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“No. He can’t,” Theon said firmly, sliding an arm around her shoulders and guiding her forward. “Let’s get you out of here, and we’ll find a Reselda Legacy to look at that arm.” With a hard look at Axel, he said, “Go cut a path through the vines.”

But he barely heard him. Still focused on the blood dripping to the floor.

“Axel!” Theon barked.

He jerked, as if coming out of a trance. His gaze snapped to Katya, whose wide eyes were watching him, and he could swear there was something he’d never seen there before.

A hint of fear.

He wasscaringher.

Shame flooded through him, so bitter he couldn’t have swallowed it down if he’d wanted to. But he didn’t want to. He deserved to feel the shame and guilt of this moment. If Theon hadn’t been there, he would have taken from her. There would have been no stopping him, and from the look on her face, she realized that too.

Axel bent and retrieved a blade, moving silently to the end of the aisle and making quick work of the vines blocking their path. The scholars said nothing. They wouldn’t have acknowledged them if they had. Fae bowed their heads as they passed, likely having been summoned to clean up the aftermath of whatever the fuck that had been in the aisles.

It wasn’t until they were outside the Pantheon that Theon finally spoke again.

“Are you good, Axel?”

“Fine,” he replied curtly. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Katya.

“Fine enough to stay with her while I call Prudence to get a Reselda Healer to meet us at the townhouse?”

“The Falein Heir? She will do that?” Katya asked.

Theon’s lips thinned. “She will for a price. We are on amicable terms. Fragile, but amicable.”

Axel blinked. He hadn’t realized just how much progress Theon had made in that regard. He knew he’d been in endless meetings, countless socials, and various engagements these past weeks. On top of all that, he’d been dealing with Tessa and trying to find answers.

“But a Reselda Legacy will be the best option, seeing as they are descendants of the goddess of healing,” Theon went on. “I’d prefer to take you to Cienna, but we all know that is not an option right now. Even if it were, we’d never get to the Underground in time.”

“In time?” Katya asked.

“That dagger is not an ordinary dagger,” Theon answered, pulling his phone from his pocket.

“No, it is not.”

They all whirled to find the female from the archives standing there. Theon immediately pulled a short sword from his darkness again, stepping in front of Axel and Kat.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

She tilted her head, amusement dancing on her lips as she studied them. “I am the one who will save her life. Or rather, I can tell youhowto save her life. Where is the one of Sargon?”

“Luka? What is he needed for?”

“He will need to burn the poison from her veins,” she answered simply, looping her bow over her back.

“I have fire magic,” Katya said, and Axel looked down at her, finding a faint sheen of sweat on her brow.

“Anala’s fire will do nothing,” the female answered, moving forward and leaving ashy footprints in her wake. Swirling grey eyes swept over all of them before settling on Axel. “You need the fire of a dragon.”

“That sounds painful,” Axel said, having just listened to Auryon explain what needed to happen.

Auryon.

That was her name, and she’d artfully avoided any questions about where she came from. Convenient. He knew a silver-haired female who’d been the same. But while that was certainly a concern, it wasn’t his greatest concern at the moment. His greatest concern was the fact that she had just said Luka needed to send his dragon fire into Katya to burn out whatever poison was on that gold blade.

“It is excruciating,” Auryon agreed. “But it is better than death, I suppose.”