Chapter Thirty-One
THE SPY
The stone room was the same. The sound of the chains whispered torment. I gritted my teeth against the fear. My father walked in, his scowl oozing with disdain. The sound of dripping water echoed throughout.
“You don’t have to do this,” I pled. He smiled cruelly. I knew better than to beg. It just whets his appetite. He held a weapon as his wings extended. Scales began cascading down his head, over his shoulders, and down his body.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Was he always a dreki? Is he a Nokt? I couldn’t remember. His feral eyes zeroed in on me. A helpless prey. I writhed against my bindings, moaning my fears. “Father, please don’t. Please.”
He raised a weapon in his clawed hands. The metal reflected the moonlight from the small window.
“No!”
I jolted upward. My eyes opened, searching wildly for my captor. Confusion and fear gripped me until a familiar voice enveloped me. “You’re safe. You’re safe.”
Dom cautiously extended his hand, moving tendrils of hair from my face. I flinched, but forced myself to settle. He softly regarded me, tenderness radiating as he slowly inched backward, offering space. I attempted to stand, my leg screaming out in a shock of pain. I’d forgotten about that injury.
“How long was I asleep?” I asked, attempting to deflect from my clear distress.
“Not very long.” He hesitated, studying me. “You still have nightmares.”
His statement unnerved me in my raw state. Our shared history left me exposed to things I normally hid, and I warred with my desire to lean into his comfort. I chose to bind my embarrassment with thick ropes, shoving it into a dark closet.
I casually waved my hand in the air. “I’m used to them. Although this time a Nokt showed up in my dream, so that wasn’t pleasant.” I shrugged and forced a weak chuckle. My tapping fingers agitated the ensuing silence.
His gaze burned against me. “You don’t have to be the strong one when you’re with me. Nothing about you diminishes because of vulnerability.”
I met his earnest, amber eyes. “Weakness can be weaponized.”
“Then you have used it to slay me. And I would willingly subject myself to more of your blades. I might be the enemy in many people’s stories, but never in yours.”
Emotion threatened to overflow—for daring to believe him left me frayed, unsure. To open myself up to the possibility of… anything really, felt terrifying. I diverted. “Thank you for letting me sleep. We do need to get out of here though. We’ll freeze to death if we don’t make it to the surface.”
He merely nodded and didn’t push further.
I didn’t think I could put my full weight on my injured leg, but I no longer wanted to be carried. “I believe I can limp well enough. I don’t know how much further this tunnel goes before we’re out. You should probably conserve your energy. Let me try to walk as far as I’m able.”
He stood first, extending his hand to me. His large palm gently enclosed my own. The warmth where our hands joined comforted despite my misgivings. I straightened, unable to conceal my pain.
“I might need a little help,” I muttered. Dom silently waited. Tentatively, I reached around his torso, using his body as leverage for each biting step.
He wrapped his arm across my upper back and beneath my far arm. “Is this okay?” he asked.
I should probably just let him carry me, but I rebelled against weakness.
I hated that I couldn’t do this on my own.
Anger smoldered with all my grief and regret.
Our tentative alliance went beyond our duty and common enemy.
The connections from our past had been incrementally reforged over these last few weeks.
And now the truth of his curse stripped every quiet hope away.
I was angry he’d kept this secret from me.
I needed space. I didn’t want to rely on him any more than I already had, but I required physical assistance with every smarting step.
“It’s fine.” He tightened his grip on me and I reluctantly leaned into his embrace.
I couldn’t deny how my magic seemed to calm with his nearness.
We hobbled onward. Eventually, the floor became more and more slippery as the trickling water underfoot shifted to solid ice.
I used my magic to suck out the water from our clothes and hair, which nominally reduced the shivers wracking through me.
My awkward gait left me slipping far more than I preferred.
Dom finally turned to me. “You’re stubborn.”
I noted his skin seemed paler.
“The rest of the way might go faster if you let me carry you.”
I knew he was right, the concession bitter on my tongue. My wound had stopped bleeding but my thigh throbbed with a deep, sharp pain. Despite my misgivings, time was of the essence.
“Fine.” I surrendered. He seamlessly lifted me to his hard chest. What was this, the third time he’s had to carry me? Gods, I needed to stop getting injured.
The exit from the ancient lava tubes finally appeared in the distance.
We emerged in blinding sunshine surrounded by magnificent glaciers.
They stretched before us in an array of blues—crystal clear, bright cerulean, and creamy teals.
It was a wild, arresting beauty. Dom followed the direction of my swiveling head, both of us stalling.
To the west of us, a line of demarcation separated beauty from desolation. The landscape blackened as though a fire had swept through. Nothing but darkness remained. Ash hovered like a fog above the ground.
“Char,” Dom stated, more to himself than for my benefit.
“From death magic?” I asked incredulously.
He nodded in affirmation. The land withered, as though actively dying or already dead.
I glanced up at him, startling again. His skin had nearly lost all its color.
His veins contrasted sharply with his pallor.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, withholding the urge to touch him.
He peered down at me, shutting his eyes, exhausted. “It’s the poison in my blood. My tonic keeps it under control, but—” He gasped a breath. “—I couldn’t take it underwater. Bowen lost the supply that he had in our fight with the Nokt.”
A screech cut through the howling wind. In the distance, several Nokts circled. Dom grabbed my hand. I searched wildly around. Glacial caves surrounded us in almost every direction.
With my leg and his waning energy, we would not make it to Vorkut without being spotted. Dom subtly swayed. Both of us were far too drained to take on more than one Nokt, and maybe not even that.
“We need a cave. I can use my magic to help us stay warm so we can recover enough to make the trek to Vorkut.” Dom lacked the strength to protest, spiking my worry further.
We ran toward a nearby cave with an entrance large enough to accommodate Dom’s height. My leg protested, but panic and survival masked the pain. Somehow, the Nokts had not seen us.
Dom’s consciousness held on as tight as the last brown leaf on a winter-barren tree. He pushed through, using all of his strength to hold himself upright. His glazed eyes slowly blinked, tears accumulating at the corners in the frigid air.
We slowed to a hobble inside the cave, grateful to be out of the wind’s assault on our unprotected faces. Dom slumped deeply into me, his surrender revealing the precipice he teetered on. I tensed in an effort to hold both of us up, my thigh demanding reprieve.
We limped toward the back, past water-carved walls. The path sloped sharply downward, threatening both our balance. The majesty of our shelter glossed over us in our haste toward safety.
A loud crack had us jolting to the side as a chunk of sharpened ice narrowly missed spearing my shoulder.
It shattered in a plume of powder and crystalline shards.
Above us, countless icicles, some needle-like, others as large and honed as my longsword, threatened to dislodge from the glacial ceiling.
Hoping to avoid any further interactions with skyborne weapons, my magic snaked throughout the cave to fortify its structure.
Walls and ceilings hardened and puddles evaporated from the icy floor.
I focused my attention on removing all cold from beneath our feet, while keeping the water solidified.
I tightened my arm around Dom, summoning the water out of our clothes, drying us thoroughly.
“That’s helpful,” Dom slurred.
Urgency quickened my pace.
We reached an open space in the back of the cave, which seemed good enough to make our resting place.
Despite my injured leg, I hurried to prepare a dry space for us.
The light from outside diffused through the thick ice in a calm, bluish glow.
The glimmering water-carved walls mimicked windswept sand dunes.
Rippled lines etched along their surface as if a master calligrapher had drawn them.
Dom sagged to the floor, his breath turning ragged. His shadows released in an attempt to warm us, but they acted as mere licks of smoke, flickering quickly out of existence. His head dropped back against the wall, the action having spent what energy he had preserved.
I bit my lip. Though we weren’t exactly sitting on freezing cold ice blocks, we were still in the north, in a glacial cave. And it was very cold. When the sun set, we would need a plan. I crouched next to Dom.
Relief flooded me at taking weight off my leg. I stretched it out to check the bandage, reassuring myself the wound hadn’t reopened. I kept the cloth secured for now, my skin resisting movement from the residue of sticky, dried blood.
A line formed between Dom’s closed eyes. His dark lashes fluttered in obvious discomfort. I beheld his face, more unkempt with days of stubble peppering his chiseled jaw. I noticed traces of the boy I once knew, buried beneath the powerful man he now was. He inhaled a shuddering breath.
“Are you sure rest is all you need?” I spoke softly, shattering the quiet of the cave. I didn’t know how to help him.
His chin lifted slowly, as if weighted down.
“The poison has never progressed this far before. I don’t know what happens if it overwhelms my heart.
” He offered a false smile. “You might need to head to Vorkut on your own. Find the inn so you don’t freeze to death.
” He half-heartedly shoved me, encouraging my departure.
His arm flopped heavily back to his side.
My mouth thinned. “How embarrassing for Ruin of the Scourge to simply leave the general of the rebellion here to freeze. I prefer grander rumors of death and destruction over my enemies.”
He didn’t take the bait of my weak ribbing.
“You’re so much more than the rumors they spread about you.
” He shifted in discomfort. Then he gently tugged at my small braids, first on the left and then the right, just like I used to do when we were kids before we did something risky.
Just as my mother had done to me in private moments in our garden.
“You remember?” My heart swelled, though my voice trembled.
“I could never forget anything about you. Except what you’d look like after seventeen years apparently.” He let out a mirthless chuckle as his fingers ghosted over my own. He sighed. “Perhaps this is how I go. It could be worse.”
Our fingers laced together. My breath stuttered in my chest with his words. “Not on my watch.”
His thumb drew back and forth along my hand. It had been a long time since someone tried to comfort me. Since I allowed it.
“You were never my enemy you know. How could I despise someone so embedded in my veins?”
The question hovered in the air between us, as solid as the walls of our glacial tomb. His words scraped against my resolve, cracking it open to reveal a hope I did not dare voice.
“At least.” He paused, gathering himself while his strength leaked out of him.
“At least, I finally found you. I will always find you.” His hand raked through my hair, teasing the strands.
He quirked his head to the side, perplexity furrowing his brow.
“This cave makes your hair seem almost lavender. How strange.”
I tensed at the observation. But my concern was short-lived as his shoulders relaxed and he closed his eyes again. He grimaced before his slump turned more pronounced, his body folding in on itself
“Dom?” I squeaked. Yet he didn’t stir.