Chapter 45
Forty-Five
“Divine?” Adham muttered between breaths, still buried inside her.
“Divine,” Kosmina answered, sounding as thunderstruck as he felt.
It wasn’t every night one crested such heights. Yet he knew with her, it would be. His chest swelled and so did his shaft—even though he’d come till his legs had buckled.
When the ground shuddered again, harsh reality returned, but he was finally— finally —ready for it. Clarity followed, and he embraced that as well, seeing through the hourglass at last.
She was the reason he’d endured, and now he had a job to do—one he’d been fated to complete since his birth. As he withdrew, she gave a moan of loss.
“Soon, love.”
Though doubt flickered in her expression, she said, “I’ll hold you to that.” They swiftly found their clothes and dressed. Yet before they set out, she murmured, “I don’t want to give up this moment in time.”
“I don’t either. But we have work to do.”
“Work, said my pleasure-seeking sorcerer.” Her small smile faded. “You were right—this is a suicide mission with no guarantees.”
He’d been thinking about that. “I want to leave you here, search the hive, then return for you.”
“Your sorcery is growing—I saw it just now—but it’s not enough to take on countless ghoul sentries. Not yet.”
His magic had simmered earlier, but he couldn’t depend on it. He raised his palm, producing a faint light. “Damn my power.”
“Enti told me the wendigos, revenants, and hellhounds are roaming farther afield. More danger would likely find me anyway.” Another quake vibrated beneath them. “They’re coming faster now.”
“Enti muted our perception of them, disguising them as if with a Sorceri’s mask. For whatever reason, she’s stopped affecting them. Without the promise of my vice to fuel her, she must be rethinking her decision to stay.”
Kosmina gazed in the direction of the castle. “They were only trying to survive. Do they deserve to die for their actions?”
“I urged her to come with us. She made her choice, and she made it for all of them.”
“I asked her too. Apparently, not everyone has the mettle to fight ghouls. I scent them already.” Kosmina drew her sword. “We’re not far from the hive entrance.”
“We’ll be ready for them.” He’d just drawn his own sword when she went still. “Kosmina?”
She raised her face and frowned. “Huh.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve caught something . . . another scent. An unexpected one.” She inhaled deeper. “Cold and sap?”
“Mina?”
Her lips parted. “I smell evergreen trees and snow!”
“Then you’ve picked up the mortal realm. Where is it coming from?”
“It’s faint, the tiniest thread, but it’s emerging from within the hive. The quakes may have opened a new rift. Adham, we’re so close.”
“Just like you said, our escape lies there. With your senses, we could find the exit—perhaps without even facing the primordial.” Would the other undead creatures throughout Nightside pick up that same thread? “But we need to hurry.”
She nodded breathlessly. “Let’s go home.”
As they sprinted toward the hive, another quake rocked the realm. He helped her along the shuddering path. “And where will home be? We’ll be safest from a recapture in Poly. Will you live with me there?”
She veered around a mini landslide and gave a warm laugh. “I’ll live anywhere with you, sorcerer.”
“Not to be the heart of the kingdom any longer?”
“I’ll be the heart of another kingdom.”
That earned her a brief but fierce kiss, their swords clinking against each other before they pressed on.
The path ended at a large plateau. The mountain rose on the far side, skirted by giant rock folds resembling draped cloths. He said, “Any one of those coves could conceal the entrance. What are your senses telling you?”
She scented the air. “It’s that one.” She pointed with her sword to an area at two o’clock.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said wryly as ghouls began to pour out of the opening like ants from a kicked mound, just as Xodin had described. Their green skin blazed in the blustery night, yellow eyes aglow. Their claws and fangs matched those eyes, and they bared them with menace, dribbling infection. “These sentries are meeting us on advantageous ground? They underestimate their opponents.”
“They must not understand that they’re all that stands between us and our future.”
She grinned. “Let’s educate them!”
When those sentries charged, Adham and Kosmina met them with their swords flashing. He fought like a man possessed. Well-timed blocks helped him evade claws, while his blade felled one after another.
Between her own inspired sallies, she noticed his moves. “Motivated?” She used a shoulder to brush hair from her face, then skewered a ghoul in the eye. She’d been good with a length of crystal; with a sword she was a marvel.
“As never before. I suspect I can be very hardworking”—he mowed down a trio with one concentrated strike—“when I have the right incentive.” Green blood sprayed like a fountain.
“I believe it.” She finally could.
“We’re making inroads.” The ghouls had noticed; their howls grew deafening.
“Almost to the entrance! We need to reach that rift in time—” A crevasse suddenly ruptured beside them, splitting the plateau like a cracked plate. Ghouls bowled against her as the ground shifted. “Adham!” Kosmina evaded their claws but teetered at the edge, nearly horizontal.
He lunged for her, snatching her sword arm before she fell. The drop couldn’t be more than a couple of dozen feet, but ghouls had tumbled in to fill the ravine below her.
As Adham yanked her up, they sprang into the air and seized her hair, dangling from it!
“Ahh!” Her head snapped back, neck arcing.
He gripped her arm tighter. Tug-of-war; she was the rope. He slashed his sword behind her, lopping off the ends of her hair.
The recoil flung her into him. Safe.
Yet then she screamed. A ghoul had slipped up from behind. Before Adham could defend, Kosmina shoved her free arm between its claws and Adham’s neck.
Five new wounds gaped across her skin.
“Kosmina?” Adham backhanded the creature so hard it didn’t rise, then pulled her against him. Blood rushed from her arm to soak her slashed sleeve, but he spied the green contagion already spreading.
She’d known she would get clawed! “Why? Woman, why?”
She swallowed, stoic look in place. “What’s done is done.” As more ghouls welled from the entrance, she freed herself from his grasp, rushing into the fray. “I’ll get you inside. You’ll pick up the scent of the mortal world as you get closer.”
Burying his shock, he charged after her. He would kill every one of the ghouls, get her to freedom, then secure that wishgiver ring. Kosmina would turn within three days at most, but it could be hours. I’ll save her before then.
Another quake almost sent him to his knees; she was flung feet away. The ghouls, used to this, maintained their footing and attacked him in number. As he carved with his sword, he kept his gaze on her.
She’d leapt to her feet—too late; a sentry swung a rock, bashing it against her temple.
“Noo!” Adham roared when she crumpled to the ground unconscious. Sword slashing in a frenzy, he barreled forward.
But a pair of sentries snatched her up and sprinted inside the mountain with their prize. Others guarded their escape.
He fought headlong. “Mina!” Another quake reverberated. Just before he reached the hive’s entrance, a massive landslide rained down.
He dove to follow his mate into the hive?—
Boulders caught him, bulleting him back into that new ravine. The force was unstoppable; stone ravaged even his immortal body. Sword and sand lost. And then the ravine closed on him like a giant mouth, swallowing him and a troop of ghouls.
He had to reach her, had to fight! He thrashed with all his strength; exposed bones flayed open his ragged skin. His mangled limbs couldn’t budge the rocks. Without moving the rocks, he couldn’t regenerate. Pain warred with panic. Air grew scarce in this tomb.
A glow appeared in the dark, a ghoul buried right beside him. It dug its green hand through the rubble toward Adham’s trapped arm but couldn’t stretch enough to reach him. Desperate to infect, it extended its forefinger until scant inches separated him from a dripping claw. Wriggling closer. Closer. A worm burrowing . . .
Immobilized, Adham couldn’t flee. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t save Kosmina.
He struggled to sense his pouch of sand, tried to connect with the silt these rocks had created. But suffocation threatened. Would he die and resurrect over and over until Nightside’s end? Or until his ghoul neighbor made contact?
Thoughts faded with his air supply. His princess’s name carried on his last breath. “ Mina . . .”