Page 56

56

Reyla

“ W e need to get out of here.” That certainty blazed across my soul.

Prager was…here. And she was furious.

The room shook, and this time, fissures appeared in the walls, gouging down through the stone as if she held the cave in her hand and was slowly crushing it.

Lore tugged me into his arms.

Farris’s snarls grew louder, his head snapping in all directions.

“I can’t flit.” The desperation in Lore’s voice nearly undid me. “I can’t flit!”

I tried, and neither could I. Blocked? There wasn’t time to find out.

The walls rippled, cracked. Dust rained down from the ceiling as fissures appeared overhead as well.

“Farris, stay close,” Lore bellowed, urging me toward the tunnel.

We rushed through the doorway and out into the hall and the doors snapped closed with an enormous boom behind us. A wall of rubble and dust burst through the panel, giving chase as if Prager had sent everything she had to kill us.

She’d done all she could to slow this. She’d kept Lore from marrying until he overcame whatever spells she’d cast to hold him at Evergorne. On the ship and within the castle, she tried to kill me to keep me from loving them both. She’d possessed Erisandra and used her as a tool to drive a wedge between us or make me run away.

And when that wasn’t working, when we were proving we could finally break the curse, she decided to outright kill us.

Billows of dirt filled the passageway, clawing at my throat as I forced my legs into a sprint. The tremors from behind vibrated through the stone walls, cracking stones loose. They clattered around me as I rushed beside Lore, his broad frame tense. He kept flickering his magic out, using the dirt and rubble to provide a shield to keep us safe. If I had a second to think about the fact that he was using her weapon to protect us, I'd grin. And mock her some more.

Instead, I kept my finger lit to guide our way, and Farris stayed close on my heels, his growl rumbling like a second heartbeat.

“Faster,” Lore barked, his voice cutting through the furor.

Another boom echoed behind us, louder and closer, followed by a sharp screech that made me grit my teeth. I didn’t have to ask what caused it. Prager’s fury was roaring through the air and scraping across my skin. She was still trying to claw her way through, to rip us apart with her venom and spite .

A glance over my shoulder showed the rubble-filled tunnel writhing like it had a will of its own. Prager’s magic was working to destroy what little remained between us and certain death.

“Keep going,” Lore cried.

The path sloped upward. My thighs burned, screaming in protest with every step as we scrambled across the smooth surface toward the faint light of the throne room far above. I wanted to rage at the world, at the fates, at how each inhalation felt like borrowed time. Instead, I clenched my teeth and pushed forward.

Another shudder rocked the ground beneath us, sending loose clumps of dirt filtering down from above. Lore shot me a grim look. “Climb first. You and Farris. I’ll hold everything off.”

“No.” I planted my feet. I'd take root here if need be. “We’re staying together. We live or we die here and now. I mean it.”

A pulse throbbed in his temple before his breath whooshed out. “Together then. I'm with you. Go.”

With Lore right behind, I scrambled up the slope, using the stones embedded into the walls on either side to brace myself, urging Farris at my front to keep going. My fingers clawed for a hold as Lore’s hands found my legs, boosting me higher.

The room above shimmered with light. It felt too far away, too impossible to reach.

A mirage swirled in front of me, juts of smoke and sinew struggling to form into a beast. Calling power and infusing it into shadows, I sent them at the forming image, and it popped.

My arms trembled as I reached higher, the stones under my palms slick, almost alive, moving as if they were trying to wriggle free from my grip. It didn’t make sense, but nothing about this climb did. The air buzzed with a low hum that rattled my teeth. I couldn’t breathe right. Something heavy sat on my chest.

“Come on, come on,” I hissed through clenched teeth, though I wasn’t sure if I was talking to Farris, Lore, or myself .

The slope felt steeper than it had before. The world kept tilting around me, making my head spin and my vision blur. My fingers slipped, and my stomach pitched as I slid backward. Lore’s hands latched onto me before I tumbled back to the bottom.

My heart jumped into my throat as the mirage solidified again, this time into a crow that dive-bombed me, its talons snagging in my hair.

Damned Prager.

She beat her wings against my skull with a sound like crackling paper, and she dragged her claws across my scalp. I yelped and ducked, slapping at her with one hand while clinging to the stones with the other.

“Get away,” I shouted. She cawed, her cackles slipping through to mock me. Her claws tightened around my hair, pulling like she was going to rip it out by the roots. Or lift me up and carry me into the sky, where she'd drop me.

She'd come to end this.

I yanked my blade from its sheath and swiped out at her, gouging a line across one of her wings. Her crackling caws turned to ear-piercing shrieks as her grip on my hair loosened. She snapped away so fast she impacted with the side of the tunnel.

Then she dove at my face.

Lore tried to thrust himself between me and the threat, but he couldn't find purchase on the slope. Rocks on the walls gave way, tumbling to the smooth tunnel below us, unsettling him.

He slid backward.

His horrified gaze blazed into mine, but I could tell his fear was for me. Never himself. He'd give his life to save me.

Prager smacked her wings in my face, blinding me.

With a growl, Farris spun, a blur of gray and white fur and snapping teeth. He almost toppled down the slope as he launched himself at her. His snarls drowned out her crow cries as his teeth bit down hard. She squawked, and a flurry of feathers spiked out around us, some embedding themselves in the wall. Her high-pitched screech ricocheted through my mind as he latched down on one wing and tore her away from me. She flailed as she tried to wrench herself free from his bite.

He shook his head, smacking her against the tunnel wall, and flung her, sending her spiraling through the air, passing Lore who'd made his way back up to me. Her wings flapped awkwardly, and when she landed hard on the tunnel below, she hissed and scrambled to her clawed feet. Her glare showed she was gathering strength to come at us again.

Farris barked, his lips drawn back to expose sharp teeth and she remained where she was, her furious gaze locked on us.

I pressed a hand to my head, pulling it away to find blood. My scalp burned where her talons had caught me.

I only had time to give Farris’s fuzzy head a quick stroke. “Good boy.”

“She's coming again,” Lore barked, his head turned to watch her. “Go!”

Gouging my blade into the floor of the tunnel, I used it to hold my position, scrambling up the slope with Lore urging me from behind. Farris followed, keeping himself between us and Prager.

When I reached the top, I burst from the tunnel, hauling myself out, grunting when I smacked on my belly on the damp soil.

Farris scrambled up to join me, landing squarely in the depression we’d gouged into the throne room floor. He leaped around, snapping at the dark hole, yapping at Lore as if telling him to hurry.

The ground erupted again, shifting harder this time.

Lore sprang from the tunnel, landing squarely on his feet, and hauled me up to stand with him .

Leaving me, he wrenched his body toward the circular cover while I guarded the opening with Farris snapping at my side, and my blade ready to swipe through Prager if she appeared.

Lore hefted the cover, his arm and shoulder muscles straining, and lobbed it into place over the hole. A grating boom echoed around us.

Claws raked across the other side and her piercing shriek ripped across my skin.

Spinning toward me, Lore quickly secured my blade in its sheath before lifting and tossing me upward. I grabbed onto the edge of the hole and scrambled my boots to find purchase.

Farris soared past me, landing squarely on the throne room floor. He snapped and snarled, latching onto my sleeve and tugging, his claws digging into the soft soil as he leaned backward.

I slammed first the toe of my right boot and then the left into the rocky dirt and climbed, finally smacking onto my abdomen in an ungainly heap on the throne room floor.

Lore quickly joined me, somehow finding his way up from the hole with the grace that always escaped me. Above me, he extended his hand. When I took it, he lifted me to my feet, his arm going around my waist to hold me close until I found my footing.

We backed away, Farris beside us, snapping and growling.

With a thunderous snarl, the hole collapsed inward. A plume of dirt shot up from where the opening had been, and a magic rushed across us in violent waves.

The hole sealed over, and the surface smoothed as if it had never been there. Tiles hissed around us, and we rushed to the dais, climbing the stairs and turning to watch as the marble floor slithered back into place, the floor weaving itself back together.

Prager’s shrieks cut off, and silence descended inside the throne room.

“She’s trapped?” I panted .

Lore grunted. “If so, I doubt it’ll hold her for long.”

“Do you think anyone will remember that Erisandra told us to look below the throne room?” I shook my head. “I bet the curse will wipe that from their minds like everything else.”

“ We remember.” His gaze remained on the place where his mother had died, and sorrow cratered his face.

I held him, wishing I could take away some of his pain. But smoothing it out took time and plenty of mourning.

His wards fell as he released them from around the room.