The Way We Fall

Chapter 137 (Roche)

Tigris hadn't moved from the corner of her cell. She ignored Aodh's attempts to make her talk, only firing off a quick summary of what she'd seen. The horror of it all threatened to overwhelm Roche, but she forced herself to stay calm. She needed to get Tigris out of here, away from this chaos to regroup. A plan was forming in her mind, but she needed to be out of the castle to do it.

Aodh was slumped in front of his sister, sleeping curled up on the floor. His breaths were even and measured, his face streaked with the ghosts of tears. Roche couldn't believe how wrong she'd been today.

Tigris was still sprawled in the corner of her dingy cell. Something wet dripped in front of her, staining the edge of her fighting trousers. She didn't move. She didn't even react. She stared at the bricks in front of her, dazed and unfocused.

"Princess," Roche murmured to her, as she'd been doing for the past few hours, "We're going to get out of here. I swear it, alright? We're going to be fine."

Tigris didn't respond.

Roche bit back a sigh, leaning her head back. Something damp soaked into her hair, but she didn't care. Her mind was buzzing too much for her to think about anything but their escape. She could use inkblood to unlock the cells, but then what? There were undoubtedly zombie guards milling the corridors. She couldn't even get the princess to the tunnels, it would be far too loud to go unnoticed. Besides, she doubted the princess would follow her if she revealed her inkblood now.

She gritted her teeth at the thought. It was clear that Tigris was more open to change than her father. Hell, she'd been willing to kill the man when she'd seen what he'd done. But Roche couldn't forget the confusion and mild disgust that had flitted across her features when Finn had revealed his own inkblood.

If that was her reaction to her brother's inkblood, what would she do when she saw Roche's?

The doors to the cell block opened with a squeal. Roche straightened, expecting an authoritative command to echo after some poor servant scrambling to bring them dinner or water. But the shout never came. Instead, only soft, pattering footsteps hurried towards them, like the person was trying not to be seen.

Roche leapt to her feet, rallying her inkblood in preparation. A figure rushed into view, their lean silhouette barely visible in the darkness. Roche prepared herself for yelling, maybe getting dragged out of her cell like Sir Harold had been, but the figure merely paused for a long moment. Then they let out a shaky breath.

"Oh thank the gods, I thought he had someone following me!" the voice gasped out.

Shock bloomed within her. "Kai?" she whispered as the servant kneeled in front of the lock on her cell door. Something jangled in his hands that he rifled through with a muffled curse. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Getting you out," he muttered, his eyes flickering up to hers, "Did you really think I'd leave you down here?"

The door to her cell swung open. Roche stepped out tentatively, waiting for a crush of zombie guards to apprehend her. But they never came. Relief swelled within her and she wrapped her friend in a bone crushing hug.

"I thought-"

"I know," Kai hugged her back briefly before pulling away, eyes shining, "I figured I'd be more of a help to you if I was at his side. I planned on waiting a bit longer but after what happened this afternoon... I figured it would be best to get all of you out of here before the king's execution."

Tigris seemed to come out of her stupor. She gazed at Kai through the bars, her face so doubtful that it hurt.

"You came back."