Chained to You

Unknown Intentions

This chapter is dedicated to a supportive, fellow writer, Ayisha186 - check out her book Sin For Me - it's amazing✨

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I widened my eyes and stepped toward Valkyrie. "Tell me," I demanded softly. She wiped a stray tear from her cheek and opened her mouth to speak.

"What do we have here?" a voice drawled. "Spilling our secrets to someone we just met?" A boy was leaning against a banister connected to the staircase railing. One blonde eyebrow was raised menacingly, but his green eyes flashed with compassion and politeness. Even from where I was standing, I could tell he was short; well shorter, almost as tall as Valkyrie.

"Christian!" Valkyrie's cheeks flushed with a deep red and she nervously hopped from foot to foot. "She was just uh - wondering who you were! She heard Crow mention your name she was just... curious." Now it was my turn to blush. I kicked Valkyrie's shin as I passed her and held my hand out to Christian. His eyes slid past me to look at Valkyrie again, as if giving her a silent warning to keep her mouth shut.

"I'm Nova," I introduced myself with a fraudulent smile plastered on my face. He gave me one in return and brought my outstretched hand to his lips. They were soft as they brushed against my skin and I let out an involuntary shiver.

"So I've heard." His eyes sparkled with hidden banter. Valkyrie swatted my hand away from his face and took hold of my elbow.

"Quit flirting, lover boy," she told him. "Kai wants me to take her to her room."

"Then I'm sure you would be okay if I tagged along?" Christian winked at me and grabbed my other elbow. Valkyrie rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, but didn't argue. It seemed this kind of teasing happened often around here.

That's when I heard a crack, like the snap of a twig under someone's foot. I twisted away from
Valkyrie and Christian, frantically looking around for the source of the noise. "Did you hear that?" Valkyrie cocked her head to the side.

"Hear wha-" The stained glass panels to the left of us shattered, sending shrapnel and hunks of colored glass toward us. Without thinking, I hurled myself down the stairs, desperate to get away from the explosion. I felt each step individually on my downfall, knocking the breath out of me every single time.

When I finally reached the staircase landing, I felt paralyzed, or maybe I was just too shocked to move. I heard muffled bellowing from upstairs, like someone was yelling through a mask. A scream tore through the house and I lifted my head as much as my neck would allow me to. The tattered walls were spinning and I couldn't identify which way the commotion was coming from.

Footsteps were thumping closer to me and I cowered away from where it sounded like they were coming from. "Nova?" I lifted my eyes from the black boots and navy trousers to see Kai's flustered face looking down on me. He was gasping for breath and I can only guess he had coming running from the infirmary where he was being treated. The majority of his burns were healed, but I could still see patches of red under his collar.

"Hurry up, we have to leave." He let go of my arm to shove the braided carpet away from the floor. Underneath was an intricately designed trap door; I could see it was made out of wood, but it was plaited with gold and silver, spelling out the letters U.B in cursive. He opened it and gestured at the ladder that led down the hole. "In."

"Why?" I started to back away from him. I refused to put my trust so blindly in a person, especially if they wanted me to crawl into a dark, smelly abyss. The bellows were becoming more coherent and I thought I heard the words, "mutant" and "girl".

"We don't have time for questions!" Kai snapped, pushing me toward the ladder. "We've been betrayed."