I open my mouth to tell her that whether she accepts it or not doesn’t change reality, but when she lifts her chin and meets my gaze, there’s an iron will in her expression that could level fortresses.
“All right. But you are finding that eyelet. And you are coming back home. If not for me, then at least to meet Blaise. Though now that I think of it, it’s probably best you don’t end up in the same room.”
A wry smile tints her expression. “No promises.”
I consider hugging her, but the last time I did that she wriggled out of my embrace. I suppose I have to understand. She doesn’t remember our childhood like I do.
So instead I ruffle her hair, and she squirms out from under that, too, though more in annoyance than discomfort, which is somehow more comfortable for me, too.
“Bye for now,” she says.
I almost choke on the words. “Bye for now.”
I turn to step through the eyelet, but as I do, Zora grasps onto my arm and yanks on it, pulling me backwards as she buries her head into my chest, her cropped hair tickling the tip of my nose, threatening to make me sneeze.
“Bye for now,” she whispers again.
I don’t have the strength to say it again as I step out from her embrace and toward home.
CHAPTER 40
NOX
The eyelet knows I’m coming.
Where before, the cave wall appeared as a rather convincing illusion, the eyelet now curves in shadowy waves before me, smoky tendrils coming out from behind its depths. It certainly doesn’t look like a way back home. For some reason, I was expecting a portal overflowing with light.
I close my eyes and clench my fists, preparing to step through. If Blaise can take on the darkness to save me, then I can walk through it to get to her.
I reach out, as if I can close my grip around the shadows and pull myself through rather than allow myself to be pulled by it.
My fingers have almost grazed the shadows when Zora screams.
Her shriek has me spinning on my heel, my instincts driving me to rip to shreds whatever has caused my sister harm.
“It doesn’t look like you’d expect it to, does it?”
Farin’s voice is cold, but his eyes are shimmering with a boyish excitement. “The Rip I’m familiar with appeared as a ray of light with no origin. But I suppose this isn’t a Rip, now is it?”
He has Zora forced to her knees in front of him. His right hand is fisted in her hair, tugging at the skin of her strained forehead. In the other, he holds a knife dripping with fresh blood.
It matches the stain on Zora’s tunic, the one ballooning at her abdomen.
The knife is missing from Zora’s belt.
I don’t think before I lunge, but Farin is quicker, and he drags Zora backward by her hair.
She screams in agony as the blood on her tunic continues to spread.
“Get away from her,” I hiss, but Farin only flashes me an amused grin.
“I’d be happy to,” he says. “I just need you to do something for me.”
The bile in my stomach sours. Why do I get the feeling I know exactly what he wants?
“All you have to do is step aside. And then I won’t have to hurt her any more than she already is,” Farin says.
My head spins, my world turning upside down. One step behind me is Blaise, the woman I’d die for. The woman who was willing to give her life for Zora, back when she thought it was going to be a choice between the two of them.
It’s like there’s an invisible force pulling me between them, and either way I choose, I’ll end up ripped in half, a fragment of myself.
“Nox, just go,” Zora says. “Who knows? If I die, I might just wake up.”
Farin’s grin splits. “Who says I’m going to let you die?”
Rage splits my skull. I don’t think. My limbs pump for me, and I launch myself toward Farin.
At least, he’s my target.
I don’t make it to him.
Because out of the shadows jumps an enormous creature, barreling on its eight legs.
Several things happen at once.
Farin glimpses the creature, just in time to yank Zora out of its way.
The spider’s legs skid on the ground, thrown off by missing its bleeding target.
