Arachna

Chapter 24: How Did This Happen?

It was gone. All the years of hard work, all the men and women she'd befriended then grown to see as a family.

Gone.

Destroyed in a breath of flame and a cloud of smoke.

Kaela shuffled along the sidewalk with Derek. She hung her head low, watching mindlessly as her steps dragged lazily across the concrete.

That was all she could bring herself to do.

Keep moving. One step at a time.

Derek walked beside her, scanning every rooftop and shadowy alley. At any sound or indication of an incoming car, they ducked into an alley until it was gone.

They didn't speak. There was no conversation to have after what they'd just been through; what they'd witnessed.

Her bicep pained her every few breaths, a constant reminder of what she'd had to do to survive. How desperate she'd been to get out of danger when, as she looked back on it, she regretted even trying. She should have burned in that building with her people. A captain going down with her ship.

Though, if she hadn't, Derek would have burned with her. Still, regret dug a hole in her chest, right through bone and muscle. A gaping hole where her heart had once been.

Caleb... He would die. At the first chance she got, she would take him down. It didn't matter who got in her way. It didn't matter if he took her down with him.

All her people had been slaughtered like animals within the confines of a place they'd thought was safe, all because of her stupid decision to bring Malcolm there.

Kaela looked up at Derek, the first time she'd lifted her head in minutes, and eyed his wound.

It had finally stopped bleeding.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

She was still staring at him. He looked at her, concern etched on his features. She had no right to have his sympathy, no right to have his concern.

None.

"Everything is wrong," she said back. No point in lying. "And everything will be wrong until Caleb is dead."

"We'll get him."

Kaela scoffed. "Oh, I know we will."

Derek's stare lingered on her. "Don't do anything drastic, Kaela. We can't afford to lose you too."

She balled her fists, which made him tense. "I shouldn't be alive at all. And that puts me at an advantage. I don't care if I have to strap a bomb to my chest, I will kill him."

She nearly stormed ahead, but her body was tired. Too tired to even keep her fists clenched. They loosened, and her legs turned to jelly. Suddenly, she was on her knees, and a hand was on her shoulder.

"Do you need me to carry you?"

She huffed a small laugh then broke it when he showed no signs that he was joking. She put one hand to her head and used the other to slap Derek's away. "Don't touch me."

But Derek put his hand on her shoulder again.

She looked back up to curse at him. But she met his eyes, those watery eyes, and the curse fell flat. The tears fell before she could stop them. She grabbed him and put her head to his chest, bawling her eyes out.

He shook. She wasn't the only one crying.

Derek led her into an alleyway and sat across from her. Kaela couldn't stop the sobs as they forced themselves out of her. Derek shoved his head into his hands, failing to hide his own tears.