Chapter 26 #3
Warmth pours over me, flowing from my head down my torso and trickling to my toes.
I sway as my muscles release, but strong arms keep me upright.
The terror still lurks even though my body is limp and numb.
Who just shot me up with ketamine? I sigh as I tingle.
It feels so good I want to laugh and cry and scream all at the same time.
“Help me get her out of here.”
“Leo?” I whimper.
“It’s me.”
How is he holding me if he’s standing in front of me? His hands are on my head like he’s offering me a benediction. A blessing of healing calm.
I reach for him, desperate to be in his arms, but he holds back. “We need to get you out of this room. So whatever you can do to make it easier—” He glances up at the dark, rectangular hole in the ceiling, then says to whoever’s holding me, “I’ll go up first, then you lift her up to me.”
“No, I’m fine,” I argue.
“You’re not staying down here,” says the voice behind me. Rime. Keeping a hand on my back, he drops to one knee, offering Leo a boost.
Leo yanks down the hatch and shoves off Rime’s thigh. The hole swallows his body but not his voice. “Lift her up.”
Rime is patient, making sure I’m steady enough to stand upright before he clamps his arms around my thighs and lifts me, rocket-straight, high enough that Leo can grip me around the ribs and help me pull myself up through the hatch.
Leo wiggles down the chute to the furnace room, and I slide down after him, landing in his arms.
“Betts, I’m so sorry. I made sure to get down there first, thinking I could help you, but I had no idea—”
“I’m okay.” Except for the burning in my throat.
I clasp him to me, my arms hooked under his and my fingers digging into his shoulders. He leans back to assess me, giving me a glimpse of his beautiful eyes. My chest convulses and a sob erupts. Then another. Soon I’m drowning in tears.
He tucks my head under his chin and strokes my hair, whispering gentle words I don’t understand. Chroí and Betts are the only ones I recognize.
“I couldn’t harness,” I say, my voice fighting its way out of my tight throat. “I’m useless.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I’m a liability.”
He wipes the tears off my cheeks with his thumb. “You’re the opposite of a liability, Betts. You’re essential.” He tips my head back, forcing me to look at him. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have even known that room existed.”
“And you should be in that room searching, not up here taking care of me.”
He shakes his head, his eyes flashing fire. “If I’m with you, then I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
No. No. No. “I’m not your mission.”
“You’re my everything.”
He kisses me, hard and insistent, like he can change reality through sheer force of will. But the truth is the truth. He’s here to find the weapon and save Nàdar.
And Betts Peterson is getting in the way.
An abrupt clang sends us jumping apart. As we gasp for breath, Avery appears, boots and fishnet-clad legs first. The moment her feet hit the ground, she does an excited little dance. “You’re never going to believe what we found!”
I gape. “The ring?”
“Well, no. But we will.” She sashays to the side as the hatch thunks again and Aaron spills out of the chute. “But first things first—are you okay?”
I avoid glancing at Leo. “Yes, I’m alright. Just please tell us what you found.”
“Aaron?” With a flourish, she holds a hand out to him, not even reacting when he pulls his shirt up to his chest. There, stuffed into the waistband of his jeans, is a book. An old book. He hands it to Avery, who sandwiches it between her hands like it’s sacred scripture.
Leo reaches for it. “Is it a journal?”
“Looks like it.” She reluctantly hands it over.
“But… but…” I’m frustrated. Disappointed. “But I thought for sure the macguffin was down there. I mean, considering what I was feeling.”
“It could be there,” Avery admits. “We can’t rule that out just because we didn’t see it.”
Leo runs a hand over the journal’s dusty cover. “Maybe there are some clues in here.”
“All I know is that there was some crazy shit going down in that forge,” Aaron says. “I heard so many sounds, I couldn’t tell one from another.”
I nod vigorously. “That’s what the feelings were like.”
“We found vials and shards of glass,” he says. “And rusty old tools like you’d find in a lab.”
Avery grins, eyes shining. “An alchemy lab.”
“Alchemy?” I blurt. Holy shit.
“I know, right? I saw it when I grabbed a broken pair of tongs.”
“Alchemy,” Leo murmurs, eyes growing round. “Makes sense. Browne was a goldsmith.”
I gesture to the book in his hands. “You think that’s Browne’s?”
He shrugs. “Who else’s could it be?”
The gong in the chute signals the next arrival. I expect it to be Topaz, but instead it’s Rime. Before I can ask, he explains, “She’ll get some snakes to boost her.”
Okay, yeah, let’s just leave it at that, thanks.
For the final time, the metal hatch rings out. I jump back, scared Topaz is going to bring her snakes with her, but she hops out of the chute reptile-less—and looking like she just came back from the spa.
Rime wipes his dirty face with his sleeve. “Let’s get out of here.”