84. Vera
Vera
Huge chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, nearly crushing the wraith and me. From somewhere deep inside the tunnel system, more rumblings echoed. Cracks formed in the floor and splintered through the cavern.
“We have to go,” I urged the wraith. “This place is caving in. Can you move?”
Its shadows crawled along the wall as if using it to support itself. Satisfied that it would follow, I turned toward the entrance.
And something furry landed straight on my chest.
I yelped, and the cat hissed, then jumped to the ground with her tail held high. Her limbs elongated as long, black braids replaced the fur.
I gasped. “Tessa!” I launched at her, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing tight. “I thought you were dead!”
“It’s good to see you, too, Vera,” she said with a laugh. “Let me guess—you’re the reason this cave’s about to smush us into pancakes?”
“Probably a safe assumption.”
“What about the High Elders? Mortep?”
“Dead.”
She whistled. “You’ve been busy. But did you know that—”
“Everett’s a shadow wraith? Yeah, I figured that part out.” I nudged my head toward the wraith floating behind me.
“Great.” She gave me a thumbs up. “Now let’s get off this island.” Tessa grabbed my hand and pulled, but a low moan from farther in the chamber made me pause.
There was one thing I forgot.
Rocks rained down in a slew around me as I searched for him. Stirring on the ground across the cave lay Starke, blood trickling from his temple where he’d hit the wall.
“Vera, come on,” Tessa urged. “This cave is falling apart!”
I closed my eyes with a sigh, mentally kicking myself for what I was about to do. “I can’t leave him.”
Tessa followed my gaze until she saw Starke’s limp body. “You’re kidding me.” As if in agreement, the wraith behind us let out a low, ominous hiss.
“You two go ahead. I’ll catch up,” I said, making my way around cascading rocks toward Starke. To my surprise, Tessa stomped at my side, mumbling a string of curses. I hoisted Starke’s half-conscious body up and propped my shoulder under one side, and Tessa grabbed the other.
“Fates, I hate this guy,” she grunted.
We half-dragged, half-carried him to the entrance, where the wraith’s shadows coiled and uncoiled in agitation. We stumbled into the tunnel just as the cavern behind us gave a deafening crack, then half the ceiling caved in. Dust mushroomed behind us, clouding my vision.
“Left!” Tessa called as we ran. I tightened my grip on Starke. “He’s a bunch of dead weight, isn’t he?” she huffed through gritted teeth.
“Tessa, you’re a Shifter. You can lift a horse.”
“Yeah, well, horses aren’t traitorous cowards.”
Beside us, the wraith surged forward, its shadows snapping against the wall as if urging us faster. The tunnel split, and Tessa looked frantically between the two. “Which way?”
I froze for a second too long. The ceiling groaned, more rocks crumbling on us. “This way!” I veered right.
That was the wrong choice. The floor down the right tunnel cracked open with a sharp snap, fracturing down the middle and exposing a pit of darkness beneath. I stumbled to a halt. “Back, back, back!”
The crack raced toward me faster than I could walk. My foot slipped, and a scream ripped from me as my stomach dropped—
Shadows slammed into all three of us, wrapping around my waist and tugging us back.
I hit the stone hard, and Starke and Tessa crashed down beside me.
The wraith lingered above me for a heartbeat, the shadows around my waist squeezing before letting me go.
I staggered to my feet and hauled the other two up.
The wraith soared back the way we came, slipping into the other tunnel.
“Follow him!” I cried. Starke slowly came to, and I thrust him forward. We raced down the path. My Shifter half perked when the faint scent of fresh air whispered through the musty tunnel.
“Do you feel that?” Tessa panted, and I nodded.
A breeze kissed my cheeks. Through a small opening up ahead, I saw the black Pyraethi sky, heard waves slapping against the nearby shore.
The tunnel was too narrow for my wings to fit to fly us out, so I shoved Tessa and Starke forward, avoiding part of the ceiling as it came down around us.
“Faster!” I shouted. The exit loomed nearer, but so did the thunder of stone at our backs.
Lungs burning, I summoned my magic and whispered one last spell.
Wind rushed from outside and funneled around me, and I threw it at Starke and Tessa’s backs.
They hurtled the last few yards, diving straight through the opening.
Glancing to the side, I saw the wraith’s body soaring next to me. As the floor gave way beneath my feet, I leapt.
The earth crumbled behind me. The entrance to the cave clipped my heel as I hit the ground hard, rolling in the dirt. Echoes of the tunnels collapsing rumbled through the air. I lay there, chest heaving, staring up at the sky, where pink and golden rays peeked out over the horizon.
I bolted upright. The sky…it wasn’t black anymore. Little by little, it shifted from midnight to deep indigo, then fading at the edges to bruised purple and blue. A thin line of molten gold shimmered at the horizon, pressing its way into the sky for the first time in centuries.
The sun.
“You did it,” Tessa breathed out, still lying in the dirt. “You raised a kingdom.”
I jerked my head to find the familiar swath of shadows, and I stumbled along the ground toward him. “Come back to me,” I whispered.
The first rays of sun broke the skyline and pierced his shadows like a spear. Wisps of darkness peeled away with a hiss, dissolving as the light consumed them.
I crawled to him. The sun crested the horizon, and the world burned gold, melting the last layer of shadows. I stared into gray and green eyes, then wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips into every surface I could reach. His forehead, his nose, his cheeks, his lips.
“Swift,” I breathed out against him.
His answering smile melted into me. “Songbird.”