Once It Gets Dar

Hi everybody thank you so, so much for your patience and your support. I am so sorry I have been so silent lately!

I have made some changes to the chapter division, and there are going to be 21 chapters in total (not 20 like I had previously stated)

A special thank you goes out to Olive for her wonderful help and ideas!

Veril and German vocabulary can be found in my profile <3

There is

NO SEX

in this chapter, so if you are looking for that, I recommend one of the following: Ch. 1; Ch. 3; Ch. 6; Ch. 8; Ch. 9; Ch. 11; Ch. 13; Ch. 14; Ch. 15 (The smut will return eventually, I promise, hehe)

TW

: for rebels in underground structures, war and graphic violence.

Chapter 19--Tutilmik inrun verterek

Click.

The sound was drowned by my own scream of desperation. The pain of losing him tore through my soul, ripping it to shreds until all that remained was emptiness. And from that abyss the darkness rose, thick and deeper than night. It filled me completely, and when my body couldn't contain it anymore, it burst out of every pore, streaming from my wide-open mouth and eyes in an explosion of shadows, instantly extinguishing the glaring light of the

Relámpago

. I felt it, like an extension of myself, as it surged through the tunnels, seeped into the pond above us, and soared over the trees of the Volkspark. It enveloped streets and houses, stretching farther and farther over skyscrapers and monuments, forming a dome that spread all the way to the fields and pine forests of Brandenburg at the edges of the city.

Then there was another sensation: a slight tug, as if I were sitting in a train that had come to an abrupt halt, and with it my mind--until then floating in the darkness above the capital--snapped back.

I was inside my body again. Tears streamed down my face as I cowered beneath Vo'ren's shields, waiting for the ground-shaking boom of the explosion. I pressed my eyes shut and begged the universe that, when it ended his life, it might take me too.

But there was nothing. No movement. Only silence and my shadows hanging in the air, as if the world had frozen to black ice. Was this death? Had the sudden outburst of magic been too much for my weakened body? Was he at least here with me? I lay my hand tentatively on the shield, trying to sense him on the other side. The metal felt cold and real against my palm, as real as the thrumming of my heart, and suddenly the shield was gone and a strong hand closed painfully around my wrist. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever felt.

"Keep this up, ishktz'in! No matter what happens." Vo'ren's black eyes burned urgently into mine before they darted around the room. I knew that he was ready to cover me again should there be the slightest movement.

It took me a moment to understand that he was talking about my magic. I blinked and nodded, but his face remained doubtful. I felt a warm trickle in my arm as he reached into the connection of our binding. He wanted to assist me and steady my power like he had done before, but he had no magic left to give, not after being exposed to the artificial sunlight.

And this time I didn't need

My shadows were all around me--inky, heavy, and almost tangible--smothering the light of the solar bomb and stretching like a protective cloak over the city. But unlike the other times I had used my magic, there was no drain on my energy. I had finally, truly opened up to him, and the strength of our connection kept me grounded, kept my life force anchored to him. All this time, I had been limiting myself; had held myself back because I was afraid to admit what lay between us. But now it was easy, almost intuitive, like breathing or walking. I had finally unleashed my true potential. Vo'ren and I--we had been the key all along.

And then there was this other strange force, the one that kept the train from moving. I felt it flowing through my blood alongside my own power, and somehow I was able to control it, as well.

I looked up into his striking eyes, tightened the dark clouds around us, and gave him a more self-assured nod. "Don't worry,

mishtz'in

. I got us."

My mark thrummed wildly, and even beneath his hood, I clearly saw the smile sparkling in his eyes. He pulled me through the high-walled bunker in less than a dozen of his long strides, and I tried my best to keep pace. My legs were wobbly, but he was there, a reassuring presence at my side, steadying me whenever my weakened knees threatened to give in. His movements were as swift and fluid as always, but when we were almost below the exit, I thought I saw him stumble. It was just a brief pause in his step, but uneasiness gripped my heart.

We had finally reached the ladder. I grabbed the first rusty bar and started climbing.

Just a few more steps

, I told myself.

Just a few more steps and we're out of this hell

.

I pulled myself up rung after rung, the skin on my knuckles turning white and chipped paint biting into my palms as I held on so tightly. I didn't look behind me, afraid that vertigo might slow me down. Instead, I focused on the magic in my veins so I wouldn't accidentally let go of the shadow dome that suffocated the UV light and kept us safe.

I reached the top of the ladder, but instead of pulling myself up onto the tiny platform that led to the round door, I stopped. Finally surrendering to the call of the abyss, I turned my head and looked into the bunker below.

Everything was shrouded in darkness, thick like condensed night, but with my night vision I was able to see it all: there lay the Peruvian's phone, the timer frozen on one second. And there, further in the back, were the remnants of the ropes that he had used to tie me to the pipe, and not far from them, the explosive belt with the bomb, its deadly light smothered by my shadows--from up here it almost looked like a toy. I shivered, and something in the universe shivered with me.

With one practiced movement, Vo'ren jumped past me onto the platform and pushed the door open with a well-aimed strike of his forearm. I felt its impact vibrate through the metal ladder and into the soles of my cheap tennis shoes.

"Quick!" He hissed; there was a strange undertone in his voice, and the pressure in my mark spiked uncomfortably.

He leaned down, yanked me atop the little platform by my arms, then pushed me into the corridor with such force that I feared my shoulder might have dislocated. I tripped over the threshold, almost losing my grip on my magic. I stumbled to the ground, barely catching myself with outstretched hands. My palms and shins throbbed, but I kept crawling forward. I had to get as far away from the terrifying bunker as possible.

Behind me, I heard him shut the door with a bang so loud it reverberated through the dark tunnels, followed immediately by the sound of the wheel that sealed the bunker closed. The echo had not yet faded when it happened;

something

slipped my grasp, and just like that the dome of darkness came loose, separating from my body. It did not disappear, but I had lost all control over it. And then the strange train began moving again.

"Cover!"

Before I had time to even gasp, he pressed me face down into the floor, forcing me to tuck my head under my arms. His heavy body covered mine as he shielded me once more.

And then, at last, like the rumble of an earthquake, like thunder after lightning, the bomb exploded. The ground shook, and cement drizzled through the white panels on the ceiling. There was another rumble: the heavy sound of stones hitting the PVC floorboards of the tunnel. I screamed and pulled my legs closer to my chest in a desperate attempt to protect my child. Vo'ren mumbled something in Veril, a melodic succession of verses--a prayer maybe? I listened to the consoling sound of his voice as I waited for the weight of the earth above us to come crashing down, burying us beneath the very park where our lives had become entwined.

But the FMD's detonation chamber held, containing the impact of the deadly weapon, and after a while everything was silent again.
I stayed down, curled into a tight ball, paralyzed by the fear that the slightest movement might cause the ceiling above us to cave in. Vo'ren's body kept me pinned, his breath brushing in ragged gulps against my ear. A few more moments passed, and after nothing happened, I tentatively lifted my head and peeked out between his arms.

I coughed. Brown dust hung in the air like fog, coating the rebel's shiny tunnels with a fine beige film. I looked to my right toward the street exit below the apartment building where the rebels had held me hostage. The corridor had collapsed in on itself and was now blocked by a rampart of bricks and fresh earth. But our segment of the tunnel seemed to be intact and unaffected.

I wriggled and twisted until I was on my back, facing up,

facing him

. His chest pressed against mine, my left leg was stuck uncomfortably under his body, and my right one rested loosely against his waist. For many nights I had yearned to be this close to him again, but I pushed aside my body's reaction.

A big question formed in my mind, bringing with it a new kind of fear. How? How had we both survived?

He opened his eyes, and they were as dark as my shadows when I had turned and looked into the bunker, and then I remembered the timer on the Peruvian's phone--frozen on one second.

And suddenly I understood. That strange other force I had felt next to my own magic, it had been his power--a power so terrifying that even the Counsel had seen only one way to keep it under control: by binding a little boy to the cruel discipline of the Kirtim Shenk, by subjugating Vo'ren and his magic under a rigid military system that had no escape but death itself.

I looked at the scarf-covered face of the man to whom I belonged, and a chill cold as ice ran over my body. It was as if I were seeing him clearly for the first time. He was so close, and my emotions spiraled as my joy about finally being with him again warred against a deep, primordial fear of who he truly was. All this time I had assumed he controlled some kind of elemental force; had pictured him like some ancient deity, smiting his enemies with strikes of lightning that made the

Relámpago

seem like a mere cap bomb. But this was so much more terrifying.

"You," I whispered, and his eyes narrowed inquisitively, as if he too were unsure of what to make of me. "You can stop time."

His muscles were fraught, like a cat, ready to jump up at any moment--I knew he didn't want to stay here, but I needed at least some answers. I closed my hand around his uniform-clad forearm, as if I would have a chance to hold him back.

He frowned. "I cannot."

"What?" When I felt him shifting, I dug my hand deeper into the fabric. "But... the bomb--it should've gone off after the third click; it..."

Vo'ren interrupted me, impatience ringing in his voice. "Time, by its nature, is ever running. It cannot be stopped, nor can it be reversed." He looked up, scanning the tunnels, before he continued with a slightly more amiable tone. "But I do have the ability to slow it down."

"But just now back in that room..." I remembered the distinct feeling of the train, not

slowing down

but coming to a marked halt.

"I know." The muscles around Vo'ren's temples tensed as he clenched his jaw. "However, I have no idea what that was. It is a matter we shall examine

when I have gotten you out of this cursed city

." He snarled the last part, making it sound almost like a threat, and pushed himself up.

I automatically tightened my grip around his arm, my weird instincts protesting as I lost contact with his body.

Vo'ren paused and gave me a warning glare. "I do promise to keep you pinned underneath me uninterruptedly, and for a dozen nights or more, should you wish so, ishktz'in. But now, as much as it might hurt, I need you to keep your little human head focused on more pressing matters so I can get you to safety."

And with that, he got up, pulling me to my feet in one swift movement. He inhaled shakily and steadied himself; his whole body was alert as he scanned our surroundings. The darkness had lost its inky density, and the electricity had not returned. The shadow dome had slipped my grasp, and it was impossible to verify in the windowless tunnel, but for some reason I thought it was still there, shrouding the terrified capital in night.

Would I still be able to summon my shadows, or had I consumed them all? I turned my hand up, reached inside myself, and smiled as black tendrils broke out of my palm and began to swirl wildly around my body. In the lightless corridor they would have been imperceptible to human eyes, but I saw them and so did Vo'ren. I tentatively wrapped them around us like a cloak, surprised at how infinitely more easy manipulating my magic had become now that I had learned how to anchor my life force to our connection. I hardly felt a strain on my energy. Yielding my power suddenly seemed as simple as moving a finger. I formed a circle out of condensed shadows and let it hover around my head like a dark halo.

"I mean, you

could

just stop time for a little bit and get us out afterwards," I said, petulantly as I gave in to my childish urge to have the last word.

Vo'ren shot me an exasperated look but ignored me otherwise. He pulled up the right sleeve of his uniform and placed his index and middle finger on the half-circle mark above his elbow. I inhaled in shock, instantly cured from the itch to argue when I saw his skin. Like a twisted river delta, it was marred with dark green lines--the same ones that had formed on his neck under the solar lamps. He wouldn't be able to stop even a fraction of a second any time soon. Hot hatred for the terrorists rose up like bile in my throat.

There was a rustling noise. Vo'ren pulled a handheld radio out of his pocket, and I listened to his orders spoken in sharp and precise Veril. I loved how his voice shifted just so slightly in his native language, how it became harsher and more melodic at the same time. And to my own surprise, I actually understood a good part of what he said. It was as if the little break from our nightly lessons had helped my brain process and memorize the learned vocabulary.

"Close down all exits to the base. Search the houses in the vicinity. I want him alive."

The Peruvian,

Rafael

. I bared my teeth as my whole body filled with a new desire: the desire to get my hands on the FMD leader, to hurt him, to make him scream and beg for mercy. The desire for revenge. My own thoughts, the visions of his pain-contorted face, made me nauseous. I inhaled deeply and tried to clear my head.

Vo'ren stowed the radio away. He gave the caved-in tunnel a chastising look and spit on the ground. I stepped to his side and closed my fingers gently around his wrist. There was no way we would be able to clear the way up and get to the street exit. Besides, the apartment building was most likely full of FMD, and though he was very good at masking it, I feared Vo'ren might not be up to a full-on fight. Claustrophobia constricted my chest at the thought of being stuck underground, but I fought it down before it made me gasp for air. Vo'ren would do anything to bring me to safety, and I would do the same for him.

I straightened my back, wiped a stray strand of hair from the corner of my eye, and I made a promise to myself: I would get him out, I would see him healed, and then I would make everything right again.

"This way." I lightly squeezed his arm and pulled him left, deeper into the stuffy tunnel system towards the center of the Volkspark, where I had seen something that might currently be our only way out.

It had only been two nights ago that Lilly took me on that little tour, but it felt like an entire lifetime lay between then and now. My mind struggled to comprehend that I was now walking through those same corridors at the side of General Tsul.

Each of his movements was silent and controlled despite his exhaustion, and my heart jumped every time I looked at him. My brain was still unable to wrap around the last hours' events, but there was no time to deal with that now; I needed all my concentration to stay focused. I shoved the horrors to the back of my mind, hoping that there were still some decent therapists left in Hamburg to help me deal with them later.

We made quick progress with only one very short interruption, during which I flitted into a public bathroom, to Vo'ren's thinly veiled annoyance. We passed the entrance to the mess hall and were almost at the height of my old decontamination cell when Vo'ren suddenly lifted his hand. He placed his index finger over his mouth and pulled Peace Bringer from the scabbard he wore strapped to his broad back. My heart sank. I didn't need Veril ears to hear the sounds of boots approaching behind the corner.

Humans

, probably a group of three or more.

With one swift movement, Vo'ren had stepped in front of me. He maneuvered me against the wall with his outstretched arm, and my pulse began to hammer in my throat as I watched him assume a half-crouching position, ready to strike.

Fuck

! In a panic, I looked down the corridor behind us: white panel after white panel and the occasional door that could only be opened with the matching key card. There was nowhere to hide, and the tunnel was too long and straight to simply turn around unseen. A fight was inevitable.

Unless...

I closed my eyes, turned my palms up, and tried to imitate the gestures Ichel had made to form almost solid-looking figures. And to my own surprise, it worked. Just like he had done with the solstice night, I summoned my own shadows, condensed them, and pulled them around us until we were shrouded in deepest darkness.

Vo'ren glanced over his shoulder to give me just the briefest nod. With his gloveless hand he pointed first at me and then assertively at the floor beneath my feet.

Stay

. I nodded and pressed my back against the wall, making myself as flat as possible. He gave me one more assessing glare and resumed his stance, the deadly scimitar drawn and ready to strike should we be discovered.

I made sure to hold on tightly to my darkness, hiding us behind a wall of night so deep we melted seamlessly into the wall of the dark tunnel. Unnoticeable even with the bright beams of the terrorists' flashlights that had just appeared around the corner and cut like blades through the dark corridor.

There were five of them: two up front and two others behind them, supporting a limping comrade.

"Hurry," urged one of the latter in German. "What if that thing was venomous?"

They were in clear sight now, and I had to press my palms over my mouth to keep from gasping. On the man's flank, right underneath the arm he held slung over his comrade's shoulder, there was a terrible injury. The green uniform was stained dark where his flesh had been pierced by several deep incisions, but what scared me even more than the blood was the peculiar half-oval shape of the wound. No weapon, be it Veril or human, could have created such a pattern. This was a

bite

, but no animal in Berlin had a maw that big.

"You think the end of the cease-fire means they really got him?" said another one; his tone was hushed as if he feared that speaking the thought out loud might turn it untrue.

"I don't know. It's kind of hard to imagine that the Butcher would care that much about some chick." The first one giggled at the absurdity, and the sound ripped unnaturally through the underground silence. "I mean, don't get me wrong, she's pretty hot. I wouldn't have minded a piece of that when we had her all tied up in that little dress of hers, but still."