Page 143 of Till Death

She nodded. “We have to get you out of here. Where do you want to go?”

“No,” Thea’s voice broke. “You can’t be serious. I’m not doing this. You’ve seen her madness, P.”

She grabbed Thea’s boots and threw them to her feet. “I’ve also lost the man I love, and if I could have taken his place, I would have. Get dressed, Thea. We’re leaving.”

The blacksmith complied, sniffling the entire time she slipped her feet into her boots and chased us out the door.

“We have to go somewhere he’ll never think to look because he will come for you.”

“A temple,” I whispered. “He hates them. Pick any, I don’t care.”

“The Temple of Eiria. The one with the tree. He knows what happened the last time you were there. He’ll never expect you to go back.”

We had minutes, I was sure of it. If Orin woke and I was not beside him, he’d come for me. He needed me beyond the healing he drew from our connection. He loved me, and as I looked over my shoulder at that house one final time, letting my fate seal with every hurried step, the crack in my heart reminded me that I needed him, too.

The magic would not be stayed, though. Not as a dagger to his throat flashed across my mind. I blinked several times as we ran past the tree line, beyond Misery’s End, through the devastating wreckage of Silbath. This is what he’d done to get to me last time. A show of his desperation through the lower half of this crumbling city. What would become of the world when I vanished?

Thea had stopped to get a small chain from her forge, claiming it would be easier to have something to start with, but before we’d even reached the stone bridge to Perth, she’d had to hand it off to Paesha to take a turn carrying it. As we ran, she’d been winding her magic over the links, using power to turn each one unbreakable.

The door to the temple was still cracked open, likely from the last time Paesha had gone in to search for signs of the Life Maiden. Standing on the steps outside, I took one final look at the world beyond before following the others, Thea’s growing chain now dragging on the ground.

When Paesha had come, she swore the willow tree in the middle of the temple was dead, but looking at it now, at the unique little flowers sweeping down the branches, I would have never believed her. With gnarled roots climbing the stone walls and the canopy nearly filling the ceiling of the abandoned temple, something had come to life here. A protest against the presence of death in the Temple of Eiria.

As if the magic within me knew what I’d planned, it hissed in my mind, nearly burning through my thoughts until the only thing I could think of was Orin standing before me. I’d been lost in those phantom amber eyes when Paesha yanked on my arm, pulling me back to reality.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” she asked for the third time.

Run.

My eyes traveled on their own accord, following the path we’d walked into the building, settling on the early morning fog beyond the temple door. It took every ounce of strength I had to fight Death’s compulsion.

“I have to,” I said, a knot building in my throat. “And you need to do it now, Thea.”

She knelt, placing her palm on the first link of the chain and then the floor. Pulling her hammer, sparks flew as she got to work. The second the iron linked around my wrists, suffocation and sheer panic rose like a tidal wave. How far would I go? What would my future become? It didn’t matter, though, not when I thought of his.

The women came to stand before me, Thea bringing her palm to my cheek. Her touch was filled with a tenderness that spoke of a love that had grown between us. “They will not break. The more you struggle, the tighter they will become, so you won’t be able to leverage yourself free, nor harm yourself trying.” Her breath shuddered through her, a tear slipping down her cheek. “Eventually, they will hold you bound to the floor.”

The green in her eyes shone like a thousand emeralds behind those tears. She opened her mouth to say more, but nothing came out.

I sighed, the weight of the world resting on my shoulders as I stood bound to that temple floor. “I’m sorry you had to be the one to do this. If I could have spared you…”

“No.” Paesha stepped forward, placing her forehead to mine. “You don’t have to be the one to apologize, Dey. Your power is a curse, but we’ll find a way to free you both. I swear it.”

“Just don’t tell him where I am. I need you to promise it.”

“We promise,” Paesha whispered.

Fight them. Escape.

Already I was finding it hard to remember these were not my thoughts. Perhaps stirred by the finality of their stares.

“Tell Quill… I love her.”

“We will,” Thea managed, though she sobbed.

“And when he threatens you, you lie. Do whatever you have to do, but never forget that Orin is dangerous. And desperate, dangerous people make ruthless decisions. He can’t think I’m suffering, or he will bring down the rest of this world.”

“I’ll handle it,” Paesha promised. “And we will see you again, Deyanira. I swear it.”