Page 115 of The Trials of Ophelia
“We are safe here.” Malakai swallowed, lips pulled into a line.
“They call it the Labyrinth,” Tolek added, as if a name made this all make any more sense.
“Oh, lovely. Glad I know what it’s called.” I pursed my lips, jutting my chin out. “Now, what are we doing here?”
“She’s feeling better, I see,” Santorina entered, pulling a fur cloak around her shoulders. Cypherion and Jezebel followed her.
“Quite a bit,” Tolek answered without looking away from me.
“Not good at recovering quietly? How shocking.” Jezebel strode through the cavern and stood beside the stove, warming her hands. She and the others were all wearing fresh leathers, but they weren’t Mystique. These were layered over thick tunics we didn’t typically need in our territory.
Cypherion joined my sister beside the fire, claiming one of the room’s shoddy wooden chairs.
Though my aching head was only growing worse with the lack of explanation, I looked over my friends. Tears threatened to fall again. “I’m glad you’re all okay.”
“We all made it out,” Tolek reminded me, rising from the cot to allow Santorina to redress the wound on my arm. She gently applied an ointment, and the heat from the healing scar was instantly dulled.
Relaxing at her touch, my gaze swept the room, putting together the pieces now. I pressed a palm flat against the wall. We were underground. The surroundings I’d thought were rock were actually tightly-packed earth. They insulated the chamber, holding in the mystlight’s warmth and providing the slightest protection from the snowy terrain above.
“Sapphire?” I blurted, my mare’s panicked whinny echoing in my head.
“All the horses are accounted for,” Cypherion said.
“Where are they?” There was no chance they’d fit in here.
Tolek explained, “There’s an adjacent tunnel that pours into a wide cavern that’s being used as stables.”
“Sapphire wasn’t happy to not be with you,” Jez added. “She was skittish when we first got her down here.”
I tried to push to my feet, but Rina put a hand on my shoulder. “She’s okay. Let us take care of you first.”
I groaned and sat back down. “But how are we here?” Though I was consumed by pain during most of the battle, I’d heard it. The screams and clashes. It hadn’t seemed like we were winning. “And where did you come from?” I gestured at Malakai. He didn’t stand near the fire, as if the chill did not bother him at all.
“Esmond, Mila, and I had already made it to Firebird’s Field to meet you all. We heard the attack and made it through the Gennium forest in time to see Kakias fall and take out a few of her soldiers. Her power was ricocheting from her, though, and a few survived along with the queen.”
My brows shot up.
“There’s more,” Cypherion added, nodding at Malakai.
“There’s this.” He removed something small and gold from his pocket, stepping forward to close the space between us.
Before I even touched it, I knew. It called to me like a voice on the wind, an instinctive tug in my gut, and my second pulse pounded.
When Malakai tipped the emblem into my hand, it seared, but I curled my fingers around it and sank into the pain. Vengeful thoughts against the Angels compiled in my memory, and a vicious grin broke across my face.
“The Bodymelder one?” I clarified. Though, who else would the gilded petal belong to? Malakai’s nod of confirmation sent my entire body buzzing. “How?”
He told me a wild tale of the endeavor they’d faced to retrieve this emblem. How it didn’t burn for him the way they did for me, yet he knew what it was.
“Everyone with you made it out, too?” I had to know before getting distracted by the emblem. Nerves clenched my stomach.
“Mila, Esmond, and Gatrielle are all in the Labyrinth.”
I nodded, looking back to the shard of Angel power in my palm. “Why do you think it would do that?” I tossed theories around in my head. “Your bloodline does not have Angelblood, does it?”
“I don’t think so, but as we’ve learned in recent years, there’s a lot we don’t know about my family history.” His jaw ground.
Biting my lip, I considered the possibility. For Malakai’s sake, I hoped there was no Angelblood in his line. We still didn’t know what activated it, and the thought of him being sucked into this curse with me turned my stomach. “You don’t react to it at all?”
