by D. D. Miers
“We’ll find a way out of here, I give you my word on that,” he murmured, his breath soft and warm before he pressed firm lips to the center of my palm. Heat fluttered through me then, born of nothing related to his magic. I was reluctant to take my arm back, but one thing was clear. Exhaustion was claiming us both, and even if we could escape, we wouldn’t make it far without a respite.
“We’ve tried over and over. Let’s rest.” I settled back onto the floor, happy to see he followed suit without protest. “Some energy will do us good.”
Aedan stretched his arm beneath the lowest-slung bar, the small gesture bringing a soft smile to my face. I took hold of his hand, hearing no gasps of pain and feeling no shifts of discomfort as we closed our eyes and drifted off into the first slumber we’d had in days.
I could have slept for weeks on end, were it not for the discomfort of the floor and the sharp chill that settled through my bones. After some time, I began to shiver, my teeth chattering in the quiet as my head swirled with a thousand possibilities, most of which involved my utter failure that destined the world for darkness.
I suddenly bolted upright, my gasp of a breath sharp enough that Aedan looked around wildly for threats.
“What? What is it?”
“The bond. Your magic.” I was on my feet and facing the door before he could ask anything more. I wrapped my fingers around the bars. “You’ve been trying to stretch the bars, or break them, but that’s not our only option.”
I breathed in deep, trying to narrow my focus. I would need it if this was going to work correctly.
“What are you saying?”
“What if we can change the metal from iron to copper?”
“Change the metal?”
“Yeah, like way I’d changed your breath into air. You said I could manipulate your magic. If we can do it again, we can bend the bars. Copper is much softer, and it won’t burn us either.”
His silence was answer enough as he stood in the confines of his own cell and nodded. His arms reached through the bars, joining me as we pushed together in our quest to escape.
Exhaling long and drawn out, I focused with all my might, my fingers already burning from the touch of a metal that had never harmed me from birth. I plunged into my own mind, oblivious to everything around me as I channeled every bit of his force that I could into a vision of the metal changing to something far more brittle and far less painful.
Aedan’s hiss of torment had my eyes snapping open. Horrified, I realized just how much he was being affected.
“Aedan? Aedan, are you okay?”
“Just…keep going.” It was a struggle for him to push out a breath of a word, much less stand entirely upright. I was draining him of energy, and I feared he would become deadweight, clinging to the bar we aimed to defeat by willpower alone.
“But you’ll—”
“If we don’t do this, we’ll both die here. Sloane, finish it.”
Though my heart pounded, I did as he said and turned back to the task at hand. My breath pressed out in a sharp hiss between my teeth, the final push of concentration finally yielding results.
Something shifted beneath my curled hands, the metal heating in a change that left me dumbfounded. It began to crack, the faint sound urging me to push even harder.
My heart clanged as loud as the door as it swung open, leaving me in a fit of panic and ecstasy. My door was open, but Aedan was still trapped in his own cell. Already, he could barely stand. I’d taken too much from him to aid in opening the door, and now I feared we wouldn’t make it out alive at all.
I bolted across the room, frantically searching the scattered remnants of old chains and bindings tossed into the corner. Hope began to fade as every turn only gave me rope and cuffs. With a jolt, I realized they hadn’t had time to remove my weapons before they’d locked me in.
Yanking the shoddy knife I’d picked up along our travels free, I dashed to Aedan’s door and jammed the thin blade into the lock.
“Sloane, go,” Aedan pleaded, his head hung in utter exhaustion.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have time to get out of here. You can’t—”
“No.” Defiantly, I refused to back down. Another wriggle of the knife, and a solid click snapped our gazes together. I pulled hard on the door, relief rushing through me as it swung open. “Come on.”
He slung an arm around my shoulders, his weight pulling me down as I struggled to aim us for the exit. It would be a slow escape with the heaviness of fatigue blanketing Aedan, but sitting in those cells felt like suicide.
“Which way do we go?” I whispered harshly the moment my head poked into the lengthy corridor. No one was in sight, though it was difficult to see in the dull darkness. Not a single window adorned the walls, furthering my fear we had yet to even reach the main area of their secret sect.
“Can we go to the Sonola Fae guard? Tell them what Caitrín is planning?”
“Won’t do any good now.” Aedan coughed. “We need time. Time to make a plan.”
A nudge of Aedan’s hand urged us off to the left. Our steps halted several times by the drifting din of voices the farther we went. There was no telling who they were, and no matter how hard I strained, I couldn’t make out a word. Every time a voice rang out or a single sound of a step reached my ears, I froze and ceased breathing.
“Where are the stairs?” I whispered.
“There are none; it is built into a hillside.” Aedan’s arm jutted toward an alcove ahead. “That way. We can go toward the training grounds and—”
“They’ve escaped!” a shrill voice cried out somewhere behind us. Fueled by a rush of adrenaline, I yanked on Aedan and barreled toward the unknown.
23
We flung ourselves around the corner, Aedan’s hobbled, sluggish steps leaving us ripe for the picking. Once we emerged into a more familiar corridor, I knew I had to do something. With how drained he was from the pull of magic, we’d never make it out alive.
Behind us, I could hear the pounding of steps, slamming hard in their pursuit. They’d reach us soon; it was inevitable with Aedan slowing us down.
Still, I refused to leave him behind.
“Aedan, is that the room I slept in?” I asked with a nod at the looming door just a few steps ahead. He barely murmured an acknowledgement as we reached it. With haste, I flung the door open and shoved him inside. I heard him tumble, quite possibly crashing to the floor, but it was better than what he’d face were he caught again. I slammed the door on him, and careened farther down the corridor. If I could just lead them away from him, perhaps he’d regain enough strength to be of help.
Unfortunately, directly in the path of my escape, a young woman stood, faded, child-like eyes staring back at me. I’d seen her once before, in this same corridor when she’d walked past with a look of familiarity I hadn’t been able to place. Even now, my brow only crinkled as I yanked my dagger free.
“Get out of the way,” I snarled with a swing of my blade. The wisp of a girl dodged it with ease, as if my attack had been no more than a leaf fluttering in the wind.
“I can’t do that.” She pulled a knife from her pocket, the length of it dwarfed by my own, but I could tell from the way she brandished it she was no one to be messed with. “You won’t leave here, Sloane Hunter.”
I charged forward, the steel of our weapons colliding in a clash far louder than I liked. It was like an alarm set off to alert others to precisely where I was, when what I needed to do was distance myself from where Aedan hopefully recovered.
She swung at me, so wildly I was set on a defensive retreat that had me passing by the door that led to Aedan. Injury or not, I could tell he was still in there; I could feel the drain of his strength through the thick of the wall. Unfortunately, I had worse problems to deal with.
Our blades clashed in another hit, this one the girl prepared for as she flung my arm with all her strength toward the stone wall. Sharp pain laced through my knuckles when th
ey cracked against the surface, my teeth gritting in abject agony as I forced myself not to lose my grip. She had other ideas, her knee connecting with my gut and sending me doubling over in an exhale of breath so sharp I feared I’d pass out.
More footsteps charged down upon us, their sound like thunder to my ears as my own weapon was yanked from my grip.
“Stop!” an unfamiliar voice cried out from behind me, just as I felt the cool kiss of steel press to my throat. “Don’t kill her!”
“And why not?” the girl asked as her grip dipped further into my flesh, urging me not to risk the motion of a breath.
“Caitrín demands she be kept alive.”
“She is a liability!”
“We may still need her,” the unfamiliar man growled as two pairs of rough hands yanked me free of the girl. “We’ll take her from here.”
I stared at the girl, uncertain how someone with such soft, muted eyes the shade of a summer’s sky could hold such coldness in her heart. Perhaps she was being controlled as Caitrín was.
Her lips remained pursed tight, and she gave no response as she began freeing me of my last bit of weaponry. My last knife clattered to the floor, leaving me with nothing but my wits and a couple of empty leather sheaths.
“Fine. Take her away, but don’t let me see her again.”
They carried me back down the corridor from where I’d earlier escaped. If I didn’t get away from them before they tucked me back in a cell or bound me to a chair, I would never make it out. I would never make it to Aedan, and we would never see the light of day again. I was certain of it.
The moment we turned the corner and made our way into the first open cell, I took my one chance. They held tight to my arms, but not my legs, and I thrashed against the nearest wall, the thrust of my feet solid and unexpected. We slammed to the floor, their grasps on me loosening enough for me to make an escape. I dashed up, scrambling for the door before a hand wrapped solidly around my ankle, yanking me back in a slam of my elbows to the hard, stone floor.
“Jamison!” the man yelled in want of aid of my capture. Nothing but the heel of my other boot careening into his face answered him. Jamison’s head ricocheted off the floor. Blood sprayed from his nose, his instinctive grab for it all I needed. I jumped to my feet and ran out, slamming the door and locking it for good measure. They looked a mess in there—one man knocked out cold and the other spilling blood from his nose all over the floor. Hopefully, no one would hear the shouted pleas for escape.
I ran back out, careening up the same corridors as all hope of reclaiming my weapons was lost. I glanced toward the door behind which I’d left Aedan, my heart hammering in my chest. The door had been left open, and the room was devoid of life.
A crying plea hung unbidden in my throat, choked back only for the protection of silence. Had he walked out? Had someone found him? A thousand horrific endings played in my mind and sent me running out the door, stopping when I had no clue which direction to go. The place was a never-ending maze, and I’d seen only a small portion of it. I had no idea where to go except down the hallway, straight for the training grounds door.
I burst through it, the rush of fresh air and sunshine blinding me with a momentary stillness that only escape and peace would now be able to provide. A clank of metal drew me immediately to where Aedan had his weapon lifted overhead. His attacker stood above him, bearing down with a strength my weakened familiar couldn’t bear.
He needed me.
The man hadn’t heard me, of that much I was certain. I rushed toward the wall nearest to him. Pulling on the crowded vines of ivy, I gathered a decent strand, which I tugged his way. I may not have had a blade at my disposal, but I made do as I crept up behind him and strung it tight around his neck. His sword dropped, freeing Aedan from his own struggle as the man’s fingers curled around the vine that strangled the breath from his lungs.
He thrashed backward, but my hands held firm, giving him no escape. For nearly a minute, he struggled, the force in which I held him far less forgiving than a mere stab of a dagger. Somehow, it felt more vicious and inhumane than anything I’d ever done, especially as his limbs sagged and he fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
“Is he…dead?” I asked as Aedan pushed onto unsteady feet.
“It doesn’t matter.” With a kick, he nudged the man’s arm aside, revealing the short sword that had fallen with him. “You may need this.”
I had no time to protest as he tossed it toward me, leaving me grateful he’d recovered at least some of his strength. Still, regardless of his footing, it was obvious he had not regained it all.
“Come on,” he urged. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
I could see the pain that threaded through his eyes, and I brought my hand up to cup his cheek. “Are you certain you’re all right?”
He nodded, though I figured it was just a brave front. “I’m fine. Come on, we have—”
His words were cut off. A pull of my arm slammed me against the ground just in time to see a blade sink deep into Aedan’s gut.
The scream I heard was primal, but it couldn’t have been the man who’d just stabbed Aedan. No, the ivy I’d wrapped around his neck still clung to him like a hefty necklace. Aedan’s sword had already plunged straight through the man’s chest, spilling blood across the thick greenery at their feet.
The man’s body bounced as it hit the ground. Aedan yanked the short weapon that had impaled him from his stomach. Immediately, his blood began to pour and his pain shifted into me. Not nearly as awful as what he was going through, but enough to catch my breath.
“Aedan!” I scrambled back to him, my panic so great tears were a distant thought as I shoved my palms flush over the wound to help stop the bleeding. “We’ve got to get you somewhere. I have to stop the bleeding.”
“The…the crypt. Take me to the crypt.” His teeth clenched as I helped him yet again, this time swinging us back inside the place we’d just tried to flee from.
“I can’t remember the way.”
It took Aedan’s directions, and several moments of terse silence as we waited for distant voices to drift off, before we’d finally reached the cavern that housed so many still bodies. The dais upon which Killion had been laid was empty, leaving me to wonder what they’d done with my brother. Now wasn’t the time though, not as I rushed Aedan farther into the back, well out of sight from the door. Were someone to come hunting for us, they’d need to look well beyond the stacks of bodies and sharp juts of the uneven walls.
He laid onto the floor, both my palms pressed hard against the seeping wound. “Aedan, I-I don’t know what to do.”
His head shook, giving me no hope as his eyes drifted closed.
“Aedan.” I grasped at his shoulder and shook him gently. “Aedan.” Though his chest rose and fell with the cadence of his breath, it was his only movement and his only response. Even though I had him with me, I was more alone than ever and left with so few options. Magic was out of the question. It would drain him far too much. I had no idea how to heal wounds, especially any of that magnitude with such power.
So I needed medicine, but from where? Tears slid down my cheeks as I bunched up what I could of his shirt and tucked it and a couple of stones atop his wound. It would have to do while I went out to find some something—anything—to save him.
24
Glancing back to where Aedan lay, unconscious and bleeding, I wanted nothing more than to stay with him, but if I didn’t find help, he would quite possibly die. Though, if I were caught snooping for an elixir good as Freda’s, I would likely find myself dead, too.
I trekked back beyond the cavern hewn of stone and time, with no destination in mind. Somewhere in this place, there had to be a store of something that would help.
With a start, I realized that was it; that was precisely it. Ronen and Aedan had taken me to a room not far up the corridor which had been full of belongings from one end to another. It was supposedly storage of the dead’s items,
but now I was left uncertain if any of that were true. Still, I had to try.
I crept down the corridor, my caution greeted with utter silence, making me curious where everyone had gone to. It was almost more eerie without someone bearing down on me, but I found my way and slipped into the lengthy room full of far more goods than I could ever sift through.
I should’ve questioned it back then; why they’d kept so much that had belonged to those who had perished. The only logical answer would have been to return it to their kin, but they’d never looked for that in the first place, had they?
Hurriedly, I sifted through shelf after shelf, tossing useless trinkets, shreds of paper, and various pieces of silverware to the floor. A knife too small for my sheath found its way into my pocket, and a tight roll of cloth and an old shirt lay slung over my shoulder. They’d make for good bandages, if I could find anything else worthwhile.
So much time had already passed I worried Aedan would be beyond the point of repair. I raced frantically down the length of the room, until nothing in the wake of my hunt remained on the shelves. The floor was littered with piled goods, most of it junk, and absolutely none of it was what I needed.
Full of fear, I raced back to Aedan, knowing what I would have to try to do.
Sweat clung to his forehead, and though he’d been stabbed well away from his lungs, he wheezed quietly with every breath. I tossed aside the rocks and cut his shirt open, revealing the full extent of his wound. It was deep, to be sure, but was otherwise a neat and clean jab straight into his abdomen. If he was lucky, and my guesses were correct, his major organs had been missed.
He’d survive—if I could figure out how to heal him.
My hands settled over his bloodied skin, my breath stilling near to silence. All I needed to do was focus as I had on the iron doors, just enough to bring him back to me. Too much or too little, and I’d lose him forever.
