Chapter 17
WHEN THE DUST HAD SETTLED, there was a huge pile of rocks standing in between me and the map—and the rest of our group.
“Zig!” I yelled, climbing the pile, the stones rolling beneath my feet. I could feel my palms abrading as I clutched for purchase, and I was going to break an ankle if I tried to ascend this ridiculously large pile of rocks! “Zig! Can you hear me? Are you okay?”
Silence.
I rested my forehead on the cave-in. It was cold against my skin. A stark difference from the tears gathering and burning behind my eyes. Zig was safe. He had to be safe. I saw him make it through the door and into the passageway.
“Zig!” I yelled again, my throat clogged with regret and sobs and dust.
“Ellinore!”
I snapped my head up. The voice was faint, but I could hear him.
“Zig! Are you okay?”
“We’re fine. The three of us are fine.”
The knot in my stomach unraveled. Oh, I was going to throw up. Tears of relief slipped down my cheeks. Thank the ancients.
“Are you and Aven okay?”
Aven. I whipped around and found them sitting on the carpet, breathing heavily, with their elbows propped on their knees. They were covered in dust, but aside from a cut on the back of their hand, they seemed otherwise unharmed.
“You good?” I asked.
They waved.
“We’re fine!” I yelled back. “Just trapped! Is there another way out of here?”
“Don’t worry,” Zig hollered. “Rylan is going to get you out. With magic!”
My eyes widened. “Can Rylan do that with magic?”
“Yes! I mean, maybe.” That was Rylan’s voice.
“It might take me a little while because it’s a lot of rock.
And my magic and I tire easily.” That must be why Rylan used the flint to start the fire in the hearth.
He’d exhausted his magic lighting the room.
This did not bode well for us. “I’ll try a little tonight, but I think I’ll do best in the morning. ”
“Oh my ancients,” I whispered. I took a deep breath, rested my head on the stone again, and closed my eyes.
Okay. I could hear them. There had to be a way for air to get in here as well.
Or if not, there were only two of us. Suffocating shouldn’t be a problem.
I could weather this. And if I couldn’t, I’d call for Dave.
No big deal to summon the Golden Dragon, which Rylan correctly didn’t think I had killed.
But if that was what it came to, at least I had a plan.
I pushed away from the wall and opened my eyes.
Aven stood, wobbled, but then righted themself. They joined me by the rockslide.
“Set up camp,” they yelled. “Sleep in shifts and keep a watch. Make sure you each get some sleep. Farrah, you’re in charge.”
Twin shouts of indignation followed, and then a small but clear “Yay.”
“Why Farrah?” I asked.
Aven shrugged. “She has a weapon.”
“True. But we’ve not seen her use it. Effectively.”
“Point. But it’s either her, your waning brother, or the mage who needs to focus on getting us out of here.”
So Aven had noticed Zig’s decline too. I hadn’t imagined it.
I cleared my throat. “Fair enough.”
Okay. While they were setting up a camp, it was time to investigate.
That loud snap I’d heard when I fell was my pauldron finally giving way.
I sighed. I’d known it was coming, but why did it have to happen in front of Aven?
I unclipped the other straps, and the pauldron fell to the ground with a slap that echoed in the small space.
Aven raised an eyebrow. For the second time on the quest, they could’ve said I told you so, but they didn’t.
That was odd. Oh well. I divested myself of the rest of my armor.
I didn’t need it on right then, not while I was trying to figure a way out of our magic stone tomb.
There had to be something in this museum of oddities that could help us.
Thankfully, one of the torches remained lit, offering some meager light. But what it didn’t offer was heat. Without my cloak and armor, it was achingly cold.
“What are you doing?” Aven asked.
“Looking for something to help.”
Aven sighed. “Don’t you think you should let our companions work on getting us out?”
I scoffed. “I would if I wanted to die in here. But that’s not my plan.”
“Ellinore,” Aven said softly. “It’s late. They need to rest. We need to rest. And in the morning we’ll give them a chance. They can do it.”
I paused in my perusal of the glass bottles that hadn’t broken.
Maybe Aven was right. Again, if worse came to worst, I could always summon Dave.
That would open a whole other can of worms, but maybe it would be worth it.
I didn’t want to waste the time it would take for Rylan to fish us out, but also we had a map now.
Unless the entrance to the Elder Beast’s realm was in one of the kingdoms across the seas, we’d make it in time.
“Trust them, Ellinore. It’ll be okay.”
“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms to hide my shivering. “They can have at it for a few hours in the morning.”
“How gracious you are,” Aven said playfully.
They crossed the room, then tossed more wood on the fire and coaxed it back to life.
The reds and oranges from the flames danced across their fair skin, glinted against the gold earrings lining the gentle curve of their ear, and created a shimmer on the lush pout of their mouth.
My breath caught. It was as if one of the paintings in the castle had come to life or the lavish words of a poem had woven together and coalesced, turning a lovely phrase into a corporeal form.
I’d seen Aven limned in firelight before, noting how pretty they were, but for some reason this time was…
different. Maybe because they had been willing to die in the Simmer if it prevented both of us from falling.
Maybe because they’d pushed Zig out of the way from being crushed.
Maybe because they had shown in just a few days that they weren’t the pouting royal rival they pretended to be at court—they were far wittier, kinder, more willing to listen, and generally just… a good person.
It was no secret they were strikingly beautiful and wholly unobtainable due to their royal status and my ever-growing pile of lies. My heart twinged with an unfamiliar ache at the thought that they would never truly know me.
“This should warm the room a bit,” they said, standing and brushing off their hands. “Hopefully, the flue hasn’t fallen in, or the cave will fill with smoke, but we should know that shortly.”
I didn’t respond, tongue-tied by the slowly developing, horrible realization that I liked them.
Not as a rival. Not as a friend. But in an I want to kiss them way.
But I also wanted to hold their hand and listen to them talk about their day and know their favorite flavor of tea. Did Aven even like tea?
I shouldn’t be thinking about this. I was on a quest to save my brother! I didn’t need feelings!
“Ellinore?” Aven prompted.
“What?” I yelled. “Yes. I’m here. Um… what?”
They frowned. “I said, come on, let’s get comfortable.”
My stomach did that weird flipping thing again and my heart joined it.
I had already suffered a cave-in and a near-death experience for both me and my brother; I didn’t need an aneurysm from close proximity to Aven.
If this quest didn’t kill me from rockslides and fire salamanders, then I’d surely die from crush-related heart palpitations.
“Okay.” I sounded choked.
We settled against the wall near the cave-in so we could still hear the others if they called for us.
We had removed the remnants of the splintered table and a few other objects to free the carpet and pulled it close for us to sit on.
We found a ship’s sail rolled up in a corner and spread it behind us.
Then we propped our backs against it, a barrier between us and the damp stone.
I set my sword within arm’s reach, and Aven did the same with their bow and quiver.
I drew my knees to my chest, while Aven spread out their cloak and ensured it covered both of us as much as possible.
“Are we really going to wait right here and let a mage teen we hardly know figure out how to get us out?” I asked, because I had to get my mind off this abhorrent crush.
Aven sighed. “Yep.”
I shifted, pushing my shoulder against theirs to leach body heat. I shivered.
“Are you really that cold?” they asked.
“Yes. Otherwise, I would not be cuddling with you.” Good one, Ellinore.
Aven hummed. They took my hands and hissed. “Your hands are freezing,” they said, rubbing them between their own. Their hands were warm and soft even with the calluses on the tips of their fingers and… I should not be dwelling on their gentle touch.
Deflect, Ellinore. Use snark. “Did you miss the part where I said I’m cold?”
“Oh, ancients, come here.” Aven put their arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer. Then they grabbed the edge of the cloak with their fingers and tucked it around my body as best they could.
My cheeks heated with a burning blush that I hoped Aven would take for embarrassment.
But honestly, if I absolutely had to be tucked next to Aven in order to not die in a cold cave, I was going all in.
I relaxed against them, laying my head on their collarbone.
I kept my hands tucked in close to my chest. It wasn’t that comfortable, but I wasn’t about to fling my arm across their torso, even though I had a fleeting thought that it might be nice.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “You saved Zig.”
“I knew that’s what you would want.”
Ancients, how were they so perfect? And how did they know me so well? Okay, they didn’t really. Kind of. Ugh, I hated this feeling, the lies piling up into a barrier between me and them.
“You can report your thrilling heroics to the king,” I said, mustering feigned magnanimity. “I don’t mind.”
Aven chuckled. “Thank you for the permission. I’ll be sure to include them.”
I huffed in amusement. We basked in the light from the fire and in our companionable silence.