I hadn’t pressed the trigger when I had the chance. Now, even if I did, three lives would be forfeit instead of one.
“Ellyana…” Long, calloused fingers scraped against my shoulder. “Lower the gun.” Galenor’s voice brushed defeat against my temple, his arms wrapping around me, around my shoulders and torso, covering me in warmth.
“Lower the gun, muffin,” he said again, his voice sweet like cotton candy, like a cloud moving away to let the sunshine in.
My hands started shaking harder, only held in place by his arms that were slowly claiming my body, inching closer to my wrists to force them down. To make me lower the weapon.
“Lower the gun, love” he said again, the last word dropping me to reality. Forcing understanding through my neurons. Of what I did. Of what I was about to do.
As soon as Gale’s hands moved the gun away, my fingers dropped it to the floor, causing the guards to lower their own and inch closer to us. Five sets of hands caught Galenor, forcing his touch away from me and pinning him in place.
But his eyes never left mine. Darkness and life crashed together, forging a deeper connection that neither of us had ever thought possible.
I’d been ready to die for him. I put my life on the line for his.
Understanding that everything was lost, I launched myself into him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.
“Galenor,” I squeezed him tightly to my chest, not caring about the guards, about the analytics team that would probably demand my resignation as soon as they left, about my future.
“Ellyana...” he whispered my name with conviction, his head moving to lean against my shoulder, his arms already wrapped in iron behind his back. He must have been in so much pain, but he did not show it. Not for a second.
“I don’t deserve your tears, muffin.” I don’t know how he sensed that I was crying, but there was no point in hiding it. I lifted my eyes to his, blinking rapidly to unblur his face from the tears.
“I’m scared they’re going to hurt you…” I sighed, my lips trembling at the expulsion of my new reality.
Galenor smiled, his lips curling with a grateful cheer before he pressed his forehead to mine in the only connection we had left. “I’ll be okay…”
It had become our motto, the words following us every day. In every situation.
“You’ll be okay,” I had told him when I didn’t even know what he was, just a fresh faerie out of a box.
“You’ll be okay,” he’d repeated to me during the night filled with nightmares.
Now, we were adding another moment to the list.
“I’ll be okay,” he murmured again as the guards forced him away from me and escorted him out of the room.
I remained limp, in shock and alone, watching the door close and the hilt of a gun crashing against Galenor’s head.
Time passed and I remained oblivious, watching the door seal and looking into the wall as if my eyes would magically adapt and let me follow Galenor. My heart thumped, chest palpitating with fear, dreading what they were about to do to him.
Hating myself for not being able to stop them.
A rope twisted around my neck as my eyes fluttered upwards, toward the ceiling. Realising all the cameras were watching. That an entire team had witnessed my breakdown, my inability to do my job. The job I was hired for.
The job that was supposed to build my future.
“Hello?” I barely muttered, terrified of what I was supposed to hear from the other end.
“Yes, Captain Harrow?”
I blinked and gave myself a moment. Trying to get a better grasp of my words. Doing my best to find the exact sentence I wanted to utter. Every cell in my body screamed at me to apologise, to ask for forgiveness and a second chance, while my heart ordered me to keep quiet and stand my ground. To stand against the violence Galenor was suffering through.
“What is the process of my release?” I asked instead.
“Captain?” the robotic voice replied, dispersing confusion even through the voice changing software.
“Isn’t this assignment terminated?” Of course they wanted me to drown in my agony, to grovel and beg not to be fired. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
