“Fine,” she says. “But only because I have more questions.”
I can’t say relief floods my chest at that, because I’m still not confident we have enough time to get me out of this pit, but I don’t complain.
“Any vines around you could toss in my direction?” I ask, though my voice is rather devoid of hope at this point.
She bites her lip and scans the area, shaking her head.
“Logs of some sort?”
“I don’t see any.”
“I’d accept them in all varieties at this point: bumpy, smooth, even rotting.”
Zora shakes her head again, hugging her chest. She’s hardly moved to look for anything, and I realize panic has frozen her in place.
“There’s got to be sticks up there,” I say, “something you can toss down that I can use as picks to help me climb up.”
“I don’t…”
“Zora, please,” I say.
Her gaze flits back to me, and for that fleeting breath of a moment, it’s almost like she sees me. The me that she knew before. Her childhood playmate. Her partner in mischief.
But then her gaze flickers to the horizon. Sorrow floods her features, and I know we’re too late.
“Nox. Nox,” she says, her legs finally moving, pacing, searching the area frantically. She tosses sticks and logs toward me, and I thrust them into the side of the pit, but they break as soon as I apply my weight to them.
“Zora,” I say, pushing my forehead against the soft earth of the pit.
“Yes?”
“It was good to get to see you again,” I say, just as sunlight slips over the edge of the pit and envelops me.
CHAPTER 8
BLAISE
Gentle sunlight kisses my skin, wrapping me in a pool of warmth that soothes my aching muscles, calms my spirit.
I cannot imagine what it ever felt like not to be calm, or why I would ever choose to feel anything but this.
Faintly, I understand Kiran is going to kill me, that the hole he punched through my chest cavity is problematic, but for the life of me, I can’t seem to remember why I should care.
Evander sounds frantic, and I only wish I had the energy to reach out to him and invite him to partake in the bliss that’s swirling all around us.
But then Kiran’s grip loosens around my heart.
Anguish takes its place.
It sprays like splintered glass through my chest, shattering any remnants of peace left within me.
I cry out, though I can’t hear myself over the ringing in my ears, the buzz of pain, like a swarm of wasps in my ears.
A plume of shadows spears into my open chest, its grip cold and slimy against my heart.
And then I’m weightless and falling as light, brilliant and burning, erupts from the hands that just dropped me.
My back hits the ground as fire consumes the source of the shadow, as its tendrils writhe before fleeing my chest.
Pain.
So much pain.
It’s utter agony, the way my body knits itself back together frantically. Bones spur new growths in order to reform the structure of my ribcage. Skin stretches to knit itself together.
And then there’s the fire, so close overhead that it burns, slowing my healing.
Arms wrap around me, dragging me across the cavern floor and out of Kiran’s way as he spews flame into the swarm of shadows.
“I’ve got you,” whispers Evander. He picks me up, tucking me into his chest like he used to do when I was a child. In the safety of his arms, away from the flames, my muscles and bones seem to knit together more quickly.
She’ll die, the creature screams as it writhes. Your wife will die. I was trying to help, you fool. If you’d let me, I could have saved her.
Ice coats my stomach as the creature’s words ring in my head.
I watch in dread as Kiran extinguishes the only being who seems to understand what I plan to do to his wife.
“Blaise, I’m so sorry,” says Kiran for what must be the seventh time.
