“Better than I’ve ever been in my life.” Orlando breathed quietly, resting his forehead against hers. The sudden intimacy should have seemed strange, but it was nothing compared to the power still passing between them. “I’m…Orlando.”
She laughed softly at the fact that they were introducing themselves to each other after that, but she smiled afterwards. “Candra. My name is Candra. And I’ve never been so happy to meet someone before.”
Nick started to get up, amazed that he was still alive, and he hesitantly looked around the broken remains of the hallway for any sign of Orlando’s continued storm before looking back down at Aura. “Are you alright?”
Aura nodded slowly and let go of him, since it was obvious by his movements that he wanted to get away from her, though he was concerned for her safety. She looked down at the rocks instead of up at him, since she couldn’t bear to meet his eyes. “Yes, I’m okay.” Her arms were scratched up and bleeding, as was the side of her face, but at least she was alive. “One of these days you’re going to ask yourself why you keep saving my ass.”
Just that statement hurt more than anything before that moment, but he stepped away from her and into the water, testing it to make sure it didn’t shock him. “Not today.” He stepped towards Orlando, who was still holding Candra like something was going to take her away from him. “Are you good? We need to go.”
Orlando glared at Nick for a moment with murder in his eyes. He had the power to kill the man right then and there, and a part of him wanted to, for what he did to get them into that chamber, but he just nodded instead. “I’m fine.” He looked past Nick at Aura, and his expression softened. His hold on Candra turned a little less insistent, but he didn’t let go of her altogether. “Lead the way. We’ll be right behind you.” He turned back to Candra. “Is there anyone else down here?”
Aura looked at Orlando for a moment but she turned away as her eyes filled with tears and she followed quickly after Nick. She wanted nothing more than to get out and away from the sight of Orlando holding Candra, even if it meant running right through the Council itself.
Candra nodded and then looked toward the other two cells where she knew there were other wolves like her, but the cells were dark. Normally they were always glowing, even when the lights were out. “There were two more. Like me.”
Orlando’s face fell as he looked at one of the dark cells, and he stepped away to look inside. He saw the dead body on the far side, lying where the water had taken longest to reach, but still dead nonetheless, his coat half-soaked where he was lying in the shallow water. “I…”
The sight of the dead wolf was not something that Candra was accustomed to, but she had lost many friends in the cells around her. People came and went, and whenever she asked, she was always told that they were dead, so she had always found reasons to come to terms with death. As childish and innocent as she otherwise seemed, Orlando was surprised to find a solemn kind of maturity in her golden eyes as she answered the rest of his unspoken apology.
“They were wild. They didn’t know any peace. Now they have it in the light.” She was a strong believer in the traditional ways and religion of wolves, of the Gods and the belief that when they died, their souls, their essence, whatever they were filled with, went to join the element that they drew power from in life. It was the only way of looking at the world that made sense to her and gave her peace.
Orlando wanted to stay and ask her more, but Nick and Aura were already hurrying out of the chamber. He took Candra’s hand and headed after them. “We have to go. The rest of the Council fighters will be here soon, and we need to be out in the open when that happens. We can’t stay here.”
Candra didn’t really understand the urgency in his voice. “They’d never hurt me.”
That statement from an obvious prisoner shook him, and he did a double-take as he looked back at her before he answered. “They’ve held you down here in captivity. They kidnapped Aura. They have an army outside this building that was waiting for her and Nick to arrive so that they could be assassinated. They tried to kill all of us on the road on the way home to Spain not two months ago. They’re going to try and kill us just for coming back here.” He looked at the door and then back at her cell. “Now, you can either come with me, out into the world, or you can wait for them to come back and lock you away again. Your choice.”
She followed him quietly, but she couldn’t really believe everything he said. She followed him because she wanted to get out and see the world, but she was terrified to do so. Candra had never been anywhere except down where the light couldn’t get her. “I don’t want to be locked away, but they kept me safe from the light.”
“Safe? I thought you lived on the light?”
“I do,” Candra said almost reverently as she continued to follow him. “But one burst of bright light can carry me for days. The sunlight keeps me in my wolf because it’s too much. I can’t…I can’t handle it.” She said with a shiver.
His mind reeled for a few moments at the implication of what she was describing. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her to be terrified of her own element. He couldn’t get enough of his
