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“Lyr!” Rhyan roared, racing back for me, his sword still out.

I started toward him, desperate to reach him, to touch him, to hold him. When pain erupted like fire in my belly, I gasped, unable to breath, my feet no longer on the ground.

My body went numb, cold seeping through my fingers and legs and up my arms. It was the sensation of shock, the haunting calm that came over me when I was too scared or horrified to process the world around me. It had happened when I’d learned Jules had died. It had happened when the Emartis had attacked the arena. And now my world slowed down as I realized that the third akadim had found us, had come up behind me, had wrapped its clawed hands around my body, and was lifting me higher and higher away from the ground. I tried to kick my legs, but its grip was too all-encompassing, too tight.

My breathing was restricted. I was going to pass out. My terror was almost paralyzing.

“LYR!”

I gasped for breath, my chest rising and falling. Rhyan’s cry had pulled me back into the present.

“LYR!”

The akadim turned me in its hand, revealing what had once been the face of a Lumerian woman. Its head was three times the size of mine, its teeth pointed to delicate tips as it sniffed me, its nostrils flaring, its mouth hanging open in unconcealed hunger. I could smell its breath, like death and decay and something metallic. Blood.

I leaned back in horror, trying to free my arms from its grasps as a spiked finger protruded, poking at my necklace. It poked again, pushing the gold into my chest, then pulled its finger back and hissed, her cruel eyes widened in surprise. In that moment, I was able to free my blade, cutting the inside of its hand as I did so.

It screeched in pain, and I used the opportunity to stab its hand again and again and again, hitting that one spot—just like Rhyan had taught me. My strength might not have been enough to take a soturion down in one hit, but bang into a wall enough times, and it would eventually crumble. On my last stab, blood spurted from its hand. I’d hit an artery.

The akadim cried out, its scream deafening as its grip loosened just enough for me to slip through until I was falling.

“Lyr!” Rhyan screamed.

A second later, I was in his arms, shaking as the akadim charged forward, its claws inches from my face.

Rhyan tightened his grip on me. “I’m getting us out of here. Hold onto me,” he ordered. “Close your eyes.”

I gasped in pain. It felt like my stomach had been tugged at, like the akadim had gotten its claws into my belly and was trying to rip my guts out, to pull me away from Rhyan forever. The akadim screamed as Rhyan raced forward. I could smell its breath, feel its body close behind. I struggled to free myself from his arms. He’d run faster if he didn’t have to carry me.

“I said hold on,” he ordered, something almost feral in his voice. The command came with more force than he’d ever used on me. “Don’t let go!”

His hands pressed almost painfully into me while the snow bit my cheeks as he ran. Then he jumped, and my heart dove into my stomach as we fell…until his boots thudded against hard, sturdy ground, and my heart lurched.

Warmth rushed against my body, and I felt Rhyan take a slow step forward, almost stumbling, his grip on me loosening before tightening again. He straightened.

I couldn’t feel the cold anymore, or the wind or snow. The screams of the akadim had vanished. There was a slight popping sound in my ears, then a calming trickling sound—water.

“Lyr? You’re okay?”

I nodded, unable to speak.

“You’re safe now,” Rhyan said. His voice sounded odd, nervous, shaky, and tired. There was also a slight echo to it, and I could sense that walls now encircled us even though we hadn’t entered any building I was aware of, hadn’t even been running in the direction of one. Shakily, he set me on my feet.

My heart pounded as I slowly opened my eyes, finding myself surrounded by darkness. Rhyan shuffled beside me, and within a second, a flame erupted from a set of matches he kept in his belt. His face was lit by the flames, as he walked away from me, every step echoing until the flame touched a torch nudged into a crack of rock. Cavern rocks. And at last I saw exactly what had caused the change in temperature and sound.

We were no longer in the Urtavian fields outside the temple, and there was no snow on the ground. We were in a cave, standing on solid rock just beside a pool with pristine blue water.

There were no caves near the temple. We had several cave formations near the Elyrian border, but the biggest ones, the ones that looked like this…. I shook my head, not sure I believed what I was seeing.

“Rhyan?” I asked.

He stumbled forward, his hair lit up by the flames behind him. “I’m sorry. I’m always tired after….” He swept his hand across his forehead where sweat had started to bead, dampening his hair. “Are you hurt? Are you sure you’re okay?” Concern flashed through his eyes, as his hands reached for me. “Gods, Lyr,” he said. “The last one, when it grabbed you, it went right for your heart.”

“I’m all right,” I reassured him. I took his hand, placing it over my necklace, over my heart. “I’m not hurt. Thanks to you.”

His breathing was still heavy, erratic, and his eyes were on our hands, over the place where the akadim would have sucked out my soul and devoured it. But it hadn’t. We were safe. And we were definitely somewhere else completely.

“We’re in a cave, right?” I asked.