Chapter 72
Allie
The spilled water pooled into the dusty grooves between the stones.
The cup had rolled away into a corner.
Vylkor’s body had been shoved aside carelessly by the jail door.
His eye was open, no hint of shock or fear frozen in it.
Only acceptance.
A sickly green foam spilled from his lips, dark, mossy veins spidering all over his face.
Ryker crouched next to him, muttered prayers on his lips as he asked the ancestors to receive Vylkor’s soul and treat him like the true warrior he was.
I pressed my hand against my mouth to keep both my gasps and curses contained.
Vylkor, who’d followed rules even when they’d cut at his own pride. Who’d kept his humanity and principles and had brought Nadya water even after everything she’d done.
She’d murdered him for it.
One more name on her bloody list.
One more soul she hadn’t cared to spare.
She was truly and utterly gone.
“Same poison used at the wedding.” Dax curled his top lip, staring at the warrior who’d saved his life. “How did that conniving pest even contain it on her?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Ryker murmured and leaned forward, lips only a breath away from Vylkor’s forehead.
My heart pattered at seeing him so close to the same sickly poison that had surrounded my father and I so many moons ago.
“Fare well, Brother,” he whispered and kissed Vylkor’s forehead, closing his eyes. I felt the unshed tears constricting his throat.
Ryker righted himself, face sharpened by so much grief, I wondered how he could still breathe without losing his mind. He closed Vylkor’s eye and hung his head for the barest moment, shoulders shaking.
At first, I thought he’d break.
He didn’t.
He shook with rage.
He jumped up to his feet, eyes sparking lethally as he took in the entire dungeon, an endless, cold labyrinth filled with bars and empty cells, where nothing but screams could keep you company.
“She couldn’t have gone far.” I looked up the jagged, narrow steps. “Dax should have bumped into her upstairs.”
“I didn’t see her,” Dax growled, not taking his hard eyes away from Vylkor.
“Someone would have if she’d gone up. Too risky.” Ryker narrowed his eyes around us. He crouched low on the ground, looking at the stones in the flickering lights of the sconces. He crawled forward, not breathing.
I followed, trying to see through his eyes. Then I noticed them–vague and hazy.
Steps in the dust gathered on the floor.
They stopped at a closed jail door Ryker screeched open with a single finger.
His face turned to the small window, crossed by strong bars.
No human could have squeezed through there.
Not a normal one, at least.
He ran his finger along the edge of the window. Crumbs of rock fell at his feet, thudding in the silence.
Jaw ticking, he pushed against the bars.
They gave way easily, carved on the bottom and the top from the outside. Gods knew how much time it had taken Nadya to chisel the metal away from the stone without anyone noticing. Months.
Years.
“She was ready for this,” he muttered and whirled around.
His eyes still sparked, but they were now a darker shade than grief, sending shivers down my spine.
“I’ll check outside the city and the crater’s rim,” he announced, voice like a whip. “She wouldn’t dare use the passage, but I’ll send more warriors in case some of her friends decide to pay us a visit.”
“I’ll search the city and the fortress,” I said.
“Nadya probably knows this crater better than even Mrs. Thornbrew.”
“Dax mapped out every nook and cranny.”
“Yes,” was all Dax said. He hadn’t moved since we’d traipsed down into the dungeons.
Nadya had done so much damage while she was here. I shuddered to think of the rampage she would cause now that she was unburdened by the need to pretend.
No more messages sent through glares on the crater’s shards.
If she reached her allies, she would be free to sell out any secret she’d found while here.
He marched back up to Vylkor’s body and bent down to pick him up.
“No.” Dax stretched his hand to stop him. “Let me carry him. You need to find her.”
Ryker’s jaw twitched, on the verge of arguing.
“Please,” Dax said, still looking at Vylkor.
Ryker stepped back. “Take care of him.”
“I will.”
Ryker sighed, feeling on the verge of imploding. “I’m sorry, Brother.”
Those few words carved deeper into him, letting an unfamiliar darkness seep out.
I felt it when he pressed his lips against my forehead and muttered, “Be careful.”
“You too,” was all I managed to say before he flexed his back and the sound of crushing bones bounced off the walls.
Then he was gone, a blur of rage and revenge, the wind of him blowing the hair around my face.
“We have a lot of ground to cover. She might attack someone else,” I said when Dax still hadn’t moved.
“I should have come sooner,” he said. “Vylkor saved my life. I owed him.”
“He wouldn’t have thought like that.” I stuttered a breath. “He didn’t save you so you could die for him.”
Without another word, he bent down and gently picked up Vylkor, a man who was almost twice as large as him.
Was, a tearful voice murmured in my mind. My own, this time.
Under the hazy light, Dax turned, carrying him like a fallen companion. The glow that usually danced in his gaze was gone.
“If we do find Nadya, keep her away from me,” he said coldly. “Because I will kill her.”