In Shadows We Rise

Chapter 31

Reia

I slept peacefully through the whole night like I only have a few times in my whole life. As soon as my eyes open, I don't know how I possibly could have. Today it's three weeks and I haven't sent a letter back. I know now that it was never an option, to begin with, but skies if that makes it any better. I can't believe I'm doing this. I was so angry at my brother for abandoning me and now I enjoy my life while terrible things are happening to him. Well, enjoying might be a stretch but still. My little brother. My responsibility and half of my heart.

Maybe whoever has him will notice that keeping him is useless and let him go. I repeat that to myself until it's branded into my mind. It has to be like that. I couldn't live with myself if it were anything different.

"Everything will be fine," Xander whispers from beside me. We're hiding in a narrow alley nearby the press building, waiting for Atticus' sign. He's looking through a window from the building in his invisible form.

"What?" I ask. How could he possibly know I'm worried about my brother?

"The plan. It'll work just fine this time." Oh... Why do I feel disappointed that he wasn't speaking about Dex? He's not supposed to know. Still, hearing someone else assuring me everything will be fine would have been nice. I smile and nod even as the knot in my stomach twists painfully. The shadows around me are hissing and I can feel the powers within me trying to get loose.

"Oscurina, you'll be fine," he says again, only feeding the guilt within me. I'm not worried about myself. I feel like crying again and I really long to hold my brother right now. He was the only person I got any comfort from for so long and I miss him terribly.

I can't take this anymore. I'll focus on this stupid mission now and I'll tell Atticus when we're home. I'll tell him everything and he'll know what to do. We'll get Dex and he can live with us and all will be well. The knot loosens as this small hope flows through me.

"Come on guys." Our leader suddenly appears next to me and I nearly jump. Where did he just come from? "The building isn't quite as empty as we thought so we should go in invisible. I'll take Sorin and Layla and the others go with Reia," he explains hastily. He wants me to what?

"I can't take two with me," I protest. I've barely been training this aspect of my powers and the last time I took only Xander with me it drained me completely.

"You're powers are strong. You can do this," Atticus says.

"You'll just have to, it's what you're here for. Now let's go before our window closes," Sorin cuts in. Bastard.

Atticus looks at me apologetically before grabbing the dumbo's and his sister's hands and turning all three invisible. Xander grabs my hand and gives me an encouraging squeeze before Calista takes hold of my other one. I take a deep breath and start tugging at my swirl of powers. Turning us invisible by itself takes a great amount of strength and I'm supposed to keep this up for the whole way? Pray for me.

The people at my side pretty much drag me towards the building and through its corridors, they pull me to one side or the other when a person gets in our way and drag me to a stop when we have to be quiet. I focus solely on keeping up our invisibility.

I don't even realize we've reached our destination until Xander rips his hand from mine. I take a few steps back and steady myself on a wall at the sudden lack of support.

"You okay?" Calista asks as she lets go of me. I think this may be the fifth time she's ever spoken directly to me since I've known her. I nod and she gets to work alongside Xander. They place the copies of our text in between two other pages of the otherwise finished prototype of the journal. I'm not really watching them but rather trying to summon my strength for the way back.

Then I hear a new set of footsteps approaching and try to snap to attention. "Guys!" I hiss. I'm still with my back to the wall next to the door but at my call, the others hear the footsteps too. They quickly press themselves against the wall next to me and we wait for the person to come inside.

The door opens, a pause, a tall woman steps inside and the door falls shut behind her. Calista wastes no time hitting the hilt of her dagger against the side of the woman's head and the stranger falls limp to the ground. I release a breath.

"That's that. Let's finish this up already so we can get the hell away from here," our firehead says before getting right back to work. None of us wants to stay here longer than we have to. If we get caught, this place will be swarming with guards and I am already almost out of power. Besides, our plan won't work if we're seen.

I close my eyes and listen to the rustling sounds around the room. Then there's a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Oscurina. Get us out of here." I take my companions' hands, concentrate on some of the anger I've got stowed away, and tug hard on my power. We turn invisible just as the door bursts open. Two guards step inside and scan the room. They see the unconscious lady on the floor, which I notice Xander must've moved so it looks like she hit her head on the edge of the table nearby, and rush over. In the meantime, the two people at my sides hurriedly pull me out the closing door and into the corridor.

This place is now swarming with people. Most are probably gifted by Favonious and will speed up the printing process but some must be bonded to Diana. They use all sorts of birds to distribute the journals all over the nation, depending on where they're going.

My friends are having a hard time navigating us through the commotion and we bump into strangers a bunch of times. Once I lost my grip on my powers and we flickered into sight for a moment. Some people blinked at that but we were gone again before anyone could process it so we're fine.

"Almost done, you're doing great," Xander whispers softly. Hear that? Almost done. Then I'll get to rub the fact that I carried this mission in everyone's faces! A new wave of energy bubbles up within me as my powers protest. Yeah, yeah, they think it's all thanks to them. I just appreciate the extra strength and open my eyes. Calista just reaches for the door and we stumble outside. It doesn't matter if the entry opening by itself seemed suspicious because we made it.