At our silence, Ritalia hummed with satisfied glee. “Now, hand over the remaining tokens, Revered.”
My eyes wouldn’t move from Tol’s, though. Couldn’t. Not with the weight of his life hanging over us. I could only watch him as he took deep breaths, telling me to mimic them.
There is a solution, I told myself with one breath.
There has to be, I encouraged on the second, timing my inhales to the rise and fall of his own chest.
I will not be their toy.
I was so lost in trying to find a way around this, I didn’t see the sphinx as she swept through the open ceiling and landed upon the seats rimming the theater.
And still, I didn’t look at her.
Just chocolate eyes and the saddest smirk I’d ever seen as he took a step toward me, his chest nearly brushing mine now, and he removed my hand from his leathers, cradling it between his own in some sort of quiet sympathy because Tolek Vincienzo was once again willing to give everything for me.
The warmth of his skin—he would lose that if I didn’t find a way out of this. His heart wouldn’t beat and his eyes wouldn’t shine. Tolek would never say my name again unless I gathered myself and fought.
As my breathing steadied, my other hand—the one holding the orb—brushed the dagger at my thigh.
But one voice pierced through the blood rushing in my ears. Malakai called, “Don’t give them to her, Ophelia!”
Enraged, I whipped my head toward him as he dropped off the sphinx’s back with Mila in his arms. Cypherion, Vale, and Lyria were behind him.
“Don’t do it!” Malakai repeated, eyes flashing from Lancaster to me and Tolek, and—he seemed so sure. His piercing green stare trying to tell me something as he set Mila down atop the seats and straightened.
The Bind pulsed beneath my elbow, but dammit, I didn’t know what itmeant.
Didn’t give an Angel’s breath either. I stepped protectively in front of Tolek.
“What are youtalking about?” I shouted.
“Trust me!” And then he raced down the steps, sword singing as he and our friends dove to intercept the fae soldiers barely catching up, pouring in from the archway behind their queen, their shouts melting into the guttural, agonized roar in my mind.
The clashing of metal resounded. Zanox and Dynaxtar swooped in with our remaining party, the former dropping onto the top three rows of seats with a deep rumble.
And the presences—of the khrysaor, of my friends, of the man still staring intently at me and gripping my hand—were a different kind of armor amid this horror.
“Give the emblems over!” Ritalia ordered above the fray.
But Tolek’s faint “Ophelia” was so much louder.
And now that our friends covered our backs, he was tugging me toward the statue.
With every step, his breath tightened, a bargained noose slipping around his neck. It was low—barely perceptible—but ittore at me. So much so that I was lifeless, helpless, and Tol guided my reluctant hands to lift Xenique’s orb.
Cupped them ahead of the Angel’s waiting palms, held before her chest.
Moon-white glass swirled with visions. And in it, my life without Tolek played out. He fell to Lancaster’s bargain. I became empty, the footsteps that should shadow mine only a spirit. The halls of the Revered’s Palace echoed with silence. The mountains were void of life and promise and beauty.
Reality snapped back into me, and I reared away from the statue, spinning toward Tol. “I won’t do this!”
“You have to,apeagna. I’ll be okay,” he swore.
“ButIwon’t be.” My heart—it was cracking open in my chest. A sharp and splitting pain. Tolek would take it with him if Lancaster’s bargain struck true.
“And that hurts me more than anything else.” He dragged a thumb across my cheek catching tears I didn’t realize were falling. “I may not have much faith in the Angels anymore, but I have faith in us. In this. I make risky bets every day, and I never lose.”
I shook my head as a promise sparked in my chest. My glassy glare shot to Lancaster and Ritalia—I swore vengeance against them for even forcing this choice upon us. And when I met the queen’s stare, the gloating win pronounced in them, that desire burned like the hottest Angellight within me.
