Page 71 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

HOLD. ON.

A s the bridge swings down into two separate halves and my center of gravity leaps out from beneath me, I lunge. I snatch her by the wrist with a scream, “No, you hold on!”

I cling to her as we both fall a few feet, and our bodies snap as the chain adhered to the ceiling drops us as far as it’ll go. Nearly breaking my grip on her, and her sword falls. The bridge and Stone Gods vanish into the thick fog below.

She looks up at me with her gray-blue eyes. “Katerina, you have to let me go.”

“No!” I roar.

“It’s me…” She slips an inch from my sweaty hand. I’m furious I’m not wearing her gloves. “Or the journal. And we both know what the right decision is.”

I have Queen Elara’s journal still tucked beneath my right arm as I hold Marge with my left. I can try to slip it into my satchel down at my hip, but I’m terrified if I move too much, I’ll lose my grip on both.

Shaking my head, tears blur my vision. “No…no. I can’t!”

She nods, a sad smile on her lips as she repeats what she said back in the crypt, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to choose wrong. You choose wrong when you don’t make a decision.”

“Don’t! Please don’t do this to me! I need you!” I cry.

She slips another half-inch. I’m not strong enough. Even with all the love I have in my heart for her.

“It’s okay, you can do this,” she whispers with tears lining her eyes and a warm smile. “You have never let me down, Katerina Blackwind.”

She lets go of my wrist and slips out of my hand.

All sound dies out. Everything moves in slow motion as I watch her clothes ripple around her in her free fall. My heart plummets with her into the pitch-black oblivion below, the dark fog swallowing her whole.

“Marge!” my scream ricochets in my chest, tearing through my lungs. Every crack in my heart finally explodes into splinters.

The chain swings me back and forth, the metal hook hard against my ribs. My hand still extended as I stare at the blurry shadows.

“Kat! You have to get up!” Archie shouts from above.

I twist my head up to look at how far I’ve dropped. Only a few feet down from where the bridge was.

“Swing yourself to us!” Cole calls out with outstretched hands. “Come to me!”

Shoving the journal into my satchel with the swell of emotions beating in my chest, I tighten the strap crossed over my torso and grab the chain with both hands. Pulling a shaky breath between my lips, I swing my legs, pushing hard with my weight until I get momentum.

Closer. Closer. Closer.

Cole snatches me by the ankle, leaning dangerously close over the edge of the cliff to reel me in until my legs frame his waist, his fingers gripping my thighs, and my boots flirt with the edge. But I’m still held back by the hook.

“I can’t pull her in any farther. Someone grab her arm!” Cole commands over his shoulder, never breaking eye contact with me. “Kat. You’ll need to remove your corset so we can free you from the hook. But we’ll catch you, okay?”

I nod, not bothering to still the shaking in my limbs. Archie grabs my left hand with Melaina and Sethan spotting Cole.

“Ready?” Cole breathes.

I glance down at where the hook pierces through the dragonbone corset.

With my right hand, I quickly work to unclasp the front of the corset.

Each snap I release tugs the pressure tighter and tighter against my chest. The tension holding me upright slips, and Archie yanks me by the left hand into Cole.

Cole’s strong arms hold me to him, and he takes a staggering few steps back. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”

Once we’re clear from the edge, Cole sets me on my feet. I hunch over, bracing my hands on my knees.

“Do you have the journal?” Sethan asks.

Gritting my teeth, I rip the journal out from my satchel and toss it at his boots. Cole rubs gentle circles on my back, reminding me of how Marge did it back in Silkwood. Pushing off my knees, I walk back to the cliffside as the reality settles over me thicker than the fog in the chasm below.

Cole wraps his arms around my torso and reels me back away from the edge and into him. I fight against him, unable to take my eyes off the darkness and where she disappeared.

“Stop it! Marge! Marge!” My voice breaks as reality crushes me. “We have to get her, we have to?—”

“I’m so sorry…” Cole’s soft whisper brushes my ear.

I shake my head firmly, biting back tears. “She’s down there! I can’t leave her…”

Cole turns me toward him, his hands gentle on my shoulders until he gives me a quick tight squeeze. His eyes search mine, eyebrows raised in sympathy. “We can’t, love. She’s gone.”

My chest caves in, and I blink back tears, my lip quivering. “No, she?—”

“We need to move,” Sethan commands in a low voice. “Even if there is a bottom to that pit, we can’t get to it without a dragon—and you might not want to see her, anyway.”

“Father,” Melaina scolds, her hand laced with Archie’s, whose soft gaze settles on me.

But he’s right.

Even if I find her down there, even if the sight doesn’t ruin me, it would tempt me. I have to leave her there. Not because she deserves it but because the temptation of doing everything in my power to bring her back would overwhelm me.

“About time you rats showed up,” Darian grumbles as he stands.

The throne room and grand dining hall beyond it is washed in sinister shadows, lit only by a dragonfire torch Bristol’s holding on to. The stench of rotting flesh washes over me, the dragon carcasses hanging like grim chandeliers haunting my vision.

Bristol, Nolan, and Gavin rise from sitting on the floors with Gavin holding Darian’s chains. A’nala, Nadja, and Daeja all bow their heads, confirming Sethan must have shared the news with A’nala.

Marge is dead.

She’s gone.

“I’m so sorry,” Daeja whispers, and walks up to me, nudging her snout into my chest and warming my still damp clothes.

Though nothing compares to the numbness seeping throughout my chest. Mindlessly, I brush a hand up her snout, my fingers bumping over each of her thick scales.

Marge is dead.

She’s gone.

“Darian, for once will you shut the fuck up,” Cole barks.

I slide away from Daeja, squeezing Cole’s arm to brush back the hostility rolling off him in waves. He’s just as upset as I am.

“What happened?” Gavin mumbles quietly, assessing each of us with silent precision before his face falls as he realizes who is missing.

Darian looks like he might explode until our eyes connect. Something shifts within him, his irritation melting away as his furrowed eyebrows relax. He blinks and scans our group, his head whipping left and right. Looking for her.

He thunders closer to me. “Where is Marge?”

Cole takes a protective step in front of me, his hand brushing me back behind him.

“Where is she!” Darian snarls, ignoring Cole and stepping to the side to look at me.

None of us have to answer Darian. It dawns on everyone all at once, each dragon and person’s head sagging.

But Darian lights like a fire, his head shaking furiously as his breath hitches. “No.”

My eyes say it all.

“No!” He attempts to shove Cole out of the way, and Gavin tugs his chains back. “You were supposed to protect her!”

“Back the fuck off!” Cole palms Darian’s chest, sending him back a few steps.

But I can’t bother with either of them.

Marge is dead.

She’s gone.

When Darian and Cole get in a shoving match, Sethan and Archie slide in to break them up.

After tossing me a cautious glance, Sethan decides we’re far too exhausted to leave the castle, and we’ll rest here in the throne room until daybreak.

Some of our squad members complain of the stench, and I back away from them until my calves hit one of the throne chairs.

I slide down to sit in front of it, my knees bent against my chest. Daeja curls up next to me, pressing herself into me silently.

We take turns watching as the others sleep until the sun rises, but I’m unable to close my eyes.

I sit with my arms wrapped around my legs, my eyes fixed on the staircase winding down into darkness.

Waiting to hear that tapping sound of her staff on the steps and her wheezing breath.

Like all of this was just some fluke. I’m tempted to lean down into the stairwell and scream all the obscenities I can think of, just to get her to scold me.

I wrestle with that hopeful part, trying to pin it down and kill it.

Because she’s not coming back. Marge is dead.

She’s gone.

A dam of numbness builds inside of my chest, walling off my heart and weighing down my body. Despite the suffocating exhaustion tearing at my every movement, I stare at the staircase until the sun peeks through the windows lining the grand dining hall, and Archie rests a hand on my shoulder.

“Kat…” he whispers, then shakes me gently when I don’t move. “Hey…we have to get going.”

Mechanically, I nod my head, still lost on that top step. Eventually, the rest of the group stands, stretching their bones after lying on the cold marble floors.

Daeja nuzzles my cheek. “A’nala says we must leave.”

“She’s…she’s still down there, somewhere.”

“I know you loved her…” she whispers. “Just as she loved you.”

Loved. Now it’s become past tense. And it was never a word I had even spoken to her. Somehow, I thought we’d always have the time. And yet…now it’s too late.

Too late to tell her. Too late to ask her if she knew.

Daeja burrows her snout beneath my bent knees, then nudges me up. “I am with you. And I love you. Come with me.”

Melaina steps in, offering her hand to help me up, and I shake my head, not able to handle her pitiful gaze.

I stand on my own and brush my hair back out of my face, my eyes not wandering any higher than anyone’s knees.

Because if one more godsdamned person looks me in the eye with that sad, mournful expression, it’s going to crack the dam I’m trying so hard to put up.

Now’s not the time to cry. Not the time to mourn.

We have to keep moving.

Slamming the wall down between me and my pain, I set the Blood Ring back into the groove on the throne and raise the room to the ground level once more. My heart slams painfully in my chest, knowing I’m closing the door to her.

We all leave the grand dining room and make our way throughout the castle grounds and courtyard.

The birds chirp and water gurgles, the air heating in the sun’s rays.

It all feels too light for the storm brewing inside of me.

All the conversations between our group are muffled, and I focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

As we join the rest of the group waiting on the opposite side of the bridge from the castle, everyone’s eyes fall on me.

Cole brushes my arm affectionately, stealing my attention for a moment.

“I’m fine,” I say in a small voice.

He waits for me to mount Daeja and buckle in, then performs his ritual of checking every strap and restraint before patting Daeja’s side and tossing her a quick look.

She blinks at him before her voice rumbles in my head, “Ready?”

I nod, and even though she can’t possibly see it from this angle, she stalks forward and launches into the air.