Twenty-Nine #2
He held out his hand to me, and I willingly took it. In one smooth movement, he pulled me between his legs and caged me in place.
“But remember, Edira, while you might be the hero Rebellyn has been waiting for, I am not.” A predatory heat lit in his gaze.
“A hero would sacrifice you to Death if it meant saving all Everkind. I have no such inclination.” His knuckles ghosted along the length of my jaw until he pinned my chin between his fingers.
“If it comes to it, I will bring Death to his knees, sever his very head from his shoulders, and doom my kind to a mortal, painful death if it means I would gain even one more second with you. Blight be damned. Let the world suffer.”
“You’re not alone in that,” I mused as I leaned into his touch. “If you’re in danger, even if it means voiding my promise to Rebellyn, there is nothing in this world or the next that could stop me from getting to you.”
He brought his lips inches from mine. “I guess all we can do is see how this pans out, then.”
“To the grave, remember?”
He kissed me deeply. “To the grave.”
THE ONLY THING WE KNEW about the entrance to Death’s domain was that it was south and supposedly near the fisherman’s cabin.
But near was clearly a relative term, because we’d been walking on uneven, rocky ground for hours and still hadn’t discovered a single brook leading away from the ocean to some secret underground cavern.
The cold wind whipping off the swells was a battering ram we couldn’t avoid, and we were constantly sprayed with a fine mist of water as waves crashed into the beach.
There was little in the way of life, just an occasional shrub or the scuttling of a crab as it searched for food across the surface.
We kept our heads down and moved forward slowly.
I’d fed the chain of the sapphire bag through the belt loops of my trousers and secured it to my hip.
With every step, it thudded gently against my thigh.
When the sun hit midday, we stopped and drank sparingly from a leather canteen Rorik had found in one of the cabinets.
He slipped his hands around my waist and pulled my back flush with his chest, and we stared out at the ocean together.
Light bounced off the choppy waters and reflected in the crisp air like a field of diamonds.
All I could smell was the tang of salt and the undercurrent of pine as I leaned against him.
“So tell me,” he murmured into my hair, “how exactly you plan on getting close enough to Death to stab him through the heart.”
“I was thinking of pulling a page out of Seville’s book,” I said. Tilting my head back, I looked up at him with a sly smile. “You know, use my feminine wiles to lull him into a false sense of security.”
Rorik snorted. “I’m sure that will work out splendidly.”
“It did with you.”
“Because I’ve always been enamored with you.” He rolled his eyes. “Not to diminish the value of your feminine wiles, but I’m not sure flirting with Death will work. Not after Rebellyn.”
“I know.” I sighed. “I’ve been thinking about that, actually. Death was spurned by Rebellyn. I wonder if we can use that to our advantage.”
“How so?”
“You probably won’t like it.” I bit my lower lip and watched as his brows rose. “But I need you to act like Orin.”
“I hate every word of that sentence,” he seethed.
Shifting in his embrace, I faced him more fully and placed my hands on his chest. “Just listen. Death felt used by Rebellyn. She only wanted his power for her own gain. Orin did the same to me. Let’s just .
. . pretend that’s our circumstance in front of Death.
Let me act. Let me convince him that you’re a horrid Ever only after me for my magic. ”
Rorik’s lips peeled back in a grimace. “And then what?”
“While I’m cowering behind him, begging for some way out of this predicament with you, I’ll stab him in the back.” I trailed my knuckles along Rorik’s jaw, and he leaned into the touch. “You’re just a distraction, my love.”
“I’d argue that you’ve been a distraction since the day I met you, but . . .” He turned his head and placed a kiss against my hand. “It might work. Death is known for hating my kind. If we craft a story that mirrors his own, he’ll likely be infuriated beyond measure.”
I nodded my agreement and settled back into his embrace.
He wasn’t Orin—far from it. I poured every ounce of love I had for Rorik right down our bond, and he did the same.
We relished those feelings. The ebb and flow of the ocean waves that matched the rise and fall of our chests.
We had a plan. We had each other. We would survive.
We could’ve stayed like that for hours, but I wrapped his hand in mine and tugged us forward.
I had to believe that we’d have more moments like that in our future.
That we weren’t actually walking toward our deaths but just the entity himself.
Yet there was a familiar, aching cold that settled deep into my bones the farther we walked.
Exhaustion tugged at my limbs with a renewed sense of force, and the headache that I’d managed to banish before our night together was back with a vengeance.
There was an uneven hitch to my breath, just the slightest of catches, that I hadn’t noticed before.
I chalked it up to the endless trudging, but I feared it was something far worse.
By early afternoon, we finally found what we were looking for. I nearly missed it at first. The stream was nothing more than a thin vein weaving between misshapen rocks, but the farther inland it crawled the wider it got.
“There,” I murmured with a nod. “Look at the current.”
It defied the very tilt of the earth. Babbling water churned with determined force against grains of sand, curving toward the sheer cliffs we’d been walking parallel to all this time. The stream widened to the size of a table runner before slipping beneath a slab of rock and disappearing entirely.
Rorik placed his hand against the smooth stone.
“The cavern must be here.” Magic flared beneath his fingers, and the stone fractured.
Another pulse of magic rushed from him, and a second earsplitting crack followed the first. The two jagged lines formed a tall triangle within the stone, and Rorik slammed his fist into the center of it.
Tiny fissures exploded outward from the impact.
And then the slab crumbled into a pile of rubble at his feet.
A whoosh of air rushed from the bowels of the earth to cover us in the dank scent of minerals.
There was nothing but pure, endless darkness waiting in the void of the cavern, but I could hear the trickling creek echoing off the walls.
My breathing turned shallow at the sight. “I knew it’d be underground, I just . . .” I stared at the yawning maw while fighting back the nausea churning in my gut.
Rorik’s hand found mine instantly. “I’m here. One step at a time.”
All I could do was nod and squeeze his fingers tight.
With ease, he stepped over the pile of debris and helped me do the same. Our feet met smooth river stone that was slick with moisture, and my free hand immediately went to the wall. Biting cold. Smooth as glass. A chill skittered down my spine. This was it.
“Glow for me, Edira,” Rorik whispered lovingly.
At first, I didn’t understand. I blinked at him, still trying to wrestle the rising panic in my chest, and then it hit me. He meant my power.
Warmth flooded my chest. Because he knew damn well that he could glow, too. But instead, he gave me purpose. Control.
I uncorked the dam holding back my magic and let it flow through my limbs, coating my hands in an ivory light.
It reflected off the walls and blanketed the space in an ethereal glow that made it easier to see, easier to breathe.
I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t descending into the Starglens’ tomb.
I was holding Rorik’s hand. I had my power, and my magic gave me strength.
Looking up at him, I allowed the smallest smile. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He kissed the crown of my head. “Let’s get this over with.”
Together, we walked into a corridor of darkness. Together, we went to meet Death. Together, we sealed our fates for eternity.