The Exemption Trials (The Dinas Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter Four

   Jericho shifted in his chair and tried not to think too much about what might be happening to the other six prisoners that had been taken from the room. He didn't exactly care about what happened to them, but he did care what happened to himself and Deveraux, and whatever happened to the others would happen to the two of them as well.

   The rattle of the door knob drew him away from his thoughts and he turned towards it, nervous energy making his fingers tap a restless beat against his knees. As the door opened, his breathing hitched and he jolted to his feet, noticing the looks of distress and fright on the prisoners' faces as they entered the room. So much for not caring, he thought.

When he saw the girl named Xyra covered in blood and supporting a boy with blonde hair whose face was pale and practically lifeless, panic and concern shot through him and he automatically rushed forward to see what was wrong.

   "Stay back!" The guard warned, but Jericho ignored him, even when he saw the guard's arm raise in his peripheral vision and saw the black object held in his hand.

   A loud bang exploded throughout the small room, echoing off the walls. Pain blossomed from his stomach and spread across his whole body, the impact of something smashing into his abdomen making him fall back on to the ground. Screams and exclamations filled the room, but Jericho's cry of pure agony drowned them all out until the room fell silent once again.

   Lying on the ground, Jericho's entire being felt as if it were on fire and he could feel a warm, sticky substance spreading across his abdomen where the burning sensation was the worst. His vision was blurred and he couldn't hear anything but the pounding of his own heart, beating relentlessly against his ribs as if it were trying to escape his body.

   At least I know I'm not dead. He thought. At least not yet.

   Movement to his left made Jericho turn and despite his blurred vision he saw that Xyra had handed the blonde guy off to the boy named Cyprian and had come to kneel beside him. She reached forward to touch his bloody stomach with a hand that was already stained red with blood, making him recoil and push away her hand with what little strength he had.

   "I'm fine." He told her, his words slurred from the pain jolting through his body, indicating that he was definitely not fine. "Go help that other guy. He looks like he's about to die."

    "So do you." Xyra argued, keeping her gaze trained on him and her hand hovering near his stomach. "Your wound could be more severe. Cassian only got shot in the shoulder, but you got shot in the stomach. The bullet could've hit any number of organs."

   "I don't care what I look like." He said, slowly pushing himself up against the wall and biting back a scream of pain as his side exploded in agony like someone had stuck a million needles into him and they were all stabbing him at once. "I feel fine." His words were breathy and even more slurred if that was possible, his head beginning to throb and his chest tightening as if he couldn't take in a sufficient amount of air.

   Xyra groaned, apparently frustrated by his stubbornness. "Fine." She huffed, standing back up. "I'll go help Cassian, but after that, I'll come back and help you, no matter how much you argue with me." She motioned to something or someone off to Jericho's left that he couldn't quite see. "Deveraux, come watch Jericho and tell me if he starts looking worse or if he faints."

   "Right." Jericho heard his best friend mutter though the pounding of his pulse and the throbbing of his skull. His voice sounded faint and distant, as if he was too shocked by what had just happened to form a single thought.

   He felt the air shift on his left as Deveraux walked over and crouched down beside him. Turning to face his friend, Jericho groaned, clutching his stomach and feeling the warm stickiness of blood that covered most of his torso. His blurry vision showed him the outline of Deveraux, but he couldn't make out any of his features or which part of his body was which, so he just looked at where he thought Deveraux's eyes were, hoping he wasn't staring directly at his friend's chest, leg, arm, or other body part. "I think my prison uniforms ruined now." He told Deveraux, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips though his voice was still slurred from the tremendous amount of pain he was in.

   Deveraux chuckled softly. "Yeah, it is. It'll probably be stained bright red forever."

   Jericho let out a laugh, cutting it short with a loud groan as pain sliced through him like a merciless blade. His vision blurred even more until he could barely distinguish Deveraux's form from the room around him. Everything blended together and he felt himself sliding forward, his body angling down towards the floor.

   The world went black, and the last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness was Deveraux shouting, calling Xyra's name.

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