From Breath and Ruin by Ryan Carrie Ann

Author:Ryan, Carrie Ann [Ryan, Carrie Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction
Goodreads: 43800567
Publisher: Carrie Ann Ryan
Published: 2019-03-19T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

“How did you get out?” I paused. “I mean, to get me.”

Though the man had told me to go, we ended up going with them for the first part of our escape. We’d run out of the place alongside those who could run with us, pulling still more along until we were forced to split up. I could barely remember any of it. The shock of it all was far too much for me. We hadn’t stopped to make sure everyone was okay or even to ensure that they had a place to go.

We’d trusted them to find their own way because we’d be targets, putting a bullseye on them. The prisoners had understood.

Though I was the one who had voiced the question, I wasn’t sure my brain would be able to process what Rhodes was about to say in response. My head hurt, my feet hurt, my hands hurt.

But nothing hurt more than my heart. My soul.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Magda’s face.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the face of the man I’d talked to and the others I had left behind.

It didn’t matter that he had been the one who told me to run. That he’d run behind me with the others. That, somehow, he believed in me, or what I could be. Magda had died because she believed I was the Spirit Priestess. And I was so busy trying not to think about what that meant, that I hadn’t been able to help her in the end.

What kind of person did that make me?

What kind of person was I that I could leave those people behind, even after I’d tried to help them out of their shackles, after I tried to help them stand? I had left them after running through the forest, but I hadn’t stayed with them. I hadn’t gone with them to make sure they actually found a place to hide. I had left them because I needed to run to safety.

That man had told me to go, said the others would be safe. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if I had convinced myself to believe him because I wanted to fight for myself? And only myself.

“Lyric? What’s wrong?” Rhodes cursed under his breath, and I looked over at him. There was a jagged cut along his cheekbone that I wanted to reach out and try to soothe. I didn’t know when he’d gotten hurt because it hadn’t been there before we were split up after we’d met Slavik. Maybe it had happened when the wall had fallen, or perhaps it had happened before that when we’d been apart. I just didn’t know. But did it really matter?

“Lyric? Did he hurt you? Did any of them hurt you? I didn’t see Slavik again, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more of his people there. If I could go back and kill them all for you, annihilate them for myself for that matter, I would. But we had to get out of there when we had the chance.

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