Chapter 57
Chapter
Fifty-Seven
ALLIE
T he masks hadn’t even thunked onto the mounds of ash when Ryker rushed in front of me.
As soon as I laid my bow down, he engulfed me in his embrace.
My body still trembled from the rage of battle, but softened in his arms as I listened to his heartbeat like it was the song keeping me alive.
“You’re alright,” he chanted against my dusty, ashy hair. “You’re alright. I was so beyond myself when–”
He let go of me, hands on my shoulders. Even with his support I swayed on the spot.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. I hated what I heard in his voice.
Horror.
“The lights,” I mumbled. “They’re draining me.”
“Stop feeding them!”
“Can’t,” I slurred. “Warriors still inside.”
“Blasted Protectorate principles,” he said, sounding exasperated and proud all at once. His gaze slashed around us, looking for more enemies.
There were none.
Danger didn’t linger in the air anymore.
He guided me onto the ground gently and I let him, basking in the fresh air. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
He kissed my forehead–and somehow didn’t grimace at the ash covering my skin–before he dove back inside the passage. I turned to look, but there was no gaping mouth in the stone on this side.
Nothing but those menacing shards stood guard. The sun had barely peeked over the horizon. The sky still couldn’t decide if it wanted to be purple or blue or some other strange hue.
Not even an hour had passed since we’d entered the passage.
It had felt like an eternity.
My heart slowed down even further, in tune with the pulses in the passage. It was a struggle to keep my eyes open.
But I smiled.
I smiled for the sun and the stars to see, because I was alive.
No longer able to keep my head up, I leaned back onto the ground, running my fingers through the coarse dirt. In the distance, I heard the first bird chirps of the day.
This was the second time I’d managed to land on my back near the lip of the crater, facing the sky.
And just like then, despite the passage still trying to seep life out of me, I laughed.
Not as wildly or as loudly, too tired to even think straight, but I did.
We’d won.
“Now you can stop it,” Ryker’s voice called out. “Torches have been lit, they can see–why are you laughing?”
He stopped above me, watching me writhe on the ground in giggles.
“Why not?” I asked, tears falling down my temples. But they were happy, deranged tears. The ring of my laughter meant I’d survived once more. “You’re right, I’m very unlucky.”
Or maybe too lucky.
“You laugh in the strangest moments,” he said once more, like he had on that day when he’d stood up for me in front of Silas.
Only now, his voice was tender, filled with a longing he no longer hid, and it made my heart soar once more.
“Allie,” Ryker said gently, kneeling next to me. His palm cradled my head against the hard ground. “Your laughter truly is the sweetest music I have ever heard, but we need to hurry.”
The urgency in his voice sobered me up instantly.
I stopped moving and closed my eyes, though loathe to stop looking at him. I focused on the well of power inside of me. It felt…happy.
Joyous.
It still danced with the purple light.
But the connection had to end.
I called back my blue tendrils from the passage.
They refused.
My heart crashed against my ribs.
Come back .
I yanked on my powers with all my might, but something was pulling them back into the passage.
The purple light.
It truly was greedy.
This magic belongs to me .
For now , a hiss whispered in my mind.
All of a sudden, the link broke and my powers were set free.
I gasped and arched my back as the tendrils retreated back into me, burning my throat and chest as they came.
My powers had never done this, either.
Ryker waited patiently as I gulped down air. Sweet, fresh, crisp air.
His thumb kept caressing the back of my neck, soothing. I wanted to kiss the daylights out of him.
But he said we needed to hurry.
“Alright.” I forced myself onto my elbows and we both pretended I did it on my own and not propped up by him. “I’m listening.”
“We didn’t lose anyone, but most are injured.” As his jaw ticked, ash fell from his earlobes and his temples. He was as coated in the filth as I was. “I closed their wounds as best I could, but I can’t pull the ash out of them, they need healers.”
I pulled in a sharp breath. That ash had smelled like rotten flesh. If it got into their blood.
“You need to hurry back to the fortress, the wolves will carry you there. Vylkor knows a different path, away from the trolls,” he said.
“The ones who were not harmed are checking every single crevice for those monsters. They’ll stay at the passage’s entry in the crater to guard it after they’re done. ”
“What about you?”
“I need to leave.”
“Now?” My hand reached out to the back of his neck, as if I could keep him near me through sheer force of will.
“Yes,” he said and sounded guilty. “I need to reach Calyx by nightfall and bring back reinforcements to guard this side of the passage. The passage has defended itself and us for centuries, but today has proven we can’t rely solely on its magic. Not anymore.”
I almost asked to go with him.
The words had already formed on the tip of my tongue, before I closed my mouth.
I couldn’t match his speed. I would only slow him down and time was not on our side.
“Allie.” He took both of my hands in his and kissed them. “I’ll be back in two days, I promise. Can I trust you to defend Solkar’s Reach if needed?”
In the beat of silence that passed, a frown contorted his face.
“Honestly?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m offended you even had to ask.” I cupped his cheeks with my palms ignoring the grit, and brought our foreheads together, the first time I did it.
He relaxed against me with a heavy sigh.
“Of course I will. You just focus on coming back alive, we’ll deal with the rest. If not, I’m going into the crypt and telling your mother you don’t keep your promises. ”
A laugh bubbled in his throat as his eyes softened. “I promise I’ll be back.”
He kissed my forehead once more, almost making me melt.
“You need to go before the sun clears the horizon,” he whispered. “The passage should be clear.”
The thought of going back inside sent shivers down my spine. But it didn’t frighten me as much as his final warning.
“Be careful, Allie. Those masked monsters didn’t get into the passage by themselves. Someone who’d already entered the crater before had to give them access. Trust nobody.”