The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 40

Whatever Rowyn had given me wore off not long after I was delivered back to my cell. My father was waiting, desperate to make sure I was okay. I don't remember much after that. The next few days were a blur of pain and deafening sound inside my head. I didn't see Rowyn or anyone else aside from my father again for days.

I wasn't sure how long it had been when I saw out of the corner of my eye the door of my cell opening. I didn't get up but instead stayed lying on my side facing the cell next to mine where my father was seated. He did get up though, and I turned my head slightly, fighting to quiet the voices. I knew it was useless.

But then I felt a hand on my shoulder and someone rolled me onto my back. I blinked up at a vaguely familiar face, saw lips moving, and then she was pushed aside. Hands grasped at both my shoulders, pulling me into a sitting position and allowing me to lean back against the bars.

"Lucas." Though I forced the word out of my sore throat and felt my lips forming his name, I couldn't hear it. I had no idea if he would be able to.

His hand was warm against the side of my face and I pressed my cheek into the cup of his hand. So warm, so comforting, and I hadn't been able to sleep properly for days with these voices...

No!

I was able to recognise the word on his lips and blinked my eyes open again. What was the problem? He was speaking quickly, glancing back and forth. I shook my head to show that I couldn't understand and Lucas looked stricken, desperate. He turned to the girl with the dark hair that I now recognised as Iris, the one who had interrupted Rowyn, Felicia and I. Seeing his look, she pulled something out of her back pocket and handed it to him.

He scribbled on it quickly, glancing up every few seconds as if anticipating something bad. I had just been watching him, noticing, not for the first time, his similarities to Jaylon. Was he going to take me away? Was he going to take me back to Jaylon?

A few minutes later he thrust something at me and I raised my hand weakly to take it. He then put his hand on the side of my face again, pushing my messy, filthy hair out of my face as he leaned down to kiss my forehead.

And then they were gone.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the bars again. This was just a dream, or maybe I was going insane. He hadn't really been here, he can't have been. But then I closed my fist and felt the paper crumpling beneath my fingers. A note. Lucas had given me a note. Slowly, my hands shaking, I raised my hands and opened the paper out. The words were messy, scrawled across the paper, but they weren't hard to read.

Louisa, I'm sorry but I can't stay, and we can't use magic down here. I will get you out though, I promise. I'll be back before the final phase is over to get the cure to you. You don't have much longer of this phase, so just wait it out; the next one isn't so bad.

I'll see you soon, and we'll finish what we started. We'll bring everyone home.

P.S. Charlie is insane with worry, and so is Jaylon. He misses you like crazy. It's quite annoying actually.

A smile, something I had forgotten I could do, came onto my face. They were coming for me. I would get home. I would see Jaylon and Charlie and everyone else again.

Something touched my hand where I still held the note and I opened my eyes to see my father's hand reaching through the bars. I opened mine and he took the note, his eyes skimming over it. He nodded at me with a smile and reached through the bars again to give my hand a squeeze.

It was then that I noticed that the voices in my head, the only thing I'd been hearing for the last few days, were quieter; more like whispers. So this was it. I was coming out of phase four. Soon, I would be in phase five, and if Lucas didn't get back in time, I would die.