“But it could have! And you’re damn lucky it didn’t backfire because my one stipulation was that anything you demand of me cannot harm anyone I care for.” I backed down a step, glaring. “If it had—you’d be dead right now, fae.”
“Perhaps if you actually learned what power lies within you, I wouldn’t have to be your excuse for using it.” And with that, Lancaster spun away, hastening for his sister.
I took one breath to steady myself, looking down at the beheaded corpse, and remembered the feeling of my agency being ripped from me with that bargain. Distasteful and wrong.
I didn’t want to feel that way again.
The body twitched once more, then laid still. An unexpected silence weighed the air as his screeches faded, the pressure of the ancient secrets of the catacombs a viable force beating upon our skin.
The lack of a presence that had long resided here.
Raising my sword, I sliced through the body a few more times for good measure. Then, suppressing a shiver, I returned to the group.
Mora’s face was ashen, eyes flat. Lancaster stood shirtless, his broad chest on display as he ripped off the layer of soft, thin tunic he’d worn beneath his leathers and gave it to Santorina to clean up Mora’s wound.
“We need to get you out of here,” I said.
“We need to get your damn emblem,” Mora growled, trying to push to her feet with Santorina’s hands supporting her. Her knees nearly buckled.
I swung her good arm around my shoulder as Rina said, “You can’t keep going.” She looked between Lancaster and me. “Nothing I do is helping it. I’ll have to work on her back at the inn.”
Lancaster’s jaw ticked.
“You two head back,” I said.
But Mora gritted out, “I don’t have a choice.” Her words were grave. In her pallid face, anger burned. She panted, “Ritalia has sworn us to help you.”
She couldn’t get out more words, but I understood. If she or Lancaster abandoned me, despite me pushing them to turn back, Ritalia had some sort of bargain threatening them. The fae would die trying to do this.
It sparked the question again of why? Why did their queen want these tokens so badly when only I could wield them? Why did she think I’d ever hand precious shards of magic over soeasily, and why was she willing to risk two of her strongest guards for the mission?
I swallowed back all those fears, because there was nothing we could do about them now. I wasn’t leaving these catacombs without that emblem.
Lancaster assessed his sister’s shoulder. “Even my magic can’t heal this entirely.”
Leaning closer, my stomach turned at the deep, bloody hole where a chunk of flesh had been torn out. Crimson gleamed across her skin, but what was worse was the way her veins shone pale and blue beneath the sticky mess. And either my vision was still adjusting after nearly being choked, or the lines were ebbing. Like something swam within.
Still, Lancaster did his best to staunch the bleeding. He and Santorina used the remaining strips of his tunic to fashion a makeshift sling while I supported the female.
“This is going to take a long time to heal. Once we’re safely out of here, Mora, I promise, I’ll do it.” Lancaster’s eyes shone with a deep intensity as he swore to his sister.
“I can’t die,” she said with mock humor. “She won’t let me.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but Lancaster growled, “There are worse fates than death.”
As he said it, a clatter of metal, like weapons swinging on belts, rang down the tunnel. Slowly, fear thick in the air, we all pivoted.
“Mystique,” Lancaster said, voice chilled.
“Yeah?” Starfire was in one hand. Angelborn in the other.
“I think now is when we run.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vale
Blood poured across my hand,stained my dress. The blood of a man I once thought my father, my savior.
