Chapter 43
In the twilightbetween the throbbing in my skull and the sounds that could be someone calling my name or simply a side effect of hitting my head, Myron’s ocean eyes appear in my field of vision.
“Remind me never to let you save me again,” Astorian retorts from somewhere nearby, Kaira humming her agreement from the other direction.
“I’ll heal her,” Clio offers, but Myron’s hand is already cradling my cheek, familiar, tingling warmth seeping into my tissues from where his skin brushes mine. “Or not…” She appears behind Myron’s shoulder, concern edged into her young forehead.
“Can you stand up?” Myron’s hand winds beneath my shoulder as he gently offers his support, and I nod, head clearing as his magic seals my wounds and what could have been a light concussion.
“Thanks to your powers.” I let him guide me into an upright position simply because I’m too selfish to pull away from him just yet and he’s about to send me out of the dungeon with Silas and Astorian. I’m not ready to leave. Not when he’s staying to get Royad out.
“Thanks to my powers, you were just injured.” The frown on his beautiful face hurts more than the guilt in his eyes.
“You can fight about whether or not he’s useful later. Now, let’s grab the Crow and go.” Clio claps her hand, gesturing at Astorian to slide through the wide opening Myron’s magic broke into the wall. I feel the stream of cool fresh air a heartbeat before I realize the reason everything is tinted in starlight is because the hole reaches all the way to the outer wall, opening a view of earth and rocks—and the open sky behind the dust rising from a pile of rubble where thick stone used to block out the world.
“Shit—”
“You could say so,” Kaira echoes my sentiment, already climbing through the opening behind the bars where Astorian is carefully lifting Silas into his arms. The male is still unstable on his legs, but he’s ready to carry one of his former enemies to safety.
I don’t know what happened between the Crows and the fairy, but it has to be more than just the days of sharing the same fate down here in the dungeon.
Clio is at his side in an instant, arguing that she can carry Silas instead, but Astorian is either too proud or too stubborn to let her help. When he nods at the sword on her hip, I realize he is too smart.
“We need you to fight if we’re stopped. I can carry a hulk like Silas, but I sure don’t have any magic at my disposal to fend off an attack, and you’re as good with a sword as me.”
The look they share pierces through my heart. The silent understanding in Clio’s eyes informs me this is not the first time they have escaped danger and death together.
Myron’s hand glides down my arm in a soothing gesture. “Time to go, Ayna.”
That takes all the heartfelt sympathy and wonder right out of me, and I spin around to face him, his ocean eyes full of conflict as he glances between the escape he created for us, the door on the other side of the room, and me.
“I’m not leaving without you.”
His teeth cut into his lower lip as he sorts through his thoughts. “We don’t have much time. There is no way no one noticed the tremble my magic just caused, and it’s a matter of moments before someone will come to check on the prisoners.”
Who will be gone by then. But he will stay to save Royad, and hopefully, Herinor will be there to help.
“If we all go, that leaves only Herinor and you to fight Ephegos, Katrijanov, and however many soldiers they send your way.” I swallow. “That’s two against an unknown number, and even if you have parts of your magic back, it doesn’t mean Herinor will be allowed to fight at your side. Ephegos could order him to do anything.”
Myron’s eyes close for a brief moment as he inhales through his nose. His throat bobs, his fingers lacing with mine. “That’s not how bargains work. He can’t help you because it is part of the bargain. But he still has a mind of his own. Ephegos can order him plenty of things, and he doesn’t need to obey as long as it doesn’t touch the original bargain.”
His explanation is not even half satisfying.
“I’m coming with you.”
Eyes flaring like tossing waves, Myron pins me with a look. “Please, Ayna. For your own sake and for mine, leave. I can’t live with myself if something happens to you.”
And if I stay, it will. He doesn’t need to add that.
“Can you please make up your mind over there? Because I’d like to set down this colossus sometime soon, somewhere safe.” Astorian’s strained grumble reaches us through the dust-filled air as he nearly staggers under the Crow’s weight. It’s hard to breathe, but that has more to do with the thought of the dangers Myron is willing to shoulder to save his cousin.
“Leave without me,” I say to the others, eager for them to make it out and get Silas to safety.
Myron sighs, but he doesn’t object.
“See you at the shed,” Kaira calls over her shoulder before stalking through the rubble toward the hole. They’ll need to climb up the seven feet of earth and rock before they can slip through the gap, but they’ll make it.
“If we don’t join you by dawn, leave without us.” Myron’s words encompass every last one of my fears.
I swallow them down. If I allow myself to think about the potential consequences, I might try to talk Myron into leaving Royad behind just to make sure my mate gets out alive. Myron wouldn’t forgive me, and I wouldn’t forgive myself.
“Be careful,” Clio hisses, already halfway up the earthen wall. “I’d hate to start all over again with making an almost human friend.” Her tone is light, but the fear is written on her face as she glances back at me.
“We’ll be fine.” I wave toward the faint stars above her. “You can tell me how much you love me later. Now get out of here.”
Astorian huffs a chuckle then grunts as she lifts Silas into Clio’s arms when she reaches the top. I don’t ask him what’s so funny, simply wave at the small group and head after Myron, who’s already waiting halfway down the corridor.
“Don’t die,”Kaira calls after me in her mind, but I don’t reassure her I won’t. We all know this could be our last goodbye.
“Take care of them,” I tell her instead. Because if anything happens to Astorian, Clio will shatter, and I can’t live with that. And if anything happens to Clio or Silas… I try not to let my mind wander to all the myriad possible ways this could go wrong. How they could get caught on their way out or through the city. Instead, I focus on the tall, dark form in the half-light of the corridor, setting one foot after the other toward doom.
Myron doesn’t comment when I take his hand, following him as he leads the way down the rows of cells. So far, no one has come to check on this part of the dungeon, but it won’t be long.
Not long is exactly one turn later where two guards step into our path, their eyes wide as they take in the menace in Myron’s eyes and the long knife in my hand. My heart leaps into my throat at the sight of their sharp blades and the definite recognition in their eyes as they take in Myron’s massive form.
“You—”
“Me?” Myron cocks his head, a gesture so birdlike I can almost see the feathers spilling down his neck and back, but his appearance remains distinctly human despite the predatory demeanor. If I didn’t trust him with my life, I’d be scared shitless right now.
As are the guards. One of them opens his mouth to shout for reinforcements, but Myron’s power has already wrapped around his neck, snapping it with ease while he lifts his own sword to stab the second one in the heart. Blood pours from the wound when he pulls the blade out, letting the guard drop on top of his companion, soaking the ground crimson while all I can do is stare.
“Let’s go.” This time, Myron doesn’t take my hand, keeping both his sword and his magic at the ready, and so do I. Knife in hand and magic grazing the space for any water I can use while staying clear of the bars, I run at his side down the torchlit corridor, following the rough stone walls as we leave the cell area and continue toward a wooden door that has seen better days.
There, Myron stops, waiting for me to come to a halt beside him, and holds his finger to his lips as we both listen intently.
Silence encompasses the space, thick and looming like a predator, and that’s what scares me even more than the sound of Ephegos’s voice would have, or Royad’s screams. It’s the absolute silence of a shielded room, I realize, and there could be anything waiting behind it.
I try not to imagine Royad’s dead body or a small army assembled to welcome us. An assault of Ephegos’s magic might be enough to take both of us out with our power barely recovered and not nearly enough control to wield it like the weapon it could be.
“I don’t know what we’ll find behind this door,” Myron whispers, his focus snapping from the tortured wood of the door to my face, the utter devastation in his eyes hitting me in the stomach like a physical blow. “I can’t promise we’ll get out alive. You can still go back and run. You’ll catch up with the others before they make it to the shed.”
Lifting to my toes, I cup his cheek with my free hand and pull his mouth to mine for a whisper of a kiss. “We both live or we both die. I won’t leave without you.”
Myron’s lips mold over mine in a fierce, desperate kiss that tells me better than any words could that he feels the same way. “I love you, Wolayna Milevishja. I love you with everything I am. My dark Crow heart is yours until my last breath, be it moments from now when we walk through this door, or millennia from now when the gods get bored with my presence in this world. I’m yours.”
I trace his cheekbone with my thumb, sweeping a strand of dark hair aside as I allow his words to settle inside of me.
“As I am yours.” Those simple words are all it takes to drive a tear to my eyes—a tear I cannot afford but lift from my eye with my magic and tuck away.
Myron watches it float from my cheek into my open palm with wonder.
“Let’s save your cousin.” There is no time for big goodbyes and extensive embraces. Royad is dying behind this door, and we can’t be too late. We simply can’t. Herinor will be there to help us or not, but we can’t rely on anything other than our own strength, our own magic, to free him and make it out alive.
Myron inclines his head, face hardening into that of the relentless king I used to fear, and he draws upon his power, releasing it onto the door in one earthshaking blow.