Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
I am so angry. I miss Lyv. And I could kill Bayne.
—Journal of Isla Jasira
The song of battle echoed through the night as we raced through the trees, dodging the silver-armored men and warriors clad in bone that crashed among them. The bellow of white bears plowed through the night as I leaped over a fallen bench and ducked behind a building.
“They can handle Nivis. Half the bears are down, and I spotted a pack of dune runners with their riders coming south when I came to find you,” Nerissa breathed next to me. “Are you sure you can get us in?”
I nodded. “Yes, but I’m sure they have it guarded tonight. Especially after the Impostor’s arrival.” I turned to face her, my voice becoming firm. “We leave them alive.”
Nerissa’s eyes were vivid. The flashes of fires among the trees danced in her green irises as her lips tilted upward for a moment in eagerness before she muttered, “Let’s go get it.”
The cries in the village above reduced to mumbled thumping and the occasional thud when we entered the underground network of ice tunnels leading to the amphitheater and Faron’s burial chamber.
Nerissa silenced the first two guards with a pinch on the neck, not making a sound, even as she slid them to the ground. We sprinted noiselessly down the long tunnel before running into four more standing guard in front of the large, carved stone door.
Shouts erupted as two hurtled toward us, their bone spears positioned overhead as they sprinted down the tunnel.
With preternatural speed, Nerissa flew past me, dodging the first thrust and sending the staff of the spear careening into the nose of a guard.
He fell with a thud as she slammed the base of the staff into the back of another’s head.
I leaped over his body, with Nerissa already engaging the two nearest the door. A third went down by the time I reached them.
The last remaining guard wore the skull of an amatohk and held two sharpened femurs in both hands. He swung the bones like swords, and Nerissa met them with a single curved blade, jumping out of reach as she danced around the warrior like a wolf circling a bear.
He leaped as she drew him out, spinning farther from the stone door.
Her bright eyes flashed at me as she neared, and I waited for the opening I knew she’d make.
She feigned a stumble back, allowing the warrior to believe he gained ground, and she ducked at his next attack, slamming her leg into the back of his knees.
I flew past them, leaped over the large form, and skidded to a slippery stop in front of the slate door. Key in hand, I slammed the diamond tip into the center of the door and murmured the memorized spell beneath my breath. The door slid open with a hiss.
Nerissa’s snarl reached my ears as the curved blade flew from her hand.
Large, armored claws gripped Nerissa’s muscled shoulders as his skulled head slammed into her face.
Blood spewed from her nose, dotting the ivory skull with a crimson spray as she landed a knee to his groin. His thick hand clenched Nerissa’s neck.
My heart picked up a furious beat as a tiny whimper escaped Nerissa’s lips, and his muscled hand began to squeeze.
Anger and fear pulsed through my veins as I sprinted from the open burial chamber to where he held her against the icy wall, closing the gap within a heartbeat.
I speared a tendril of darkness toward the guard.
The Obscura snuffed out the scream that rose in his throat as I obliterated the warrior and his bone armor.
Nerissa’s limp body fell into the pile of ash left behind, and I placed two shaking fingers to her neck. A weak, subtle pulse thumped beneath them, and I breathed a sigh. I gripped her under the shoulders as I slid her down the hall and into Faron’s chamber.
I snatched the round stone holding the Advetis Bone as shouts arose from down the hall.
Fuck. Reinforcements were coming.
I scrambled to get my arms around Nerissa.
Shouts in Rhashtai rose in echoes, and I readied my darkness, waiting for the onslaught. A shadow moved around the last corner of the hall, and my heart stuttered as Vulcan’s form rounded the curve and flew to the entrance to the chamber.
“We need to go!” he shouted. His face and arms were covered in blood.
“Nerissa is down!”
His jaw clenched as he slid to a stop and knelt beside her, lifting her eyelids.
“I can carry her,” he murmured. “Nivis retreated, and they’ve found Xenelpha. Kai is on his way with at least fifty Bone Warriors.”
He swiftly tossed her over his shoulder, and we made for the exit when Kai’s dark form appeared in the doorway. His teeth flashed in a malevolent grin beneath the skull he wore as his hands gripped the smooth edges of the door.
Vulcan’s wide eyes found mine in the dimming light from the tunnel as the door swung shut. The deafening boom was nothing compared to the pounding of my heart that followed.
Trapped.
I blinked against the darkness. Pitch black.
I am not afraid of the dark, I chanted in my mind, but the blackness of this room was suffocating, and the building pressure of claustrophobia pushed on me from all sides.
“Breathe,” Vulcan said from across the chamber. “How did you get in the first time?”
The primitive part of my existence panicked. My breath refused to fully escape my lungs as my lips greedily sucked in more air. How much did we even have left in here?
A firm hand gripped my arm.
“In,” he said, “and out. Just like before dawn.”
Vulcan’s voice was quiet yet held an air of authority.
And I listened, closing my eyes and imagining we were at the prow of the Evecta, with smooth waves of the Juniper lapping below the hull, the early rays of Aelius painting the horizon in soft pink.
A long, shaky breath escaped my lips, and he dropped his hands.
“How did you get in before?”
“Stairs in the back,” I said, my voice sounding faraway. “But they lead to the bottom of the lake. There’s no way we’ll be able to get out. Even if we get the door open, we’ll drown.”
Vulcan’s hand returned to my arm, and he pulled us to the back of the chamber, where we began the slow ascent to the top of the winding, stone staircase.
“We might be able to if we can wake Nerissa. She might be able to split the water long enough for us to swim to the surface.”
My breathing became ragged as the thought of trying to swim beneath the frozen lake settled in my gut, and I shook my head.
“It’s frozen. Even if we can get through the door, we’ll be stuck beneath the ice…”
“If you believe it’s impossible, it will be,” he snarled. “We will survive this. Nerissa will melt an opening for us.”
Oh, gods. This was the plan?!
Vulcan stopped ahead of me as he slid Nerissa to the ground of the small landing at the top of the stairs. My hand edged along the round opening, feeling for any type of latch.
“Here,” he murmured. “Wake up, Nerissa.” He softly slapped her cheek. “Lyvia, try the bond.”
My head shook. “I’ve never felt her. The wall she has up is…”
Impenetrable hung on my lips, but I realized I’d never really tried to tear it down. I hadn’t dared for fear of the wrath it would unleash.
“We don’t have another option right now.”
My knees hit the stone with more force than I intended as I knelt beside her, taking her calloused hand in mine.
“Nerissa,” I whispered. “I’m coming in.”
Despite the darkness, I closed my eyes and let my mind drift through the memories of the threads I swam through. Twice now, I’d gotten to glimpse the mysterious connections that spun through the universe. One of those six, wave-like ribbons in my universe was Nerissa. The bonds of the Bellators.
I took a breath as I remembered the intricate web, feeling my way through the delicate threads.
I reached out with my mind’s eye as I came across the one.
One was more guarded than any of the others, with an invisible fortress hewn from pain, fear, and regret.
I pressed my consciousness against the wall, a silent, soft request, and waited.
Seconds stretched into infinity.
“Lyvia,” Vulcan warned in the distant darkness.
Come on, Nerissa.
Nothing.
I leaned into the wall, sending a wave of emotion toward it. Trust. Friendship. Safety. Open, I silently commanded.
A crack formed, and I shoved myself through it, sending a wave of warmth along with it. Nerissa’s gasp filled the small space at the top of the staircase, and she coughed against the dry air of the tomb.
She thrashed against Vulcan’s grip, who quickly relayed our current situation to her.
“Can you do it if you tap into my amplifier?”
“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice, does it?
” she snapped. “Fuck. Fuck!” she breathed, her voice hoarse and shaky.
“Okay, we’ll have maybe a second once the door is open, but there’s not much air left in this chamber, so take a deep breath.
I’ll send the rest of it into the lake. I’ve never used the Soleia power underwater before, so I have no idea what to expect. You may need to break through the ice.”
My stomach dropped, and I looked blindly at Vulcan.
“Try not to boil us alive,” was his only response.
I had the inexplicable urge to laugh. Was Vulcan being sarcastic? Surely, this meant the end was near if he was joking.
“Shut up,” Nerissa snapped. She took a few deep breaths, steeling herself for the power required to get us out of here.
“Do it,” she finally said, her quiet voice hardened with determination.
Nerissa pulled me to the far side of the landing, away from where the door would swing inward, as Vulcan chiseled away at the stone lid. A strained groan whined from above, and Vulcan’s chiseling paused.
“Get ready—”
The amplifier on my chest burned as Nerissa reached for it. The stone lid slammed against the wall in a deafening bang, followed by a surge of lake water.
As quick as the water charged in, a rush of air whipped upward from below the stairs, shooting a tunnel of solid wind straight into the bottom of the lake as Nerissa screamed. I bent my leg as Vulcan’s hands shoved me into the opening.
Nerissa moved beside me in the strange wind tunnel, as water quickly filled the space between the opening of the burial chamber and our feet.
The three of us kicked against the upward swell of water.
The massive sack of air floated upward, like a giant bubble.
Frigid water engulfed us as the air outpaced us high above, floating beneath a wall of ice.
We neared the surface, the ice so thick that only a soft, dark hue of light escaped its crystals into the water below.
Nerissa tensed as her hands landed on the surface, and her white flames fought against the water.
Small bubbles formed on either side of her hands, but the wall of ice didn’t budge.
She shot a panicked look at me before gritting her teeth and sending more power into her palms. The water warmed around us.
Vulcan pulled me farther away from her as her hands melted into the ice, making two small indents in the thick wall.
Nerissa’s brows furrowed. Her brown hair glowed golden as it floated in the water, illuminated by her brilliant white light.
Her eyes shuddered a moment, and she swayed beneath the surface.
The white light beneath her palms flickered, and her eyes closed.
No. No.
Vulcan left my side, grabbing hold of her with one arm and pounding against the thinned ice with the other.
Oh, gods. We were going to die.
Devastation gripped me as Vulcan pounded against the ice in a panic, somehow still treading water with Nerissa and holding his breath.
My lungs burned as the last bit of oxygen traveled through my veins, and a sad awareness swept through me. My thoughts drifted to my friends, my found family. I would never see them again.
And Tiberius… My caeluma. He was a part of me, a part of my soul. I had the briefest desire to cast to him, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let him see me die. He would be so lonely. Would he find other caeluma? Choose another Bellator?
You didn’t find them, a voice seemed to whisper. They found you. Remember.
A soft, not-so-distant darkness beckoned me once again. Death. Would it be so terrible to go now? Maybe I’d see my father again…
The dead are trapped, the voice said. Remember. See.
Free them.
I had to be here to free them.
The caeluma found us. They are the key. They can manifest our powers.
My eyes shot open as Vulcan’s fluttered closed beneath the surface. He was fading, barely hanging on, yet his arms still gripped Nerissa as his legs kicked and his fist beat weakly at the ice.
Aquila.
Bayne said Aquila lacked certain abilities to be a caeluma. He lacked their power. I kicked, realizing I’d begun to sink, and threw my mind out to the seahawk. A panicked sense of urgency responded.
Hurry, I urged him, with every desperate wave of emotion I could muster. A dark form materialized above the surface of the ice. I threw every last bit of energy I had left into the depths of my powers, grabbing hold of the delicate song, latching it to the amplifier on my neck.
Threads danced in my mind's eye, the golden connections that hung suspended in midair. I latched the Transcindiel power to the bond connecting me to Nerissa and Aquila, my energy draining by the second.
A distant shriek echoed from above as the dark shadow disappeared in a tunnel of golden light, breaking free a moment later, larger. The shadow of massive wings beat against the night across the surface before a wave of white flames licked along the other side of the ice.