The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(82)

Leo and Kyra moved up the hall, gathering the women and children from Arindam’s harem, but they did not find Prija.

“I don’t hear her,” Kyra said. “I thought I did, but now there are too many voices and I can’t tell.”

Leo knew she must be getting overwhelmed. He grabbed her hand.

She shook her head. “It’s not helping. Not anymore.”

“Let’s get them out of here,” Leo said.

He looked in the last room on the right side. It was empty, but there was a long stringed instrument in the corner. “Kyra?”

“Yes?” Kyra was trying to pick up two children who were tugging on her legs.

“Did Prija play an instrument?”

“Yes. It was stringed. Kind of… a teardrop shape. It had a blue jewel on the face.”

He turned to the human woman next to him, the one from the room across the hall. This woman also looked half-dead and was nursing a baby. A boy from the looks of her pallor.

“The woman they kept in here,” he asked the mother. “Was she like you?”

“No.” The woman pointed to the Grigori children. “She was like them. But darker. Evil like the men.”

“What happened to her?”

“They took her away,” the woman said. “I don’t know where.”

Leo nodded and ushered the women and children down the hall, jumping ahead to scout the area outside.

The fight had turned from silent to muffled struggle. He could hear scrambling in the forest around him and quick feet in the night, but he could see little. Even with his vision turned up to its most acute with magic, the night was moonless and pitch-black.

“Leo, we need to get them away.”

He nodded. “Will they stay in the van, do you think?”

“They might panic if we leave them.”

Leo heard someone crashing through the bushes. He braced himself to fight, but at the last minute, Sura broke through the trees.

He scanned the group quickly. “No Prija?”

“They moved her.”

“Find her!” Sura said. “I’ll take care of them.” He switched to Burmese and a soothing voice. “My sisters, I will guide you and your little ones away from here.” Leo could see the women and children drawn to Sura and his calm, centered spirit. “Pick up the little ones if you can. It will make the walk easier. Stay together.” He looked back at Leo. “Find Prija. Find her. Rith and Niran are in the temple, but they’re going to need Prija.”

“I’ll find her,” Kyra said. “You take care of the children.” She grabbed Leo’s hand. “Let’s go.”

He followed her without a word.





Chapter Twenty-Three





Kyra could hear Prija. At first the kareshta’s voice was a low murmur. But as the violence erupted around them, Prija’s voice became clearer and clearer. It was a hissing, angry tone that pressed at Kyra’s temples, but instead of running away, Kyra ran toward the pain, clutching Leo’s hand the whole time. As long as she maintained contact, she could sort through the voices. The heavy, violent hum of the Fallen. The panicked souls of the Grigori.

And Prija.

“She’s this way,” Kyra said. “They moved her farther away from the temple.”

A whooshing sound came overhead, like the beat of a giant bird’s wings.

“What is that?” Leo said.

The dark music grew stronger. Fell back. Pulsed and beat like… wings.

“Arindam can fly.”

“Angels don’t actually have wings!” Leo said. “That’s human mythology.”

“This one does.” Kyra ran toward the trees. “Don’t let him see us.”

Leo was looking up instead of looking forward.

“Leo!”

“Cover.” He snapped his attention back to her. “Got it. Where is she?”

“This way.”

Keeping to the edge of the forest, they ran past skirmishes of one against six or seven. Some of the young men were fighting, but not very well. Kyra’s heart broke to see their fresh round faces snuffed out over and over again. They were hardly more than babies. Her anger fueled her, and she kept running.

Prija felt her coming. The kareshta began to jab at Kyra’s mind, sending sharp, painful spikes into it the closer they got.

We came for you, Prija.

Nothing but angry scratching at her mind.

Your brothers came for you. I came for you. Leo came for you.

More anger. This time it pierced her temple and Kyra nearly doubled over in pain.

“Damn her!” Leo shouted, still watching the sky. “Doesn’t she know—”

“She doesn’t know anything at this point,” Kyra said. “Nothing makes sense. Everything is darkness.”

She stood up, swallowed the bile in the back of her throat, and kept running toward Prija. There was a building at the edge of the forest, the farthest building from the temple. Two guards stood in front of it, both carrying guns, both bent over, clutching their temples in pain. Without slowing her run, Kyra drew out her knives and spread her arms, jabbing both Grigori in the back of the neck as she ran past.

Thank you, sister.

Kyra’s burst of violence fed something in Prija, and the mental jabs softened.