All Chapters of Desires And Captivity: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The first, massive beat of my wings almost tore us out of the dense pine forest. The movement made a sound like lightning striking a mountainside. The shards and the burst of uprooted underbrush immediately hid our exact position from the soldiers below, but the noise gave us away—it told them we were moving upward, toward the highest point. Sadira was in my arms, pressed tightly against my chest. Her body was cold and wet, but her head rested on my shoulder. I had chosen this position for the escape: it was more stable in the wind, and my arms gave her a stronger hold than my back would have.The freshly acquired wound on my shoulder throbbed sharply from the sudden exertion. But the wind I created washed the pain away, replacing it with the clean, cold sensation of freedom. The weight in my arms required only a small additional effort from my wings, which now cut into the air at full span, all ten feet of it.Below us the drones panicked. Some tried to follow our rapid ascent, but t

My coming to myself was not a sudden awakening but a slow, painful return to awareness. At first I felt only the cold — a sharp, bone-deep cold that bit through the wet fabric and my wounds deeper than the keenest knife. The last thing I had felt were my wings, creaking as we fell in the net; now they sat in an uncomfortable, tight pressure, as if strapped back to my shoulder blades. The strap was metal, and with every breath it pressed into the spaces between my ribs.My head throbbed dully. My right arm and shoulder felt as if they didn’t belong to me: burning with pain and yet numb from the cold. For a moment I thought we were still falling along the spine.Then the smells arrived: disinfectants, metal, dust, and the sick, dried scent of our own blood. This was not the mountain.I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but it slowly adjusted to the surroundings: a grey, narrow room whose walls were thick plates of cold metal. A single faint bluish light on the ceiling glowed, not st

Kain’s words, the threatening offer, slowly withered into nothing in the cold silence of the gray cell. He stood before me, his arm bandaged, his posture unarmed yet confident. He knew that the walls of our cell could not be broken from the inside without killing ourselves in the magnetic backlash.“Your life is the price if Sadira dies,” Kain repeated, as if the pragmatism in his voice were a form of mercy.“Go to hell,” I answered, my voice low, thick with hatred. “You think I care about my life if you throw away our last chance because of me?”Kain smiled, but it was a sad smile. “No, Jake. I think you care about Sadira. And that is exactly your weak point.”He turned, grabbed his gun and his coat, then headed for the door.“The commander will ask her where the activation code is. If she doesn’t answer, then… he’ll help her.”My heart sped up in spite of the restraints. I knew exactly what that meant. The soldiers didn’t prefer physical torture when it came to our kind. They used r

The cell door slammed shut, and the mechanical clang swallowed the silence at once. The commander, Kain, and the two armed soldiers stepped into the cramped space. The air thickened immediately under the pressure of tension. Kain’s eyes, though tired, now carried an edge of confidence—he knew the commander’s strength stood firmly behind him. The commander, with his usual cold efficiency, walked straight to my bunk.“Your time is up, Jake,” the commander repeated, his voice deep and threatening. “Give us the code, or we start with your wings. We know exactly where your injury is.”Kain moved to the edge of the cell, his gaze drifting toward Sadira. He knew the girl was the key piece in this stage of the confrontation.“Don’t do this, Jake,” Kain said, his voice carrying one last, false thread of pleading. “We only want the code. We’ll heal the girl. This is your final chance to cooperate.”“Why are you so worried about Sadira, Kain?” I asked, keeping my stare fixed on the unarmed yet m

The corridor was thick with acrid smoke, born from the energy that had exploded out of the cell and the grenades thrown by the soldiers. The red light of the emergency beacons swept rhythmically over the swirling gray, casting ghostly shadows on the concrete walls. The echo of the explosion still rang in my ears, but my senses were slowly clearing. The resonance I had drawn from the overcharged walls in the cell and from Sadira’s final effort now pulsed through my veins like liquid fire.Sadira was in my arms. She felt light—alarmingly light. Her head lolled helplessly on my shoulder, her breathing uneven but tangible against my neck. Each exhale was a tiny hope, each pause in her breath a century of terror.I stepped over the bodies of the unconscious soldiers sprawled across the cell threshold. My eyes scanned the floor. Kain had said the core was in his coat, out there in the corridor.“There,” I whispered to myself.Leaning against the wall, draped over a metal pipe, hung Kain’s t