Page 51 of Red Demon (Oria #1)

The passage sloped downward, leading deeper into the heart of the Underground, but there was nowhere else to go.

The bioluminescent glow intensified, lacing through the carved geometrics on the walls.

Faruhar had been going through the motions of steps as we carried her, but she stopped moving with a shudder, her body slumping into mine with a shallow gasp.

“Faruhar!” My voice echoed off those damp stone walls. “Bria, Oria, please, help her.”

Asher shushed me, his eyes wide as he looked around.

Faruhar remained silent, her head lolling against my shoulder. A knife of fear twisted in my abdomen. Could this be it? A pulse at her neck confirmed fading life, a slow, irregular heartbeat.

“I’ll carry her,” I told Asher. He nodded as I hefted her into my arms. A low moan escaped Faruhar’s lips.

We strode on through the passage ahead as it widened into an underground road, ruins on either side. The bioluminescent matrix emanated a frantic pattern.

“Jesse, east,” she said, pointing when we reached a crossroads.

Despite the relief flooding through me to hear her voice, something wasn’t right. Her voice sounded so weak. Higher pitched, childlike. She kept breathing, eyes fluttering.

“Bria?” I hissed.

A twitch of a nod.

We moved deeper, with each cavern still sloping down, not out to an exit. The rhythmic pulse of the bioluminescence glowed stronger, casting the cavern in an eerie light. We reached an open chamber. A row of mossy platforms cut out the wall by the remains of what must have once been dwellings.

“Lay her on one of those beds. Now,” Faruhar said, again in that strange voice. Her arm twitched toward a platform of thick moss in the center of the wide chamber.

I didn’t argue, cupping Faruhar’s head as I eased her down onto the mossy stone, threaded with cyan veins of Oria.

Faruhar’s eyes remained closed as the bed glowed underneath her, tendrils of light pulsing around her body.

I couldn’t see her breathing anymore. I shuddered, hoping it wasn’t killing her faster, that Bria wasn’t just offering a painless death.

Asher stepped back from the mossy bed, afraid to touch it.

“You’re not allowed to die.” I sank beside her to check for a pulse.

She took her first deep breath in quite some time. Her eyes fluttered open. But from that gaze, cold, frightened, I knew it wasn’t Faruhar that looked back out.

“Every moment I hold control,” Bria said, the strange inflection more pronounced, “the more of herself she loses. You should never have brought us here.” Anger flashed in her eyes before fading to a dull stare.

“I’m sorry, Bria.” My voice broke.

“She never took risks like this before,” Bria said, a childish pout evident in the way Faruhar’s head lolled. “She let so many die for one boy to heal, and she ran straight into danger to please you yet again.”

My jaw clenched. “You’re asking her to kill all the ghosts in Noé, right? Alone? You’re the one demanding she risk her life. You should at least respect her choices when she chooses a different flavor of danger.”

Bria laughed, just as eerie as it was bright. “Her choices benefit you, Chaeten. You aren’t the first to try to take advantage of her. Your intentions are clear.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

“Stop fighting! Both of you!” Asher hissed.

“I’m here to help,” I bit out. “How do I help her?”

Bria closed her eyes tight, her hair pooling on the moss.

“I can keep her alive here. Don’t move her.

” She sighed. “There’s so much I forgot, and I need everything left for her.

I can only slow the death down when we’re moving again, but she’s too weak.

I won’t be enough.” There was panic in the child’s voice now.

“And I can’t leave, can’t check to find the soldiers. ”

I brushed the hair out of her eyes, her lips cool to the touch.

“Faruhar told me to use my dahn on the walls,” Asher said. “What did she mean?”

Bria sighed with Faruhar’s body. “If your mind has any discipline at all, use it. Direct the Song.”

Asher frowned. “I don’t know how to use any of the illegal magic.”

“ Chout , not magic. Ask your ancestors,” she said.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“You’re useless,” Bria growled. “I’ll be here long after you’re dust.”

“No. I—” The anger that had flared in me moments before sputtered out, replaced by a throbbing heartsickness.

Because I knew I wanted to contradict that; offer a promise with no end that came far too easy.

Faruhar had only promised to see us to Uyr Elderven.

I had no idea if she ever wanted to see either of us after that.

I clenched my fist around my helplessness.

Faruhar closed her eyes, and drew steady breaths, until all I could hear was the distant dripping in the cavern, the high pitch of Oria’s bionetwork.

Minutes passed. Asher snaked his hands over the walls, whispering. Then he paused, sitting by the stone across the chamber. He got up and walked farther away. The silence drew on in the dark, leaning beside Faruhar on her mossy bed. Her breathing remained shallow, rasping in the eerie light.

“Ash?” It had been about an hour. My voice echoed between glimmering cavern walls.

“Bria?” I said to the unconscious Faruhar, desperate for any reassurance.

Silence.

Dread pressed me down. The air shimmered. A distorted ripple spread across my vision, now swimming in red. Istaran pulsed at my hip, afraid. When the rebels let me see them, they surrounded me.

Fifteen or so, their dark robes concealing their forms. Each cloaked figure emitted a faint blue luminescence from their outstretched hand. Some carried staffs, or swords on their belt, but I knew better: the glow in their hands was the threat.

Asher struggled in the grip of two of those dark figures. “Jesse!” His movements were sluggish, face pale, in the grip of their magic.

I looked to Faruhar, then took my stance, Istaran in hand.