Chapter 14
Sidney
My chest heaved, each breath a jagged gasp. I stared at the empty passage where Finn had vanished, waiting for him to reappear, to laugh at some impossible joke, to signal that he’d found another exit.
Anything but this crushing silence.
“Abandoned you, did he?” Fiorella’s voice dripped with delight. “How delicious.”
I spun to flee. Yet the compulsion struck, yanking me still. My legs locked.
My feet moved against my will, forcing me to face Fiorella and her mates. The chamber was a tomb, and I was to be its newest corpse.
My mind, a frantic buzz just moments before, went quiet. The world narrowed to the glint in Fiorella’s eyes and the slow, triumphant curve of her mouth. The pain in my cracked ribs faded to a distant echo.
Finn was gone. He’d left me. The stark, simple fact hollowed me out, leaving nothing but a fragile shell.
Licking her lips, Fiorella raised her blade. Her remaining devotees closed in, their movements still sluggish from the spores but no less lethal.
A tremor ran through the stone beneath me. Not the familiar groan of shifting walls, but something with a cadence like a drum beat. Dust rained from the ceiling. Fiorella paused, her head tilted.
Then came the roar.
It was not the shriek of the pale creatures or the cry of a vampire. This sound was ripped from the heart of the wild, a bellowing, guttural sound that promised torn flesh and shattered bone.
A shape of impossible size and fury filled the opening where Finn had fled, a nine-foot-tall nightmare of speckled grey feathers.
Its oversized, beaked head, like that of a monstrous owl, swiveled, fixing huge, yellow eyes on the scene.
The creature had the body of an oversized bear, muscles rippling beneath its hide, each limb tipped with dagger-length claws and great wings furled against its sides.
A tytoursus. A king of the forest wilds.
And on its back, clinging to its neck, was a grinning redhead.
“Finn!” I gasped. The tension in my stomach eased. My shoulders loosened just a bit as I realized what’d happened.
He slid off the creature’s flank, nearly collapsing. The tytoursus steadied him with a gentle nudge.
Sorry I took so long, Finn signed. He nodded to the bird-headed bear. Had to convince him to help. His name is Ash.
“Your defective Turned brought reinforcements,” Fiorella sneered. “How quaint.”
Brute tilted his head, his jaw slack and eyes wide, just as Ash charged. The tytoursus swatted him sideways. The vampire’s body hit the wall hard with a loud crack. Boris stirred and cracked open his eyes. He rose and limped over, tearing out Brute’s throat with his teeth.
I seized the moment and ran at Ice. His gaze was fixed on the enormous creature advancing through the chamber. The split second of hesitation was all I needed. My blade found his throat; he clutched at my wrist as the blade kissed his skin.
We grappled for the weapon until I froze. My muscles refused to obey, so Ice took the dagger from my fingers and tossed it away. Fiorella’s glare bore down on me just as Finn pierced Ice through the heart with Speedster’s blade.
“I can’t stop the beast,” Compulsion yelled. The tytoursus shifted its attention to him.
His beak closed around the vampire’s torso. The sound was a hideous symphony of cracking ribs and tearing flesh. Compulsion’s scream was cut brutally short.
I gaped at the smear of blood the creature had left behind when he discarded the two halves of the corpse aside. That’s one way to solve a five-versus-two fight.
Fiorella’s shrieks filled the hall. Her face twisted, her eyes wide with terror. She spun to flee. Finn’s knife flashed, slicing through the air, striking her in the hamstring. His small sledgehammer followed a heartbeat later, slamming into her shoulder and driving her to the ground.
She crumpled with a choked cry. As she tried to rise, she raised a hand, and light burst from her in a wave that flooded the world with brilliance.
I threw up an arm, my vision bleaching out, waiting for the burn from the release of energy.
Yet there was none. I charged through the glare.
We collided hard. Bone and breath jarred beneath me as I slammed her to the floor.
I forced my blade into her chest, pushing hard. A sharp gasp followed, then stillness.
The silence that followed roared. My breath came ragged. The strength that’d carried me drained away in a rush, leaving my legs shaking.
I pressed my palm to my chest. My engagement ring dug into my skin, the metal hot from my pulse. My heart was pounding so violently it hurt.
Are you all right? Finn signed.
I nodded. For a moment, we just stared across the blood-slick floor, the echoes of battle still humming in the walls.
Then he moved. So did I. We collided halfway, hard enough to steal the breath from my lungs.
He locked his arms around me, lifting me just off the ground and holding me as if he didn’t quite believe I was real.
Our hearts hammered against each other, the adrenaline still roaring.
I tilted my face up at the same moment he dipped his.
Our mouths met in a fierce kiss that tasted of victory, relief, and something far more dangerous.
I shifted back, though his arms stayed around me. His breath skimmed my cheek as he pulled me close again. For a heartbeat, neither of us spoke. Then we drew apart.
You came back, I signed.
Of course I came back. He smiled, then gave a quick wink, a flicker of humor covering something deeper in his eyes. Did you really think I would abandon you?
I thought… The sign faltered. I couldn’t name the hollow ache of believing he was gone.
You thought I was a coward. His smile dimmed. When the wall opened, I sensed another animal, and we needed help. He hesitated, gaze dropping as he nudged a nonexistent stone with his boot. I promised I would free him if he helped us.
I am glad you did.
He nodded and crossed over to Boris, who was dragging himself across the ground and whining softly. Blood matted his fur in thick clumps. Finn dropped to his knees and gathered the honey badger into his arms.
I placed my hand on his shoulder and mouthed, “Is he going to live?”
“He’s fine. Just dizzy and bruised,” Finn answered, his words thick.
He fully lowered himself to the ground and settled Boris in his lap.
The honey badger gave a faint growl of protest before going limp, his breathing shallow but steady.
Finn dug into his pocket, pulled out a piece of pemmican, and held it near Boris’s muzzle.
The creature’s jaws closed around it, chewing weakly.
I moved between the fallen bodies, taking anything that might matter later: a dagger, a few blood vials, a strip of clean cloth.
Weariness weighed down my steps. Behind me, Brute still breathed, gurgling weakly, his body already knitting itself back together.
His eyes begged as he tried to speak, pleading for a mercy he hadn’t earned.
I ended it with a single thrust into his heart.
I turned to Finn and signed, We need to rest. I glanced toward the tytoursus and then back at Finn. Can Ash keep watch?
Finn nodded and turned to the beast. Ash gave a low rumble and began a slow circuit around the chamber.
I dropped beside Finn. He passed me another bar of pemmican, and I handed him a vial of blood.
I ate and sipped from the waterskin. The surviving rats crept from the shadows, their soft chittering threading through the stillness.
Nibs was amongst them and scaled Finn’s clothes.
The mouse perched on his shoulder and sniffed him.
Finn checked his timepiece, its silver glint catching the dim light before he tucked it away. A day and a half left.
I let out a slow breath. I closed my eyes, expecting my thoughts to keep whirling despite my need for sleep. Darkness closed in instead.
One by one, we stirred and stretched stiff limbs. Finn had taken the next watch, leaving me undisturbed for as long as possible. I blinked hard, trying to clear the clinging mist from my eyes. Despite the rest, my gear felt heavier than it had yesterday as I took the final watch.
We set off, and Ash took the rear. The rodents darted ahead to scout.
We crossed paths with two more groups of vampires before the labyrinth quieted again.
The first took one look at Ash and bolted down a side passage, their panicked cries echoing against the walls. We let them go.
The second group wasn’t so lucky. They were already weakened; the vampiress limped from a bleeding gash in her thigh, and her devotees moved with the stiffness of exhaustion. When they saw us, there was a moment of resignation on their faces. Still, they lifted their weapons and charged.
Ash met them with a roar. The fight was brief and brutal, punctuated by a snapping beak and flashing claws. When the echoes faded, I looted the bodies for anything worth carrying.
Another half day bled away before we stopped and napped in uneasy spurts. We took turns, one always watching our surroundings.
With less than a half a day remaining in the trial, confirmed by Finn's timepiece, we’d survived three traps and two collapsing corridors before the passage opened into a vast, circular chamber.
Felicity and Emmeline waited there, their Devotions ringed around them in a rough defensive circle. Felicity’s wide grin bloomed the moment she saw me. “Ilyana! There you are.”
Razira stood among them as well, unmistakable with her white hair. A tightness in my chest eased to see that she was still alive, and I almost smiled.
Razira stepped forward, and the back of her hand accidentally brushing my neck when she rested a hand on my shoulder in greeting. Her eyes widened in a flicker of surprise, then narrowed in on my face.
“What?” I asked.
“Good to see you.” She nodded and stepped back to stand with her mates.