Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Cold is eternal.
CIPRIAN
I’ve never been this cold.
The fingers of my left hand are numb around the torch, and the ones on the right—wrapped around Alistair’s waist—ache like someone is playing whack-a-mole with my joints. Worse than that, my legs are actively forgetting how to walk, dragging clumsily against the planks of the bridge.
Even my thoughts are wispy, as if there isn’t enough heat in my brain for them to form.
My magic is the only spark I have left. I cling to it desperately, doing my best to cloak us in a scatter pattern that will keep anyone from noticing us.
“One step in front of the other,” Luca says. “You’re doing amazing, Ciprian. You too, Ali.”
If I wasn’t actively freezing to death, I might be into the praise. But if Luca sees the need to talk me through crossing an icy bridge, we’re in deep shit.
Alistair’s fingers twitch against my side, pinching me through my clothes. I barely feel it, and a shiver racks my body that has nothing to do with the cold.
“Malach, stop!” Celine’s voice carries on the wind. “We need him to get out of here.”
Then she’s standing at the end of the bridge, looking frantically through us. I try to drop the illusion only for her, but I don’t have enough control, and the whole thing breaks. “F-f-fuck,” I sputter. “Nightmare down.”
I’ll remember the moment Celine spots us for the rest of my life.
Her wings shoot from her back, and her mouth drops open, then she’s running, sprinting toward us on the wobbly bridge.
Her wings wrap around Alistair and I, the feathers trembling wildly.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay,” she gasps, half sobbing, half laughing as she looks us over.
There are frozen tear tracks on her face.
“Stealing our lines, angel. A-are you hurt?” Alistair bends to get closer to her, pressing his cheek against mine so she can reach us both.
“I’m fine. I’ll explain later, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I’m cold,” I mutter. “But you’re hot.” Gods, what? That was idiotic.
Celine smiles, her teeth shining white in the dark. I can’t tell her how beautiful she is—my body won’t cooperate, but at least I made her smile. She pushes me in front of her and wraps her wings around me.
Immediately, my brain fog recedes. Walking is awkward, and Celine can’t see well, but it’s faster and warmer than if she carried me. “Can you make it to Malach, Alistair?”
He sighs and tucks the blanket tighter around himself. “Casanell has all the luck.”
“The height difference—”
“I know, angel. I’ll be fine.”
“Luca—”
“I’ve got your back, baby.”
“No, I know that,” Celine says. “I just wanted to say, I love you.”
He rumbles low in his throat and collides with her back, pressing smacking kisses against her neck. “I love you too. Let’s move.”
We reach the end of the bridge and find Malach and Riven locked in a tense standoff. Their faces are streaked with blood and already swelling.
“Take us to the portal,” Celine says.
Riven looks at her, then his gaze flicks to Luca. “If I do, you won’t all make it out.”
“Why?” she demands. “Did my father rig it like the desert gateway?” Her wings are smoking, and I shudder, leaning into the heat.
“Your father? No. This portal’s function has remained unchanged for decades.”
Luca chokes. “The binding.”
Riven nods. “No monster can pass through unless their beast has been bound first. It’s a security measure to prevent escaped monsters from getting to the mainland to retaliate.
” He tilts his chin toward the night sky where the shifter realm looms among a blanket of stars.
“I can key in the Fringes a million times, but Luca won’t make it through. ”
“Send them without me,” Luca says.
“No.” Celine’s response is immediate.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” I snap at Riven. “There must be another option. Malach, hit him until he tells us another option.”
Riven holds his hands up. “I swear I’m telling the truth. Do you think I would look like this”—he points viciously at his own expressionless, amber-coated features—“if there were any other alternative?”
“If you won’t leave without me,” Luca says calmly, “then bind my basilisk.”
Celine grabs his hand. “You told me your parents were never the same after they were bound.” She lifts her chin. “And I’m not willing to lose any part of you.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Luca snaps. “Better I make it off this cursed rock as a shifter without a shift than watch you die because of me.”
Shouts ricochet below us as dark, shadowy figures run along the icy ground.
A monstrous beast chases after them, stopping only to bite the slowest one’s head off.
I cover us in a nightmare, my hands trembling as I stare at the blood-streaked snow.
“Is there a safer venue for us to have this argument?”
“There’s nothing to argue about—”
“No, Luca,” Celine says. “This isn’t a sacrifice you can make. It’s my fault you’re here. Do you think I would survive watching your love for me turn to resentment over time? Don’t do that to me.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“I have a place,” Riven says. “It’s secret. No one knows about it.”
“Why does no one let me talk?” Luca demands, running his hands through his hair and wincing when he finds ice sticking to the strands.
“B-because you’re spewing b-bullshit,” Alistair says.
“Riven is telling the truth.” Celine sounds convinced, and I know she’s a magical lie detector, but shit, there are lots of ways to tell the truth and lie at the same time.
I should know.
I study Riven through my watering eyes. Our jailer. The one who hunted us down, tore us apart, and forced Celine to fight tooth and nail to get us back. His living mask makes it hard to tell what he’s thinking, but if he leads us into another cell, we’re going to regret trusting him.
“We need to know his motivations,” I say. “Malach, can you do the thing?”
For a moment, I’m not sure he heard me, then he blinks and focuses on the veydra. His magic isn’t visible, but his runes are. They light up, golden and bright, the markings covering his face, neck, and hands.
After a breathless wait, he shakes his head. “It’s a mess in there,” he says grimly. “But his current motivation is to help.”
“What else did you see?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at Riven.
“Am I entitled to no privacy?” Riven hisses. “I’m risking my life to help, and you’re picking me to pieces like a meal that isn’t to your liking.”
Luca laughs bitterly. “That’s rich, coming from you—the guy who hunted us down for a payday.”
Celine glances at the scurrying figures below, then flinches as a scream comes from one of the other cabin cells. “We’re out of time.”
Malach clears his throat and fixes his eyes on Riven. “He isn’t risking everything to help us,” he says quietly. “He’s risking everything to help Celine.”
For a moment, there’s complete silence, then Alistair chuckles. “T-that I can believe. I vote we take the deal. It’s the only option.”
“That dinosaur found us last time, even with my magic,” I remind them. “How can we be sure he won’t track us to your safe house?”
A vicious snarl erupts behind us, and everyone flinches. “Gather around,” Riven says, narrowing his eyes. “We’re out of time. Make sure everyone is touching.”
We shuffle together, and I snuggle into Celine’s neck and whisper in her ear, “I’m getting spooky déjà vu.”
“One step forward.” She cranes her neck to smile at me, but it’s tight around the edges. “This is progress, Ciprian.”
Before I can decide how to respond, something sharp tugs behind my navel then squeezes me like a damn lemon. It’s for the best that I didn’t get a chance to open my mouth because as we stumble out of the spell, my stomach threatens to hit the eject button.
Luca isn’t as lucky. He makes it to a trash can and hurls, then drops to his ass and cradles his head between his knees.
I look away and press my hand to my rolling stomach. If he throws up again, I won’t be able to hold back. “I hate object-tethered travel,” I groan. “A warning would’ve been nice.”
“We were seconds away from being discovered,” Riven snaps, bracing his hand on the back of a sleek, modern couch as he fights his own nausea. “And I had no way of knowing you knew what it was.”
“I used to fuck—” I clear my throat. “I mean, I used to be friends with a witch in school. She loved to spell random shit in my dorm so I would get yanked around with no warning.”
“Smooth.” Celine rolls her eyes and massages her forehead. “I don’t care who you’ve slept with before me, Ciprian. It’s not like you’re the only ones I’ve been with.”
Luca wraps his arms around the trash can. “No more,” he begs. “My basilisk is doing backflips. It wants all these poor fucks dead. Please say they were bad in bed so we can move on.”
“Childish,” Riven mutters.
“They weren’t bad in bed,” Celine says, a faint grin curling her lips. “But you’re better.”
“Object-tethered transportation is expensive.” Alistair narrows his eyes at Riven. “Did you force the young witch to create an escape hatch for you?”
“Of the many things you and I will never discuss, Hyacinth Belladonna is at the top of the list.”
Celine’s head snaps up. “Did she make it out okay? The veydra who led me to the two-toed monster wore her face. I didn’t think to verify her identity until it was almost too late.”
“You can’t forget again,” Riven says. “This realm is crawling with my kind. S’lach must have approached the entire guild to orchestrate this. They wouldn’t risk interference from the mainland for anything less than a fortune.”
Celine purses her lips. “Unfortunately, I was a little distracted while fighting for my fucking life. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Riven’s face flickers, lines running across the bridge of his nose. “Hyacinth will be fine. We’ve prepared for similar scenarios and put many safeguards in place.”
I glance around, curious about where he brought us.