Chapter 15
XV.
My legs tremble as we cross the bridge from the lot. Nate watches me, concern etched in his features. I pull the hood over my head and stare ahead. He doesn’t need to see how those mirrors unnerved me.
We steal across a second bridge, and I relax as we approach another wall of caverns.
No souldiers wait for us, and the caves will provide cover. We have another ascent ahead of us, but once we complete that, we should be almost out of Lapis.
A sharp pain jabs into my back, and I gasp.
“Devicaaaaa…”
I freeze, the blood draining from my face. That voice. It’s the same one from the mirror.
“Nate.” I shove my hood down. “Do you hear that?”
He stops and listens. “Hear what?”
I wait a beat, but the voice is gone. “Nothing.” I wrap my arms around myself. Nate smooths my hair, but I shrink from his touch and give him a pointed look. “I don’t need consoling.”
“That wasn’t what I was—” His hand falls to his side. “You have glass in your hair. I probably shouldn’t have hit the mirror so close to you, but you freaked me out and I reacted.”
My cheeks heat.
I should be saving him, not the other way around.
I shake my head again, and shards of crystal chime against the stones at our feet, catching the light like a mosaic. “You did what you had to do. Besides, I heal quickly.”
We wind around the wall and enter a cave so deep it’s impossible to make out where it ends. Torches hang sporadically on the walls, providing brief patches of orange in a darkness that engulfs Nate when he strays from their light.
“Devicaaaaa…” The voice bounces off the walls, and my shoulders tense. But there’s no one else here.
Straightening my jaw, I resume my pace beside Nate.
“He’s a sinner. You know what you have to do.”
I shove my hands over my ears. “Leave me alone.”
“Devica?” Nate asks. “Who are you talking to?”
Removing my hands, I stop and hold my breath, listening for anything out of the ordinary. Only our footsteps echo back at me. The pain in my back crescendos hot, then diminishes.
“Nothing.” I move behind Nate as the passage narrows. “Thinking out loud.”
We continue through the cave, and I glance over my shoulder whenever we pass a patch of light. We’re trailed only by our own shadows, dancing together on the walls with each crack of the flames.
“Do it, Devicaaaa…” The voice pounds against my brain, louder than it was in Lot Eleven. Heat rips through my spine again, and I bite back a scream. “He must paaaaay…”
My mind snaps into awareness, like clouds parting after a storm.
What am I doing? He’s a sinner, I’m a demon. It’s my job to punish him. He tricked me into helping him the night he came into my room.
Clever little shadeling.
Nate’s only a foot in front of me. I draw my sword and raise it over my head, careful not to make a sound. He’s humming a song I don’t recognize.
“Devicaaaaa…” the voice thunders. “Teach him his lesson. End him.”
He won’t see the blow coming. I can be the hero who brought him back instead of the villain who freed him.
My body burns. Tears blur my vision, and I bite my tongue so hard that blood fills my mouth. My arm shakes as I struggle against the urge to swing. I won’t do this. I won’t hurt him.
The sword clatters to the ground. Pain rips through my body as though it’s tearing my flesh from the bone. I fall to my knees and rock forward and back, gritting my teeth, fighting every instinct to grab the sword again.
“Devica?” Nate drops to his knees in front of me and takes my hands. “Are you okay?”
Sitting back on my heels, I study my arms. The shards of glass scratched me enough to raise pink flesh, but none of them broke the skin.
A rush of pain burns like fire between my shoulder blades, and I grit my teeth against the sting.
“I think there’s a piece of mirror in me. It’s trying to control me.”
“What?”
“My back.” I whimper. “I think it’s embedded in my back.”
Nate crawls behind me and unlaces my cape. My body shakes violently, my teeth clattering against themselves. I’ve never experienced pain like this. If this is what humans feel in our lots, no wonder they hate us. I wouldn’t like me, either.
Nate gasps as my cape falls to the ground.
“Is it bad?” I stammer, fighting the blackness threatening to overtake me.
“I don’t see anything yet. It’s… There are… You have wings.”
I jam my fingernails deeper into my ribs and groan. “I’m aware. Find the glass, Nate. Unless you’re cool with me removing your head from your body.”
“Yeah no. I need that. It’s one of my best features.” His fingers probe the back of my dress, barely whispering against the searing flesh. “I can’t see anything. I think I need to undo your dress. Is that okay?”
In any other situation, his request would land him on the floor like Ferus, but I inhale sharply as another wave of pain flows through me. “I don’t care, Nate. Get this thing out of me.”
“I had to check. Consent and all.”
He unlaces the back of my dress and spreads it open.
His fingers trace my bare skin, light as smoke from a flame, until he presses a spot that sears so hot that white bursts explode behind my eyes.
“There’s definitely something there, under your skin.
It looks angry. Black and…pulsing? That can’t be good. ”
My teeth chatter despite the sweat coating every inch of my body. I can’t hold on to consciousness much longer. “You’ll have to cut it out.”
Nate’s hands leave my back. “I can’t do that. I’m the most squeamish person ever. I can’t even watch medical dramas. And those are like TV gore.”
I curse under my breath. “It’s skin and blood, Nate. This shard isn’t coming out by itself and if we leave it in, it’s going to kill me or you or both of us.”
He sucks in his top lip, then lifts his head. “Fine. But don’t you dare leave me here if I faint.”
“I make no promises.” I attempt to smile at him, but another wave of pain rolls over me, and I lurch over my knees. My palms dig into the ground, shards of gravel embedding themselves into my skin. “Hurry. Please.”
“Okay, here goes. Take a deep breath.” He grabs the knife from his belt and slices.