Sun Queen

♛ Seventy-Nine ♛

                      ♛ Alina POV ♛

I catch Ekaterina much faster than I expected. When I do get within a few steps, she throws me a single glance, then continues forward.

"Ekaterina, wait!" I call out, sprinting to meet her heels.

Before she has the chance to run off, I speak. "What are you doing?"

She slows to let me jog beside her. "I'm going to find Timur."

"Why?" I ask, exasperated. "What do you want him to say?"

"That he's sorry." Ekaterina finishes her sentence with a stamping foot, a crunch of snow signaling her stubborn finality. "And I want to make him answer for his treason."

I realize that she's not going to change her mind and I still have to break off the last Grisha wagon. I might as well keep an eye out for Ekaterina as we make our way down the pass. We don't speak but we don't need to. Ekaterina reluctantly watches as I Cut through the last Grisha wagon chain.

Once I'm done, she hurries onward to the front Fjerdan wagons. I glance around, no choice but to follow. I can't let her go alone and I can't stay here alone. The air gets quieter as we approach, the battle fading behind us. It only makes the goosebumps on my arms stiffen. An awful feeling of fear drizzles down and puddles in my gut.

I take Ekaterina by her arm and she looks ready to chew my hand off when I do. "We should wait for reinforcements, find some soldiers to help us."

"You can," Ekaterina yanks her arm out of mine, "I'm going to find Timur."

She knows I can't leave her alone. I sigh, repressing the fear, and open the door to the Fjerdan wagon.

It's dark, the kind where you can't even see your own nose. I blink uselessly, turning around slowly as I walk in. Ekaterina's footsteps are as unsure as mine. I breathe out again, pushing my fear into the air and lift my hands.

Thin strings of light appear, sizzling and hanging in the air. I weave them in front of Ekaterina and I, one dazzling ball of light. I look around nervously now with the new light. The wagon is empty, benches lining either wall for rows of soldiers. It's windowless and only one door rests at the back. I hate it, it's practically a box on wheels.

"Let's go, there's no one here." I say, more forcefully than I would have liked. But I'm not staying here any longer.

"What? So soon?" A voice croons from the darkness.

A voice that is not mine or Ekaterina's.

"Timur." His name sits on Ekaterina's warm breath as I look down to see her beside me.

Sure enough, from the back corner near the door, Timur steps out. A faint shimmer from my light glows on his red hair, a spectacular autumn shade.

"Ekaterina, a pleasure." Though Timur seems far from pleased at seeing her here.

Ekaterina lifts a dagger I hadn't seen before, incredibly sharp-looking and ornately carved. "The only pleasure I will have is when you're gasping for breath with this dagger in your chest."

Timur blinks. "Like I said, a pleasure."

I enunciate my ball of light, adding more light to strengthen it. "Come with us Timur, this battle is over. Don't drag this out."

There's clicks and metal scraping in the darkness. "I wouldn't dream of it."

A gun is raised in his hands before I can think, the battle pointed straight at my leg. A gunshot rings true in the quiet wagon. My mouth opens to scream as my feet pause, but the pain doesn't shoot through me. I only feel a sudden weight against my feet.

Ekaterina grunts below me on the floor and I see a dark liquid growing on her furs.

No.

Not her.

A cry of grief matching my own rips out of Timur. He doesn't come closer, but I can see him falter and lean against the wagon wall. Even in the darkness, I can make out a shine of tears.

Ekaterina's blood warms my hands as I flip her over, hope clinging to me as tightly as she clings to life. But both are washed away by the wave of the wound. She doesn't speak, just swallows and struggles for breath. I don't say anything either. I rest my hands on her stomach, where the bullet dug into, and feel the gush of blood spilling out.

In the end, Ekaterina dies with her dagger clutched in her hand, only moments away from the revenge she deserved. It isn't fair, I think sorrowfully, it just isn't fair.

Suddenly I can hear a gun being raised again.

"King Artyom said to keep you alive, but honestly I don't give a shit."

Anther gunshot.

Grief and adrenaline are funny, how well they mix. It's like a natural drug. My body rolls out of the way with what feels like inhuman speed. Timur pauses, but another shot rings out again.

This time I'm closer, nearly at his feet. I kick out his ankles and Timur crumples into them. His gun clatters to the floor. I don't hesitate to reach for it, as Timur's own hand follows mine.

I soon feel the heat of the metal muzzle in the curl of my palm. I squeeze down, crying out as the hot metal burns into my hand. There's an audible singing of flesh, but I fight past the hazes of pain and fling the gun out the open door.

My arms drop to the wagon's floor, weak with burns, and I pant. Timur rises beside me and my puddle of fear grows.

"You're going to pay for that." He growls, his voice signaling that he's stood up. I try to flip over when I hear him, but there's a tug on my leg. Timur pulls me to him. My face rakes against the wooden floor, sprinters pulling at my skin and digging in with harsh cuts. Blood makes slow trails down my face, crawling like bugs.

The first crunch is a shock. I hear the sound, then feel the tirade of pain. It cuts into my ankle, the bone screaming out under the pressure of Timur's boot.

The second crunch is hellish. Timur presses down on my ankle even after he breaks it and I'm almost dragged into unconsciousness. I have the sense to stay still, waiting for him to raise his boot.

When Timur finally does, I stay on the floor, limbs flopped out. He spits as he passes by, his thudding boots soon muffled by the silence of snow outside. The wagon door slams behind him. I expect him to return with his gun and finish the job, but he doesn't come back.

I cry then, when I know I'm alone. In the darkness of a Fjerdan wagon with Ekaterina's cooling corpse as company, I cry. I feel well and truly alone, on the verge of passing out. But my own grisly sense of survival forces me to stay awake. I need to get out of here at least, or else I might never be found.

Palms down on the wood I drag myself. Every time my ankles scrape against the wood, it's utter agony. The bones jostle torn muscle and more than once do I find black spots swarming like flies to my vision.

But I hold it together till the door. It's closed, the handle an impossible height above me. I want to cry again at the challenge, but I bite it all down.

I shakily rise to my knees, my face watered with salty tears as I pant hoarsely for breath. The handle slides down easily and the door crawls open. I let out a breath of relief, a slight sob strangled up in the sound. My body falls into the doorway and gives out right there and then.

I know I'm done, unconsciousness sucking my pain-addled mind. My body slowly seizes up and freezes, succumbing to the floor like glue. I lie there for a second afterwards and watch the winds kick up a mound of snow.

The only thought on my mind is that of him.

Aleksander, find me.