ground covering the thick thatch of forest behind the mountain.
“Just that and the forest,” Kaito agreed. “What is Rion mixed up in?”
“Nothing,” Eiko hissed, furious at the suggestion. Rion would never steal, hurt anyone, or cheat anyone. She certainly had opinions, but she was smart enough not to share them outside her close friendships. Her mother and father were both good, hard-working, sensible people.
There was no good reason for the soldiers to be dragging her off into the night.
“What uniforms were they wearing?” she asked.
“Purity guard,” Ky answered tightly.
Kaito hushed them, and Eiko could hear the faintest sound of voices in the distance. They slowed further, creeping up to the ridge above the old prison. She remembered playing there when she was little. Games of dare with Kaito to see who could be braver and creep the closest to the old building.
Eiko always won … but in hindsight, she suspected he had always let her win.
Kaito pressed her down, and they all huddled together, lying on their stomachs, the grass tickling her face as she tucked her chin to the cold ground and strained her ears.
“It’s full of guards.” Ky sounded confused. “I had no idea it was operational again. My father hasn’t said a word.”
“I can almost see her.” Ren stretched out beside Kaito. “If we can get to the next ridge, we’ll be able to see them through the collapsed wall.”
“Careful and quiet,” Kaito ordered, “and stay low, or they’ll see the light from our glitterstones.” They crawled over the peak and scrambled down to the next, flattening themselves against the grass again.
“They have someone else there,” Ky breathed quietly against the ground. “I think it’s Kira.”
“Kira with the peaches?” Eiko asked, recalling the sweet voice of the woman from the marketplace with her cart of fruit. Rion loved the peaches at that stall so much that they had become the reason Eiko was forced to go to the markets early every morning before Rion set up her own stall.
“What other Kira is there?” Ky asked distractedly, and then, “What is that? A coconut?”
“Too big,” Ren murmured, “and too green. And the other Kiras are: Kira with the birds, Kira with the limp, and Kira who wanted Kaito to court her so badly she broke her ankle chasing after him at the fete two years ago.”
“They just broke open the husk of this weird fruit I’ve never seen before,” Kaito narrated to Eiko. “And they’re—” His entire body tensed, and Ky swore beneath his breath. Eiko poked Kaito, hoping to prompt him to continue.
“They just tied them to chairs facing each other,” Kaito rushed out. “Rion and Kira. What do we do?”
“Kira with the peaches?” Eiko tried to ascertain again. It certainly wasn’t important, but it was the only detail her mind was currently gripping onto.
“Yes, it’s Kira with the bloody peach⁠—”
“I think that’s a hollow seed,” Ky’s voice was too weak, too quiet, the sound of a man reeling over something horrible. “I overheard my father talking about a shipment of them—he was ranting something like ‘a silver piece each? Those husk balls better perform magic,’ or something. Apparently, he spent a fortune to acquire them from Oakensnare.”
“I don’t like this,” Kaito hissed. “Lord Erendi would never spend a fortune giving something good to the commonfolk.”
“What do we do?” Eiko insisted. “What’s happening?”
“They’re questioning them.”
“There are too many guards for us to interfere,” Ren whispered.
“Shh,” Eiko hushed them all, straining her ears at the faint sound of a guard’s laugh.
“The deviant isn’t going to talk.”
Those were the words she heard.
She could hear Ky opening his mouth to speak again, so she quickly gripped his arm tightly and squeezed it to silence him.
“… ready?” She caught the tail-end of a guard’s question.
“… it in.” A partial reply, and then, louder, like a proud declaration. “This will purify you of your evils, Rion Shulin.”
“They’re pouring something from the hollow seed into their mouths,” Ky said tightly.
“Fuck this. I’ll create a distraction.” Kaito slipped away from Eiko’s left side, and she listened to the faint rustling of him sneaking from their ridge.
“Hurry,” she whispered into the ground before turning her head to the side to whisper to Ky. “What is it doing? The hollow seed?”
“I don’t know,” Ky gritted out in a panic. “They’re not reacting at all. Just sitting there.”
When the slight smell of smoke reached her nostrils a few minutes later, the first sounds of alarm rose from the old prison. The guards, likely spotting a fire in the forest, hurried to organise themselves.
“Just leave them tied up,” a loud call barked out. “Fill as many buckets with water as you can—we can’t afford to draw attention to this part of the forest.”
“Stay low,” Kaito warned, returning suddenly and lying beside Eiko again. “It will draw them in the other direction so they won’t see our glitterstones.”
Eiko held her breath as heavy footsteps rushed into the forest on the other side of the prison, and then the tall bodies on either side of her were shifting. She jumped to her feet, reaching for Ky as he reached for her, but it was her brother who took her arms and dropped in front of her, hauling her up to cling to his back.
“No time,” he huffed out, as they crested the ridge and ran down towards the prison.
“Knife on the table there,” Kaito ordered, as the cool, clean air of the forest turned musty with the smell of sweat and something else. Something sickly sweet and syrupy.
Eiko tried to picture the old prison as it had been ten years ago: a ruin, the front yielding and crumbling open to the forest, exposing its belly to the elements, while the deeper depths remained in shadow.
Kaito set her down, and she reached out towards the scent of jasmine, quickly finding Rion’s shoulder.
“You okay?” she asked, hands drifting over the clammy skin of her friend’s face.
“Uhh.” Rion sounded confused. “I uhh … I don’t … I don’t know.”
“I don’t feel so good,” Kira whispered shakily.
“Cut the fucking ropes,” Kaito demanded hurriedly. “Girls, you need to throw that shit up. Now.”
Rion made a sound of disgusted agreement just as her ropes were cut, allowing her to stand, and forcing Eiko’s hands to drop from her clammy skin. The group moved back to the collapsed entrance of the old prison, but Eiko held back. A muffled, retching sound drifted from outside as Rion and Kira emptied their stomachs and Eiko turned away, trying to drown out the noise and concentrate on the other sound that had captured her attention.
It was … something like a whimper.
She should ignore it and get out of there as quickly as possible.
She should not go deeper into the old prison.
It was obviously exactly what she was going to do.
She traced her path with her cane, following the sound further into the crumbling old building, the scent of sweat turning into something more acrid. Every step smelled worse, the cold digging deeper into her skin, a hint of mould now mingling with the other damp and depressing aromas.
“Eiko!” Kaito hissed, but she ignored him, moving faster, that whimpering sound reaching out to her again.
It was accompanied by other sounds that had her skin crawling.
Shuffling. A soft cry. A pained moan.
The sounds were echoey and empty, like they belonged to the ghosts of whichever unfortunate souls had perished in the fire that ate away half of the old prison. She imagined the walls were still black, as they had been all those years ago, with moss breaching cracked stone and vines pushing through the twisted old window bars.
Reaching for the glitterstone hanging from her neck, she made sure the copper cover hadn’t slid to a close, withdrawing its protection from the shadowy corners of the prison as she moved away from the group. When she bumped into the bars of a cage, a hand shot out to grip her dress.
“Help me,” a voice croaked. Desperate and broken. “Please … h-help me.”
“Oh my sun.” The whisper behind her was Ky, and the horror in his voice had her edging away from the cage, the grip on her skirt so weak, it took only a tug to fall away.
“There are dozens of them.” Rion was there too, sounding sick and scared. “Grey skin. Shaking. Weak. Blood crusting around their ears.” She seemed to be narrating purely out of habit. “Sores on their arms and legs. Something is eating away at their skin. Their eyes are … dead.”
“Hol-low,” the voice croaked, cutting off halfway through the word on a short, wet cough. “N-not dead.”
“What is this?” Kaito rarely sounded so shaken. Eiko could only remember that tone in his voice from the day of their grandmother’s funeral. Only then and never since.
Until now.
“They’ve been hollowed.” This was a new voice. It came from one of the cages. Eiko instinctively moved towards the rasp, feeling her group closing in around her, also moving to the speaker.
She reached hesitantly for the bars. They were slippery beneath her touch, making her shudder.
“Enji?” Ky asked, and there was that tone again. That horrible, shaken tone her brother had only ever used twice. Now Ky was using it.
“I’m sorry,” Enji replied. “Ky, I’m so sorry. I … told them everything. They had a list of all these names … They said you were already confirmed, but if I gave them details of your crimes, they wouldn’t make me drink it.”
“Drink the hollow seed?” Ky asked. “What fucking crimes? What the fuck is happening?”
“The crimes we committed togeth—” Enji broke off into a wet coughing fit. “Together, in secret. We’re deviants, Ky. That’s why they have to hollow us. To cure us. You’re on the list.”
“We need to get out of here.” This time, Kaito’s articulation was hard as granite, wiped of all emotion. “The guards will be back any minute, and Ky, if your name⁠—”
“I can’t just leave—” Ky started, but Ren tugged them away from the cage.
“For the love of fucking light, let’s get out of here,” Ren growled, and Eiko found herself tossed over a broad shoulder. “Sorry, but we need to run before they come back and see three of the people on their list standing inside waiting to be force-fed that shit again.”