Epilogue
EPILOGUE
RILEY
“ L yss just screamed!” Bitty says, frantic.
I make eye contact with Tovi, and neither of us needs to speak. We sprint for the cave entrance together. The steps lead down into near-complete darkness, but we continue running. Bursting out of the long corridor, I see my sister. My beautiful, darling sister.
A Laguzborn woman is threatening her, and Lyss looks frightened.
I do the only thing I can think of.
Without missing a step, I tackle the Laguzborn woman.
And the world goes dark.
My ears ring while my head pounds. The fact I’m being carried over someone’s shoulder with my hands tied to my feet isn’t helping matters.
“He’s awake!” a small Sadoriborn woman sing-songs after sticking her face into my line of sight.
I’m flipped unceremoniously onto the ground, sending a lancing pain through my skull. When the throbbing subsides, a dozen or so people seem to be milling about in this darkened cave, though half of them look like the same person. Maybe I’ve taken a bigger knock to the head than I realize.
“Hello,” says a man I don’t recognize. Or do I?
His eyes are the Erduborn brown of the earth, though much about him screams Mievaborn. His big eyes and pointy features are too much like Mika’s to mistake. Eryn had told me a truth I couldn’t believe.
Mika. The thought of her makes me dizzy. Or maybe that’s the head wound.
She stole this man’s Gift.
I knew she was special the moment I laid eyes on her. Standing there, all of five foot nothing with her hands behind her back. She had commanded the room with her mere presence, especially with the black eye she was sporting. I saw the way the council president’s jaw twitched when she came in late, despite her polite apologies.
“My name is Noha. I’ve rescued my friends here, but we’re taking you with us.” His smooth voice tries to placate me. “For insurance purposes.”
I glare at the man, and a sharp pain bounces through my skull again.
“Would you rather be carried or walk, Riley?” he asks, his voice slippery.
“Walk. And my name is Aurelius to you.”
“Fair enough. But give us any trouble, and I’ll leave you for your sister—” He pauses, his smile widening to show his teeth, “—and Mika, to find.”
Noha watches me for a moment, perhaps trying to gauge my reaction to his mention of Mika. How does he know she would mean anything to me? I deliberately—though with strangled effort—keep my features blank. The mention of her name cleaves a hole straight through my heart. If he knew she meant more to me than my own life, it would only endanger her further .
“There wouldn’t be much left for them to find, of course,” he adds.
His maniacal laugh echoes along the dark cave walls.