Chapter 14 · The Ash Ledger - Chapter 14: The Brother in Chains

Kellan was bleeding.

Mara could see it from thirty feet out, dark streaks down his temple, the kind that came from something metal and blunt. He sat slumped against a stone post in the center of the chamber, wrists cuffed above his head. The chains were short. He couldn't stand. Couldn't even sit up straight.

He saw her coming and flinched.

"Kellan," she said.

He turned his face away.

Rowan stopped beside her. His hand went to the mark on his wrist. "It's counting down. Two minutes."

"I know."

"Mara—"

"I know."

She crossed the room. Her boots echoed too loud. Kellan pulled his knees up, chains scraping stone. His uniform was torn at the shoulder. Someone had written a prisoner number across his collarbone in black ink. The sight of it made her chest hurt.

"Kellan, look at me."

He didn't.

"I'm getting you out."

"Don't." His voice cracked. "Don't touch me."

She knelt in front of him anyway. Up close the blood was worse. His left eye was swollen shut. Whoever did this hadn't been quick about it.

"Who did this to you?"

Kellan shook his head. Not wouldn't say. Couldn't.

"Kellan—"

"You shouldn't have come.