23. The Girl With Stormy Eyes
THE GIRL WITH STORMY EYES
I t was a bloodbath, bodies wedged together tightly as they fought in the cavernous tunnels. Blades narrowly collided against one another, guards and warriors crying out as blows were delivered.
And Kish was nowhere in sight.
Rhyas growled as he pulled his sword from the gut of a fae guard, the blue tint of his skin turning a sickly gray before he collapsed.
I watched from the corner of my eye as Lucia held her hand out toward a group of guards charging at her.
They stumbled to a stop, grasping their throats as their bodies seemed to crumpled in on themselves before disintegrating into piles of dust. Water collected around her hands before she sent a wave of droplets tearing into the crowd.
Her warriors were skilled, cutting down Arden’s men left and right, but there were too many of them, too many pit fighters forced to fight and too afraid to stop. Even Lucia looked as if she was beginning to tire.
“Kish!” Rhyas shouted but received no response. Had they gotten out? Had they been captured by Arden’s men ?
“Looking for your friend?” I twisted at the sound of Santor’s voice, narrowly catching his blade before he could slice me down my back.
“What did you do?” I growled, shoving him back before slicing the head off another guard charging for me.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said, his smile curling my stomach as he stepped back, allowing other guards to rush us.
“You bastard!” I shouted, slicing through the guards. “Cowardly bastard!”
“Thalia!” Rhyas yelled, and I turned to him as I took down another guard.
He came to a stop, his gray skin pale, his breath ragged.
“Santor’s here,” I said wearily.
“Where?” he asked, searching the crowd.
“I just lost him in the crowd,” I said, panic clawing its way into my chest. “He knows you’ve been helping us.”
His eyes flashed to me, the same panic I felt reflecting in them.
“He said Arden knew and had plans.”
Rhyas turned, yelling as he grabbed the shoulder of a guard who was fighting another before running his sword through the guard’s stomach.
I rushed to his side, cutting down guards, fighters, I didn’t care.
If Santor had Kish or was trying to capture her, I didn’t care who stood in my way.
I would get to her, and I would skin him alive.
Whatever the cost.
Her voice echoed across my thoughts. That couldn’t have been the last time we would speak, the last time I’d hear her voice.
I’d lost my parents all those years ago.
I couldn’t remember them—their faces, their names.
Kish had become something of a mother to me, had cared for me, taught me everything she knew. I couldn’t lose her too.
Terror flooded my system with each second as I took down one guard after another, blood painting my skin in streaks of crimson, onyx, emerald. So many I’d once shared cells with, so many who didn’t deserve to die.
Air whistled sharply in my ear, and I flinched away from it.
I scanned the crowd, finding Santor across the sea of fighters at the mouth of a tunnel.
He lowered a bow before handing it off to one of the guards despite having missed me.
He tipped his head to me with a smug grin and disappeared from view once more.
Rhyas grunted at my side, and I turned to him, freezing at the sight of the arrow protruding from his neck.
His lips parted, his body locking up as he gasped for air, his hand rising to the shaft.
“No!” I caught Rhyas before he could hit the ground. “No, no, no!”
He grabbed onto me, pulling and tugging on my tunic as he gasped and choked, blood bubbling from his lips before pouring out onto his armor.
“Shh, shh,” I whispered, tears blurring my vision.
His lips parted and closed, his bloodied teeth clamping together as he tried to speak, each movement only causing him to bleed out faster.
“Don’t talk,” I begged, looking around for anyone who might be able to help as Lucia’s warriors pushed the guards back, leaving us in the sea of lifeless bodies .
“Ki—” He choked before he could fully form her name, blood splattering across my face.
“It’s gonna be all right,” I said, my voice breaking. “We’ll make it to her. We’ll make it out together.”
“Ki...” His grip on my tunic slackened, his struggles slowing, his body easing in my arms.
“Rhyas?” I whispered, tears rolling down my cheeks.
He didn’t respond, didn’t move, his amber eyes no longer that bright shade I’d grown to know, to love.
“No,” I muttered, my vision blurring. “No, please. Don’t?—”
I pulled him closer to me, the sound of his heartbeat gone.
“Don’t leave me,” I sobbed. “I need you.”
My cries turned into screams as I called out to him, rocking his body amidst the chaos.
“Thalia!” Lucia grabbed my shoulder and her eyes widened at the sight of Rhyas, of his blood coating my body. “I’m so sorry.”
“Help him!” I begged.
Sorrow clouded her expression. “I can’t.”
“He has to... He can’t be—” My voice broke, sobs clawing their way up my throat.
“We can’t stay here,” she said, but I couldn’t look at her, couldn’t take my eyes off his face. “You’re the only one who may know where the prisoners are, and I need you now more than ever to be our guide.”
Our promise to one another echoed in the recesses of my mind.
No matter the cost.
Was this the cost of our freedom? How many more lives would we lose? Would Kish...
I didn’t allow myself to finish the thought as I eased Rhyas onto the ground.
“I’ll get her out for you,” I promised him, my voice breaking.
Tears threatened to fall once more as I slid my hand over his eyes, closing them, hating how they would never brighten my day again.
His deepest regrets resurfaced, and I hated that he wouldn’t be able to see the end, to all this, wouldn’t be free of the guilt he felt all these years.
“I swear, I’ll kill Santor, and we’ll bring Arden down so we can all finally be free. ”
I’d killed so many guards—so many of my fellow fighters. I knew some of them, tried to reason with them to stop fighting us and to help, but Arden had them too terrified.
And so, I continued to kill.
I wasn’t sure who exactly Lucia was, but the power she had at her disposal was too much to comprehend.
She wielded every magic, just as the gods did.
..but she was immortal. With her leading the attack, the guards had become desperate before we’d broken through, coating their blades and arrows in Aethersbane.
Lucia had been hit, leaving her powerless and us at a disadvantage.
“We’re through!” one of Lucia’s warriors shouted as they broke through the line, forcing guards to back into another tunnel, opening the path to where I knew Kish and the other prisoners were likely hiding.
I kicked a guard off my blade before sprinting toward the head of the fight, leading them into the tunnels toward the lower level.
Fates spare them. Let them be safe.
My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as we drew closer to the cavern, bodies of prisoners littering the ground. I searched every face, checked for pulses, but none were hers. None were alive.
I ran faster, leaving Lucia and her warriors to check for any survivors. “Kish!”
I stumbled into the mouth of the cavern to find a group of survivors huddled together, fighters at the forefront.
“Thalia!” Kish cried out, running for me. “Santor and his men nearly broke through to us, but they suddenly retreated and...” Her steps slowed as she drew closer, and her reddened eyes fell to my bloodied tunic.
She could smell him—his blood. They were mates… Had she felt it the moment he’d fallen? When he’d taken his final breath? Her cheeks were stained with tears, and my heart constricted. She blinked away more tears and looked back at the prisoners hiding behind her. “We need to get them out.”
It was like a blow to the gut not to feel her pull me into a hug, to not acknowledge what I feared she already knew.
“We’ve cleared a path,” I said, but I hesitated. “We have to hurry though; they likely have more reinforcements coming.”
She nodded and looked back at the others. “Hurry!”
They hesitated, exchanging nervous glances, before rising to their feet.
Lucia emerged from the tunnel. “Come on!”
We ran, allowing Lucia and Damien to take the lead while her warriors, Kish, and I took up the rear to guard their backs.
Kish hadn’t said a word about Rhyas, and I couldn’t find the strength to speak his name.
I had to focus on getting her out, on getting them all out.
Then, I would return for him. I wouldn’t leave him in this place.
He deserved to be laid to rest beneath the sky, beneath the shade of a tree.
Shouts echoed from the tunnel behind us, and I looked back to find more guards rushing for us. My blood chilled and boiled all at once at the sight of Arden leading them.
“Keep going!” I shouted as I slid to a stop. Kish ran to my side, along with several warriors. “We’ll buy you time!”
We couldn’t let them follow any farther. We had to barricade them in somehow, had to kill Arden if we truly hoped to escape .
“We can bring the tunnels down on them,” Kish said.
“How?” I asked, glancing at her as they drew closer. “We don’t have any wards to trip.”
“I rarely used it,” she said. “Was forbidden to.”
My brows furrowed. “Use what?”
“Get them out,” she muttered and ran toward them.
“Wait, Kish!” I cried out, running after her.
Her pace quickened while my strength waned, and the distance between us grew. She dragged her hand along the wall as she ran, and the ground beneath us heaved. I stumbled forward, crashing against the ground as the tunnel shook, rocks and debris falling from the ceiling.
“Kish!” I cried out, shoving to my feet, dodging boulders as they fell.
Arden and his men slid to a stop, scanning the ceiling, and his eyes flared as he looked at Kish.
I immediately felt his influence in the tattoo, pain splintering across my skin.
Whatever magic she was using, he would cut her off, and she would be defenseless.
She pulled a dagger from her tunic and threw it through the air.
It sank into his shoulder, and he stepped toward her before realization flashed across his face.
He pulled the dagger free, inspecting it before throwing it aside.
At that same moment, I felt his influence fade, the pain vanishing.
She’d somehow laced the dagger with Aethersbane.
A hand grabbed my arm, and I twisted around to find myself face-to-face with one of Lucia’s warriors. His shaggy brown hair was covered in blood and dust, his soft blue eyes searching the collapsing tunnel before falling on me. “It’s gonna cave in. We have to get out!”
“No!” I cried, turning to find Kish had slowed her pace, her hand firm against the wall. Arden and his men charged for her, and she turned around to look back at me.
She smiled, and tears flooded my eyes. “Kish! Stop!”
Her lips moved, all sound dying out as I narrowed in on what she tried to say but couldn’t voice.
Whatever the cost.
And the tunnel collapsed on her—on Arden and his men.
Screams flooded the tunnel, ghastly, painful screams, and it wasn’t until pain sliced into my throat that I realized it was me. I was screaming. I fell to my knees as Arden’s magic died out from my arm, and from the corner of my eyes, I watched as the ink faded, inch by inch, dying out…
As he died.
He was dead.
As was Kish.
I pulled from the male’s hold, crashing into the boulders keeping me from her.
She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t be… I sank to my knees, tears flooding my vision.
Hands grabbed me, pulling me from the ground and up against a hard body, and I was carried out as the rest of the tunnel slowly collapsed.