Killian lurches for me as the pillar crumbles down. The force of his body hitting mine catapults the both of us backwards. I land atop his chest as his arms wrap around me and he flips us over, shielding me with his body as I skid across the staircase, only halting once we whack the bannister.

Screams slice through the rumble of the crumbling room. Killian hovers above me, eyes wide.

"Are you alright?" My vision blurs from the force of the blow. Behind him, the room glows amber. "Freya."

He grabs my shoulders, shaking frantically. A jagged cut runs across his forehead. "You're bleeding," I say, reaching up to touch him.

He catches me hand. "We need to get out of here."

He pushes off me, getting to his feet and pulling me up afterwards. Dust clouds in the air. It burns red as it mingles with the smoke, thickening the air in the room. At the bottom of the staircase King Ereon meets my gaze. Amidst the chaos, he does not move, even as the flames grow behind him. He takes a step towards us, but the stairs give out.

There isn't enough time to go for shelter as I crouch clinging to the banister, shielding my face as the stone thunders to the ground between the King and I, eliciting sharp screams from the crowd on the other side.

Killian leans over to tear the bottom of my gown, holding the material towards me. "Cover your mouth."

I do as he says. "The explosion—"

Without warning, the bannister supporting me crumbles. The ground beneath my feet gives way. I manage to catch a hold of the ledge of the staircase, my feet flailing in the air. Flames from below lick my ankles, sinking the bottom of my gown.

"Killian!" I scream.

His hand wraps around my wrist and he pulls me back over the side. My mind races and I clutch the neck of his shirt, my body quivering. He reluctantly steps back, wrapping his hand around mine before I can protest.

"We have to get out of here. Now."

"Samu--"

"The second explosion is scheduled to go off five minutes after the first. If we're anywhere near it, we'll be nothing but dust."

His words send terror straight to my chest. I survey our surroundings. We're the only two on the staircase, but I can't see much further below. The entire ballroom is shrouded in a dust cloud burning red, the room filled with screams that haunt my mind.

Killian tugs on my hand, pulling me up the staircase. I don't protest as we sprint, taking two steps at a time, to get to the next level. At the top of the stairs, Killian pauses to survey the scene below. He pulls me back as another pillar starts to crumble, the foundations failing without support from the others.

We run, tearing through the maze-like halls away from the ballroom. Killian leads me through like he's been here before, distant screams of terror the soundtrack to our escape. My breath is ragged, my throat raw, back still aching from being thrown across the room, but I press on, Killian's grip in mine the only steadying constant in the crumbling castle.

Killian kicks down a wooden door and we burst into the room. It's an office with a small window—he lets go of my hand to kick that out, too, finally turning to face me.

"We're going to have to climb down. It's the only way out."

I swallow, stepping towards the window as Killian tears the curtain railing down and hacks the curtain with his dagger. The sky is dark, but this is significantly lower to the ground than the room I was staying, below the cloud. For the first time since arriving, I can see the landscape below. A vibrant village dots the barren landscape nestled in between the mountains, much larger than Veymaw and the forge combined. Can they see the smoke coming from the castle? Hear the screams?

When I turn back to Killian, he's tied the curtain into some sort of rope. He reaches forward to tie one end around my waist.

"What're you doing?" I ask.

"I don't have a rope and there's nothing strong enough to secure you inside this room." He grabs the other end and knots it around his waist, looking up at me.

"This thing will just mean I'll drag you down with me."

He tightens the knot around my waist, leaving his hands there as he raises his gaze to mine. "I won't let you fall."

Beneath us, the ground rumbles.

"We need to go now."

I take his hand as he helps me clamber through the small window. My body trembles, but there's no time for hesitation as I gain a foothold in the uneven stones, not allowing myself to look below as Killian clambers through the window after me. He gracefully manoeuvres himself so he's beside me and we slowly scale the castle side, Killian pausing to wait for me several times.

The earth wavers beneath my feet when I finally drop to it. An icy bite hangs in the air, but that has little to do with the quivering of my body as the melted snow gathers at the bottom of my singed gown. Killian jumps to the ground. Teeth chattering, I wrap my arms around myself to fight off the cold.

Killian reaches for my waist, unwinding the curtain rope and casting it aside before working at the buttons of his dress coat. Blood stains his collar, and much like the bottom of my dress, his sleeves are charred. He discards it behind the castle wall.

"Killian?"

"What's wrong?" He gently grabs my face, turning it from left to right. "Are you hurt?"

"I-I'm fine."

Still, his eyes rake my face for injuries, fingers brushing the hair back from my neck as if he'll find hidden wounds.

"What happened?" I whisper. "The explosion--"

"It malfunctioned. Something must have set it off early."

His eyes have stopped searching, but his hands remain where my jaw meets my neck. I know I should shove him away, but they're so warm in the bite of the night.

I swallow the lump in my throat. "I thought you'd left. I couldn't see you in the crowd and I thought you'd left because I'd asked you to."

"I wouldn't have left even if you begged me to."

"Thank you," I whisper.

He drops his hands to his sides, expression darkening. "I swear to you, Freya, the next time I lay my eyes upon her, I'll kill her."

A fire rages in the depths of his eyes, more violent than the one that singed the bottom of my dress. It makes me think of how he looked at me in the alcove, the look of horror marking his expression. How can two such differing expressions come from the same man?

The memory chokes me.

"Samu," I say.

He nods, blinking the fire from his eyes. "Come on."

I follow him to the corner of the building, peering over his shoulder. A stone courtyard lined with barren, leave-less hedges lie before us. The path leading through the hedges appears vacant, a single sword dropped at the foot of the narrow path leading to the castle. I cast my gaze upwards, shock coursing through me. The mountains burn red in the hue of the burning castle.

"It's clear," Killian whispers, grabbing my hand. "Come on."

We slink through the shadows like a pair of thieves. And despite what happened in the alcove, no matter the burning memory of his lips upon mine, I've never felt more secure than I do with my hand clasped tightly in his, fingers intertwined.

On the opposite side of the courtyard the ground transitions to dirt, Killian lowers to his knees. Dropping my hand, he brushes fallen leaves and dirt back from the ground, revealing double wooden doors with a rusted latch. He fiddles with it for no longer than a few moments, eventually pulling both doors open to reveal a dark, narrow staircase leading into the ground.

I stare at the passage, swallowing my apprehension. "He's down there?" Killian nods. "And what about Casimir and Elex?"

"If all went to plan, they'll be well into the tunnels by now," Killian says. The thought unnerves me. What if the malfunction was because something happened to them? "Hey." Killian grabs my arm, reading my anxieties. "I know we have our differences, but I've never met another deserter as skilled as Casimir."

"And Elex?"

"Elex is smart enough to do what Casimir says."

I return his smile with a weary one of my own before taking the step into the deep abyss.

#

If outside was cold, underground, it is well below freezing. The sound of my teeth chattering fills the halls as Killian and I press forward, a distant methodical drip of water echoing through the walls made of stone. Ancient spider webs hang low, close to our heads. I can barely see a few feet ahead, relying only on the sounds of Killian to direct my path in the icy passage.

Killian, clothed in less than even me after discarding his coat, is either unbothered by the cold or extremely good at masking it. He walks so close to me our arms brush every so often, and the warmth of his skin so close draws me closer.

I don't dare reach for his hand, no matter how tempting. Right now, I just need to focus on getting to wherever Samu is and getting the hell out of here.

"What is this place?" I murmur, my voice echoing off the walls as I gaze up at the ceiling.

"The old prison cells," Killian says, taking a right when we reach a fork in the path. "As far as I know, they're not used anymore. They have others inside the Palace that are more...pleasant."

"But they kept Samu down here?" A ribbon of anger unfurls in my chest. "That's barbaric."

"If my intel is correct, he was moved only recently. When you were brought to the Palace."

The information clicks into place. It makes me think of what King Ereon said to me before the explosion. He'd called me their Kinjri while Elora called me the Cloud Piercer. They thought I'd be able to save a shifter from whatever disease plagued him. They said he was trapped in that form.

"How long were you there?" I ask. "In the ballroom."

"The whole time. I was curious as to what the King would say, but I waited too long before intervening. I didn't think they'd present you with an infected in front of everybody."

"They said he was plagued with the evocian, they asked me to change him." The image flashes across my mind--the red eyes, foam around its snout, raw patches of skin.

I look back at Killian when he doesn't answer. "She had that scrap metal Myers gave me. The same one I threw at the shifter before it took me the night of the Red Moon." I pause. "You told me to keep it. How did you know it meant something to them?"

"Did Elora ever get your blood?" he asks.

"The healer did, well, who I thought was the healer. It was actually King Ereon. He said he needed to run a few tests." Killian doesn't respond, merely picks up the pace. "Why did Elora call me the Cloud Piercer? Does it have something to do with the cloud you told me about? That storm?"

He glances at me over his shoulder. "How much did you tell the King about that storm? When you thought he was the healer?"

"Only what I knew—that a storm rolled over the village and killed a man. I told him I fell and hurt myself. Killian," I grab his arm to stop him. "She said I'm the real Cloud Piercer, that my brother was an imposter. Do you think they took Samu last year mistaking him for me?"

His face remains stoic. "I think that's exactly what happened."

His honesty momentarily shocks me. "But I have no idea what they're talking about. I'm no Cloud Piercer, whatever that is, and I certainly can't cure a shifter from the evocian or whatever was wrong with it."

He stops walking to stare at me. "How do you know?"

"What?"

"How do you know it's all untrue?"

"Because I..." I frown at him. "You don't seriously believe them, do you? Do you even know me?"

"I do." He stops walking to look down at me. "Whatever happens next, don't forget that. I know you, Freya."

The warmth in his gaze rivals his words.

A loud rumbling shakes the ground above us. I dart my eyes up, panicked as Killian grabs my hand and we continue, our conversation forgotten as we start to run through the passageway. It's only when we reach the end of the road that I halt, coming to a half cracked wooden door. I peer through the small window, and my heart drops to the pit of my stomach.

"Samu!" I shout.

Killian pushes me out of the way, kicking the door down. I shove past him, falling to my knees at the limp body cast across the ground. Light streams in from metal grates through the ceiling, moonlight casting lines across his face. Samu.

My fingers shake as I reach out to touch his body, afraid of what I might find. His skin is ice to touch, arm limp when I try to raise it. Bile rises in my throat. "No," I cry. "No no no no no."

I turn him over, more forceful this time. His head flops into my lap. Eyes shut, skin grey, lips blue. An open gash runs along his hairline, the surrounding skin stained red with dried blood.

"Samu!"

Tears stream down my cheeks as I kneel on the ground. I don't bother looking at Killian as he rests to his knees beside, reaching a hand towards me.

"Don't!" I snap.

"Let me help."

I relent, letting Killian brush Samu's hair back and press his fingers behind his ear, listening for a few seconds. He nods. "He's alive."

"Barely. He-he's so cold."

I frantically tear at the bottom layer of my dress, trying to cover his frail body. Killian catches on, taking off yet another layer, leaving him only in an under shirt as he helps to lift Samu's body and pull the long-sleeved shirt over his head.

"We have to get him help," I whisper, looking up to meet Killian's steady gaze. "Something's wrong with him. He's so cold and small and--"

"What's wrong?" he frowns.

Dried blood marks his forehead, trailing all the way down to his cheekbone. Without thought, I reach to touch his face. He doesn't lean away as my fingers brush just beneath his hairline. "Your cut," I breathe. "It's... it's gone."

He reaches up to touch my hand, wrapping it in his and drawing it back down to my side. His eyes don't leave mine for a moment, intoxicating gaze trapping me. Before he can say anything, a shout from outside the room startles us.

I shuffle backwards, dropping Killian's hand and reaching for Samu. "Someone's coming."

Killian rises to his feet, whipping a dagger from his boot and brandishing it in front of him. "Stay down."

The door rattles, then stops, as if the intruder can't seem to twist the doorknob. I search desperately around the room but come up empty. There's only one way in, one way out. And it's blocked by an intruder.

I squeeze Samu tight as a loud bang knocks the door from its hinges, sending it flying across the other side of the room. Two figures stand in the doorway.

My stomach clenches in fear as one of them flashes across the room and stands beneath the moonlight at inhuman speeds. I push to my feet, trying to pick Samu up with me, but his unconscious body is too heavy it weighs me down.

The one at the front's gaze cuts to me, dagger-sharp even through the gauze of their mask. "This her?"

Her companion says something in a language I don't understand.

The woman is not the one to answer--it's Killian. His words roll into sounds foreign to my ears as he steps forward, lowering his dagger. My head spins as he joins the two of them in the moonlight.

~

need I say more?

Yeah... so... would love to know what you think is going on here?

Why do you think the explosions malfunctioned?

What do you think is going to happen next?

Cloud Piercer is almost over, however, this series is going to be a duology. I'd like to know your preference. Would you prefer if the sequel is posted in the same place as Cloud Pierced (like here) or as a new book on Wattpad?