Page 96 of Empire of Light

My limbs numb, my feet slow, I walked toward the counter and grabbed my phone, then turned and walked out of the cell and to the next room.

“Go in,” Damen said when I paused at the closed door.

Dread seeping into my chest, but not having a clue what was behind the door, I pulled on the handle slowly. It creaked on its ancient hinges and my face went to a cringe, afraid of what I would see inside.

I stepped in, opening my eyes.

Cages. Twenty or so different-sized cages. Different birds in every one.

All of them tweeting, chirping at me the second I stepped into the room. Bright, lively birds, disgruntled I’d walked in on their peace.

My lips moved, words coming woodenly out of my mouth. “What in the hell is this?”

“The canary in the coal mine, so to speak.” Damen’s voice reached me.

I looked down at the phone I held aloft in my hand. “What?”

“When I was in your mind—when Oriane put me into your mind, your memory of that day when you killed Rodo and Lyle and all the others—I saw what you saw. I saw all of the bodies that you walked past. Even outside, bodies you had to step over for a good few miles.”

“Y-yes…” The word choked out of my throat.

“You didn’t hear it—I know you didn’t because I could feel you as you and you were in such a stupor, just stumbling along after that happened, but I did. I heard what your mind heard, but what you’ve never acknowledged.”

“What did you hear?”

“I heard birds.” The excitement was clear in his voice.

“Birds?”

“Yes. Birds. Outside. Even when you were at your most explosive, you didn’t kill them. You didn’t kill the animals. There was a dog too, wandering on the outside of your periphery in the woods outside that mansion. You didn’t kill the animals.”

“I didn’t kill the animals?” A whisper from my lips and my body failed me. I sank down to the stone floor, thunderstruck, my legs giving out. Birds chirping at the mayhem in my movements.

Damen’s voice came from the phone resting in my lap. “You’ve always had control, Ada. You just never knew. Never trusted it.”

“I…I…”

“Don’t move. I’m already on my way up.”

With those words, I could hear chopper blades echoing down through the stones of the castle, quickly approaching.

I didn’t think I could move if I tried.

Chapter32

{ Ada }

In a blink of time, Damen appeared in the undercrofts, rushing into the chamber, skidding onto his knees at my side as he wrapped me in his hold.

I leaned into him, hard, all the energy in my body leaving me after what I’d just done.

Just learned.

He kissed the top of my head. “You did good. Real good.”

His hand slipped down to my belly, flattening against my abdomen.

My eyes went huge to him, fear striking so fully in my chest I started choking.