A bestial howl shattered the haze.
"TONIO BREAK! NOT WANT TO LIVE! DIE. FAST DIE!"
His broken nose didn't hammer the pavement, and the darkness edging on his consciousness retreated. So did the torn, spinning lines that filled his vision. At least, enough to look at Joss' still hand around his hair. The man glared at Tonio.
Turning his neck toward the rat-man was a torture of popping joints and groaning bones. They were on the brink of shattering. No, they would have if his truth of endurance hadn't held them together. Or would his face have caved in first? The cold of death already slithered into his limbs, trying to stiffen them before he drew his last breath.
When his gaze finally found Tonio through the curtain of blood that turned his vision red, the rat-man clawed the ground. Nail marks criss-crossed the pavement. He had tried to lift himself all along, but the machetes' hilts pinning his wrists to the ground barely trembled. The enlarged wound squeezed Kael's chest. Tonio tried to slide his hands free, even if they would have been cut in half. But the edges of the blade reflected his furry face, while the blunt side pressed against his wounds.
What had Tonio said? Kael's hazy mind strained to piece together the words.
Joss spread his palms, dangling Kael's head. "Die? No, no, no. No one cares if you're broken. Garrick wants you alive, so sit tight and watch me break the dumb brat's head. Then you can enjoy your new life, while I enjoy mine." His lips curled into a smirk that oozed blood from his wounded left cheek. "Well, enjoys is a big word for what that bastard will do to you, or anyone he uses for that matter, but the slums and him will hardly concern me anymore."
"FASTER! TONIO DIE NOW!" Tonio didn't answer. All he watched was Kael. Tears were gone from his red eyes, and a glint Kael had never seen shone in their places. No... he had seen that glint in Giovanni's eyes. Right in front of the facility in the sewers.
Don't want to live. Die. Break...
Kael gasped, air hissing down his tight windpipe. His eyes widened, and even pain couldn't stop him from screaming back. "Don't do it! Stop talking!"
Joss jerked his head like a toy, but Kael continued in a voice as torn as his face. "It won't work. Els! Use it. Take Tonio and run!"
"B-But—" Still gripping her right arm, Els stammered.
Kael interrupted her, his voice so urgent that even Joss' scowl arched. "No buts! Get out before that fool breaks his anchor!"
With two hilt-deep machetes pinning Tonio to the ground, breaking his anchor to swell like Giovanni must have been the best idea Tonio's limited mind came up with. A terrible one that sent tremors across Kael's agonising body.
With how fast Tonio stressed his anchor, the break would be more violent than Giovanni's. An anchor-ghast would form. And if it did, losing himself wouldn't be the most terrifying. It would be to kill those he tried to save with his own hands. He would become a monster for nothing!
Kael wouldn't allow it.
Joss wouldn't either. His grey eyes widened as fast as he hurled Kael against the wall. "You mad creature! You'll doom us all!"
Shivering for the first time, he ran towards Tonio, who continued to scream that he wanted to die. But Kael focused on someone else. Across from him, in the corner of the room, Els rose. Shadows pooled around her, clinging to her darkened shirt, pants, and auburn hair until only the green glint of her eyes filtered through.
It was eerie enough for Kael to hold his breath as she moved. The shadows melded into her skin, bringing back her grey-and-green dress down to the last patched rag. She bent, her right arm falling before rising, one of the arrows he had scavenged clutched in her hand. The pain was gone, replaced by terror. The same one she felt that night.
But it was the terror of what would happen to her, to Tonio, and likely to him, that made her lock on Joss despite her shivers. He would reach Tonio first, head lowered, while she ran across from him, arrow raised overhead, aimed at Joss' lowered head.
Memories of their shared week filled her teary eyes, and her hand trembled for a heartbeat. Kael watched them flash across her face.
Tonio's solemn face as he called her a miracle-bringer when they melted tallow together. She had laughed, but not as much as when he melted his first candle with a childish grin. He could almost hear Tonio's howls claiming she was better than Kraghor each time she cooked him the rats they caught.
Better than a god? To Tonio, at least, she must have been. She was here, not a distant bastard ignoring prayers. Even though she would always prioritise her own life, Tonio was family. A bit stupid in an attaching way, sometimes troublesome, but loyal, someone she could risk herself for.
And Kael... Though they grew apart recently, they had known each other since the crib. He cared for her, killed for her, took her with him to this small and dirty shelter, in which she had never felt safer since her dad died.
A steely glint entered her eyes, and she slammed the arrow down. "We'll stay together!"
Joss lunged at Tonio, his head right beneath the arrow, his arms extended. Kael clenched his jaw as the tip reflected the man's short hair, almost digging into his skull. It wouldn't work. Nothing had.
He felt it as clearly as his cracked bones.
Right before metal dug into skin, Joss' right hand shot up. His fingers clenched the arrow shaft as its head kissed his skin.
Els gripped the shaft with both hands, tears flying with her swaying hair. She pushed. It refused to move. She tried to pull it back and strike again.
Joss wrenched the arrow to the side, and her feet left the ground. She crashed on her back beside Tonio, her weapon torn from her grip. The impact emptied her lungs. Her hands flew to her neck; she gasped, her face purpling.
Joss barely glanced at her. "You'll pay in due time." Then, he lifted both fists over Tonio's head.
Tonio glared up, heaving burning breaths through lips curled over his squarish teeth. "BAD MAN. WORSE THAN DOGS. TONIO SAVE FRIENDS. SAVE FAMILY. NO SURVIVE. BREAK ANCHOR NOW."
"Too late."
Joss brutally slammed his fists against Tonio's skull.
The rat-man's eyes rolled, their light blinking like dying embers. Before the light extinguished, he forced them down, the red irises locked onto Kael, who pressed his back against the wall.
Kael returned the gaze through the sweat, blood, and bile dripping down his dark hair. Then, he shook his head. "Sleep, Tonio. We'll be together when you wake up. Els, too."
Guilt, rage, and sadness flickered in Tonio's rolling eye. They settled on trust at the last second, right when his head slumped on the wet ground.
Behind him, Els rolled and struggled on her knees. Her arms trembled, but she still tried to push herself up, to reach for Tonio even if Joss towered over him.
Kael's voice came in a cold command as he picked up his knife. "Move back." He pushed the wall, propelling his shaky legs into the closest thing he could manage to a charge. Something so slow that Joss chuckled.
"And what can you do? You're on your last legs. You'll die if I push you a little too hard." Joss drew one of his machetes from Tonio's limp wrist. He pointed it at Kael, gesturing to approach with his other hand.
Kael paused in front of the machete, blood dripping over his tightly pressed lips. His eyes darted to his ledger. It hovered beside him, silently witnessing his choices. Ethereal. Open on the page recording his unowned truths.
Then, he grinned. "You're too strong, Joss Renn. I can't beat you or your truth of predictions." He lowered his knife, locking on a single entry. "I just want to know why you're so sure that capturing Tonio will give you a new life. You can do this before pushing me to my death, right?"
"I could waste my breath answering." Joss touched his bloody left cheek, his grey eyes narrowing. Not with calm or rage, but with rekindled zeal. "No, I'll follow the rules in delivering judgment. The rat-man is my key out of this war. But your little girlfriend's head and yours, the heads of noxious heretics, are my golden ticket to Veston. Morvana left a thread of redemption in the fate she wove for an exiled follower. I'm going home, in the grace of her church, far from scum born in this pit."
He waved his machete, his lips curved like a gang lord enjoying burning his debtor's last hope rather than a man of the gods delivering judgment. "In the name of Morvana, weaver of fates, I have stood witness to your unauthorised use of truths. Your heresy shan't go unpunished. In light of her name, I seek to restore balance and hereby sentence you to death."
Kael exchanged a glance with Els as she crawled away from Joss, both their shoulders stiffening at what was implied.
Joss was an exiled priest.
And he had been after them!