The Last Veilborn

Chapter 5

I stayed beside Riven for a few more seconds, even though I already knew there was nothing I could do for him anymore. My hands were shaking badly, but I forced myself to check his pulse one more time because accepting his death felt impossible, especially when only minutes ago he was still talking to me through the comms and warning me not to do anything reckless. He was my brother, my teammate, and one of the few people who had stayed beside me through every mission, so seeing him lying there made the entire warehouse feel unreal.

"Riven, please, you can't just leave me here with this mess after everything we've been through. You always said I'd be the one causing trouble after every mission, so get up and complain about me again like you always do. You can yell at me later, you can call me reckless, you can tell me that I ignored your orders, but just get up and say something."

He didn't move.

I lowered my head and pressed my hand against his shoulder, hoping that some reaction would prove I was wrong about him being gone. I waited for his chest to rise, for his fingers to move, or for him to open his eyes and tell me that I was making everything more dramatic than it really was. Nothing happened, and the silence that followed felt worse than the explosion that had destroyed the warehouse.

For the first time that night, I didn't know what to do.

I had been trained to fight creatures, to identify their weaknesses, and to keep moving even when fear made it difficult to breathe. I had been trained to protect civilians, follow orders, and make decisions when everything around me was falling apart. I had been trained to survive almost any situation, but nobody had trained me to stand beside my brother's body and accept that I was the only one still breathing.

Nobody taught me how to look at the people I considered family and accept that I had failed to protect them. I had spent years believing that if we stayed together and trusted each other, we would always find a way out of any mission. Now I was surrounded by their bodies, and that belief was lying on the warehouse floor with them.

A noise came from the other side of the warehouse, and I immediately raised my weapon while forcing myself to focus through the pain and confusion. The emergency lights flickered again, turning the warehouse into a series of broken images where the walls, containers, and bodies appeared for a second before disappearing into darkness. I turned toward the sound, expecting the creature to return, but nothing appeared, so I scanned the area slowly and checked every corner, every broken container, and every dark space between the support beams.

Nothing moved.

I lowered my weapon slightly, but I didn't relax because the silence felt wrong and the creature had already proven that it could move without making enough noise for us to track it. Then I remembered Lyra, and the thought of her being somewhere inside the warehouse while I stood beside Riven forced me to move again. I stood up, tightened my grip around my weapon, and started searching through the wreckage.

"Lyra, if you can hear me, respond now because I'm coming to find you, and I need you to give me any sign that you're still alive."

My voice echoed through the warehouse, but no answer came back.

"Lyra, please answer me, even if you're injured or trapped somewhere, because I can't find you if you stay silent and I'm not leaving this place without knowing what happened to you."

I moved past the bodies and checked every area where she could have been thrown after the attack. I found her weapon first, lying several meters away from the main corridor with its light still blinking, but she was nowhere around it. My chest tightened as I looked at the blood on the floor and tried to follow the trail through the dust, broken glass, and scattered equipment.

"Lyra!"

Still nothing.

I kept moving, calling the others one by one even though every unanswered name made the fear inside me grow heavier.

"Kael, answer me if you can hear my voice because I need to know where you are before this place collapses completely."

Nothing came through the comms.

"Maelis, respond now, even if you can only give me your location or a single word, because I need to know whether you're trapped somewhere in the warehouse."

Silence answered me.

"Eryx!"

I stopped when I saw a small movement near the communications room, and for the first time since finding Riven, hope forced its way through the fear in my chest. I immediately ran toward the movement, nearly slipping on the broken concrete before dropping beside him.

"Eryx, stay with me and keep your eyes open because I'm going to get you out of here."

He was still breathing, but barely, and his face was covered in dust and blood. His eyes opened when I touched his shoulder, and the weak movement of his head told me that he was conscious enough to understand what was happening around him.

"Caelan..."

"Stay awake, Eryx, and don't close your eyes again because I need you to listen to me while I get you away from this equipment. You're injured, but you're still alive, and as long as you're still breathing, I'm going to find a way to get you out of this warehouse."

"I can't feel my legs."

"Don't move them, and don't try to stand because you could make the injury worse. I'm going to pull you away from the damaged equipment first, then I'll find a way to get you outside where the medical team can treat you."

He looked at me for a few seconds, but instead of answering, his eyes moved toward the warehouse floor. I followed his gaze and saw the bodies scattered across the concrete, each one belonging to someone we had entered the warehouse with only a short time ago.

"Are they..."

I knew what he was asking, but I couldn't force myself to answer because saying the truth out loud would make it real. His expression changed when he saw my face, and the fear in his eyes told me that he already understood more than I wanted him to.

"Everyone?"

I swallowed hard and tried to keep my voice steady.

"I'm going to get you out first, and once you're safe, we'll come back for the others. I'm not going to leave anyone here, but I need to move you before the creature returns or the rest of the ceiling comes down."

"Caelan, don't lie to me."

His voice became quieter, but there was still enough strength in it to stop me from pretending. I looked away because I couldn't meet his eyes while giving him the answer he already knew.

Eryx closed his eyes, and for several seconds, neither of us spoke. The alarms continued sounding somewhere in the distance, but they felt far away compared to the silence between us. Then he whispered the question I had been trying to avoid.

"They're gone, aren't they?"

I couldn't force the words out, so I simply nodded while keeping my hand on his shoulder. His breathing became uneven, and he turned his face away as if he needed a moment to understand that the entire team had been destroyed in a matter of minutes.

"Riven too?"

I looked at him and felt my throat tighten.

"Yes, Eryx, Riven is gone too, and I'm sorry because I know how much he meant to you. I checked him myself, and I stayed beside him longer than I should have, but there was nothing I could do to bring him back."

Eryx covered his face with one hand while trying to control his breathing.