The door bangs open, and this time I truly believe the lights in the entire Amethyst District are out and this is the final stand against the Evernight. The Moon King's creatures have finally slipped inside the city and the House of Horns has been compromised. If the nightstalkers made it this far, that must mean all the lorkins upstairs are in bloody pieces.

Venjo.

My heart surprisingly tugs for him because of the revelation Zuma had shared with me. Is he among the dead? I'll never get to thank him for saving me, even though living only brought me death again.

The nightstalker vision I'd imagined is suddenly more real than I can handle. A tear escapes my closed eyes, sliding down across my temple, stinging the fresh cut left there by Zuma. I can't breathe anymore, despite my gasping attempts.

Something suddenly grabs my arm, heat setting my skin aflame, claws digging into my skin. My eyes and mouth open at the same time as I finally unleash a shriek into the dark. In a second, I'm blinded by white light and the grip on my arm vanishes only to cover my mouth instead, muting my scream. For once, the light is much worse than the dark and I wish I could die without seeing what horrible thing found me. I want to close my eyes, I need to, but I can't. I'm a prisoner to my own fear.

I blink through the light, my eyes trailing up to find familiar liquid steel eyes.

"Shh..." Venjo slowly pulls his hand away from my mouth. "Don't scream. They'll hear you and the lights will be back on soon."

I give him a slight nod, although it may seem like more of a tremble to him. I must look all shades of broken under the white beam of the lightstick he grips in his other hand.

"You—" I manage to croak out. "Why are you here?" My voice shakes, mirroring the frenzied beating of my heart.

"I'm asking myself the same question in my head," he answers. He seems as breathless as me, moving quickly as he sets the lightstick down on the table next to me, then reaches into the pocket of his pants, pulling out a small ribbed cylinder that looks strangely familiar.

"Is that a torcher?" My voice hitches at the word, worrying what he will do with the mini-torch of blue fire famed to be able to cut through anything. I teeter on the edge of disbelief and fear that he might have come to finish Zuma's job. Her reveal about Venjo could've just been another game meant to taunt me, to break me before he was sent in to do the real torture.

Venjo clicks on the torch as an answer to my question. A thin blue flame extends from the small cylinder, reaching about as long as a finger. His jaw works under his skin, his brow creased as he keeps his gaze away from mine.

"Calm down," he says, his voice a quiet hiss. "I'm not going to hurt you." The smell of my fear must be overwhelming him, but I'm not sorry, trying to control it isn't an option at this point. He leans down toward my right arm, his eyes focused on the cuff at my wrist as he inches the flame closer. "With the electricity off, I can't unlock the cuffs, I'll have to cut through them. Now, be still or you'll be burned, okay?"

I nod a little more fiercely than I mean to, earning me a stern glare from Venjo, who nearly has the mini-torch at my wrist. One wrong move on my end and I'll have a whole new set of scars. The flame heats my skin as he cuts through the cuff. It's too hot, burning my skin like steam from boiling water. I shudder as I breathe, so I try to hold my breath instead, but it doesn't help because the silence is too much. Only moments pass, but it feels like an eternity before the torcher is away from my wrist and the cuff falls free, clanking against the silver table. Venjo quickly moves around the table to my other arm.

"Tell me why," I say through the silence. "Why save me on City's Edge? Why save me now?"

Venjo shakes his head, a dark wave falling across his brow, and my eyes are drawn to his ebony horns, reminding me just how different we are. His existence is etched in strength, branded with loyalty, streaked with pride, and drowned in regret. I see him in this dim light, clearer than ever before. He doesn't have to say anything because the words are there, written under his skin, resting on his lips but never leaving. But I wish he would say something.

"There's no time," he says as he finishes through the cuff on my left, then moves to my ankles. I keep my free arms at my sides, afraid to move while suffocating in the silence between us. When the final cuffs clank against the table, I jolt upright.

I need to speak, but I don't know what to say. With my heart in my throat, I stand from the table, my legs wobbly and weak. Tripping over my feet, I stumble into Venjo's hard frame and he catches me against his side. He shines the light in my face, scanning my gaze closely. I loll my head back as my vision blurs.

"Did she drug you?" he asks, his voice on the edge of a whisper and a growl. He leans down, grazing the tip of his nose against my neck, and inhales. The side of one of his horns brushes against my cheek, and the coolness of its touch is refreshing against my sweaty, clammy face. "Nether," he says as he pulls away and tucks me under his arm. "She must've given you a small dose. Just enough to weaken your body in case you tried to escape."

I'd once seen the dark blue flower that only grows in the dark, crushed and cooked for various effects on the mind and body. Luckily, it seems Zuma only injected a small dose of Nether into my legs, reaching and touching my mind the slightest, making me feel as though Venjo and I are creeping along instead of hustling toward the door. A larger dose would've left me immobile, unconscious to the world as I swam in dreams of my memories, which was why addicts were also mostly mourners.

I have no memories to mourn. My dreams would just be reflections of loneliness, night, horns and teeth.

"You can smell it on me?" I ask as we fall into step together out into the dark hall. Venjo holds his lightstick in front of us, illuminating a path, bearing my weight as I move my nearly useless legs to the best of my ability.

"A faint trace," he whispers. "Smells like mud."

Jumbled footsteps echo above us, reminding me that I'm not free yet. "Zuma won't be gone for long," I tell him, desperately trying to pick up my pace. "She'll drag the rest of them down here. I'm—" I grunt as my leg buckles and I drop to my knee. I bury my pain and look up at him, finishing my sentence. "I'm too slow. I can't. You're going to get yourself caught too."

Venjo digs in his pocket and pulls out a small clear tube, holding it in the aura of his white lightstick. Inside the tube is orange dust, the same color as the once-burning sun. Ether. "This will bump up your adrenaline. You'll be able to move on your own in a few seconds if you inhale this now." He moves to pour a line of the dust onto the edge of his hand for me to snort, but I stop him.

I wave him off, and move to stand, knowing what else will come with the spiked energy. Hallucinating while running for my life doesn't sound like the best of ideas, even if my instincts sometimes lead me astray. Venjo nods stiffly and shoves the tube back into his pocket before offering his arm to me again. Then we hobble forward, the echoing footsteps thundering ever closer as we head toward the garage.

"Do you always keep Ether in your pants?" I whisper, trying to distract myself the darkness of the hall reaching for me, sending shivers across my skin again.

Venjo's arm tenses under my hands. "No, I came prepared."

"I still don't understand why you're doing this."

We reach the thick steel doors to the garage, where all of the House of Horns' vehicles are held. With the pounding footsteps now comes the distant sound of voices. My heart climbs higher in my throat as Venjo pushes open the door with his shoulder.

"Because you don't deserve this," he finally answers, his quiet voice ricocheting against the walls of my mind, leaving scratches and cracks along its fragile surface. "We all deserve this for the things we've done for riches and power. But you don't."

"But what about Ekon?" I argue as he brings us to the closest zoomer. "Your friend is dead because of me."

As the footsteps and voices echo from the hallway and through the open door, I realize we weren't quick enough. They'll find Venjo helping me escape and they will drag him back to the Chamber as a traitor to his blood and horns. Did he know this would happen when he made the choice to save me?

I lightly slide my hand across his back, giving his side a squeeze as we reach the zoomer. "Thank you," I tell him as I stealthily inch my hand into his pocket. Wrapping my fingers around the torcher and the Ether, I pull them into my grip before I speak again. "I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you. But this is a start."

He whips his head toward me, confusion creasing between his sharp brows, slight fear freezing his silver eyes, and the cut on his cheek left from his father almost makes me change my mind, but I've already poured the Ether into my hand. When I lift my splayed palm and purse my lips, he knows. My heart tugs with guilt as I blow the Ether dust into his face and he stumbles back, coughing.

They'll see the cuffs too. They'll know they were cut with a torcher, so I keep the mini-torch in my fist as I yank open the door of the zoomer and throw myself into the driver's seat. I slam the door shut and Venjo's roar reaches through the closed windows. I can't help but turn my head and glance at him, a fresh kind of pain stabbing me as I watch him swipe at the empty air, orange dust coating the skin around his nose and mouth. He will truly hate me when he comes back down from the trip, but at least I will know that I saved him too.

I spin back around with a heavy heart, bursting into action when I see movement in the shadowed doorway. Zuma steps into the light cast from Venjo's lightstick he'd dropped on the garage floor. Her gaze twitches over the zoomers, but somehow not on me, then falls on Venjo whose roar has gone silent. She quickly moves to him, followed by a group of lorkins as others spread out across the immense garage. Lightsticks luminate the area in shades of white and green, drifting closer and closer to where I sit with my heart on the brink of exploding in my chest.

"She's still here!" Zuma yells from where Venjo lays on the ground, rolling from side to side in the shadows. "She can't have gotten far! Search the zoomers!"

When the sound of doors being open and shut takes over the silence, I know I have to act now or all of this was for nothing. I brace myself as I find the ignition and press my thumb to the button, cringing when the zoomer roars to life and the headlights beam on, spotlighting a lorkin right in front of me.

I don't even have time to take a breath before I throw the zoomer in reverse, gazing through the back window as I spin the wheel. The zoomer whips around to face the opposite direction as I press my foot against the pedal and I give Venjo one last glance as I pass him, his eyes wide and bloodshot, watching me blow past. Lorkins roar, screaming curses as me as I accelerate past them, my heart speeding about as fast as the zoomer.

Yet it all seems so slow with the Nether still latching onto the corners of my mind.

Shocked, angry faces and white and green lights blur past as I drive toward the closed garage doors, both hands on the padded steering wheel. I close my eyes, sinking lower into the leather seat as I press my foot farther into the pedal, waiting for impact. The zoomer accelerates and tears through the garage door. Metal screams against metal. I'm in the air for a brief moment, the zoomer ramping out from the garage then landing on the concrete outside, tires screeching in a drift as I turn the wheel.

I pause, daring to glance back through the window at the scrambling lorkins. They point and scream at each other as some load up into zoomers.

Then there is Venjo, lying on the floor, staring through the chaos and his haze, straight at me. I try to remind myself that I saved him from being seen and this was the only way to save us both. I push the zoomer forward again, leaving the House of Horns behind once and for all, but a piece of my heart remains in the garage, discarded on the ground next to him with the empty tube of Ether.