Tobias
Iwasn’t sure how long we fell through the darkness, only that I was able to wrap Quinn securely in my arms during our plunge. My only thought when I heard her scream was to reach her in time. To make sure that, wherever we ended up, we went together.
We slammed down, hard. Pain shot up my leg as it crunched beneath me. Quinn landed on top of me, knocking the breath from my lungs. The hilt of my dagger jabbed into my hip. My sword still lay somewhere above us after I dropped it in my wild leap for her.
Silvius expected us to follow. Of that much, I was certain.
Once again, he was one step ahead.
“Quinn,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath.
Her hands found my face in the dark. “I’m okay.”
My light exploded around us, searching for a way out. It illuminated four stone walls, the matching floor beneath us, and the ceiling we had fallen through. It was barely larger than…
My cell.
Terror cut through me like a knife. My light faltered, flickering like a candle in a breeze as my hold on it went haywire.
The only thing that was missing was the screams. As if that thought had summoned them, their ghosts played in my ears, blocking out my ragged breathing.
“Breathe,” Quinn demanded, her fingers digging into my jaw. “Tobias, please.”
The walls were pressing in, my vision darkening.
There wasn’t any air. There wasn’t any air in here…
I couldn’t survive this again.
My chest spasmed, that band tightening around my throat.
And worst of all, I brought her here with me.
“Tobias.” Her voice broke. “I need you.”
Blue light reflected in her eyes as it poured from her hands, trying to fix what had long since been broken.
I needed to block it out. To push it down. To get it together before they could tear her away from me. I had to—
“I love you.”
Quinn’s thumb stroked my cheek, her touch grounding me in reality—in that place that felt like home. The icy grip of my panic waned, its hold on me slipping away. The warmth of her hands on my face reminded me of the sun I once loved.
Her love flowed through our bond, certainty and hope overtaking my fear. Not hiding it away where it would only get worse, not blocking it to face another day—but tempering it with something stronger.
My light burst from me, brightening into something dazzling.
I sucked in a breath, then another. On my exhale, I managed a heartfelt, “Thank you.”
“I told you,” Quinn gently chided before pressing a chaste kiss to my lips. “No more hiding.”
She got to her feet, a wince crossing her face as she rubbed her lower back.
A pained cry escaped me as I tried to put weight on my leg to join her.
Quinn’s face tightened with concern. Her hands were back on me in a heartbeat, her magic running down my leg.
I bit down hard at the feeling of bone sliding on bone, holding in a scream.
“It’s broken.” Quinn swore under her breath. “In two places.”
“Don’t drain yourself trying to heal it completely.”
There was no telling what we were about to get into, no matter how quiet our current tomb.
Quinn stubbornly shook her head. “If we end up magicless again, I can’t risk you being hurt without a way to fix you.”
I knew better than to argue, especially when she was right. Blue light wrapped around my leg in interconnecting strands before disappearing under my skin. The pain lessened, immediately more manageable than before.
“Be careful on it.” Quinn’s teeth sank into her bottom lip. “I did enough to keep you upright, but it needs time to mend.”
I took a deep, fortifying breath, pushing through the remainder of the pain. She reached into her pocket, retrieving a piece of paper, then wrote a missive that disappeared in a flash of deep red. “A bit embarrassing admitting we literally fell for Silvius’s tricks.”
“Then let’s find a way out of here before Yael has to fish us out,” I said as Quinn helped me to my feet.
I limped over to the nearest wall, careful to avoid putting too much weight on my leg. My hand pressed against the stone like it would yield a secret way out, even as I tried to ignore the sinking sensation I knew Quinn could feel.
There were no handholds, no ladder. No sign of a shimmer that could indicate a glamour. Nothing but sheer, slick stone.
“That glamour we fell through wasn’t here last time, or it wasn’t open,” Quinn mused. “He must have someone like Rivan whose magic has an affinity with stone to build this beneath.”
“He planned for us to come back.”
I almost finished my circuit of the walls when I realized what she was staring at: the glamour. The edges shimmered slightly in the light, close enough that…
“Get on my shoulders,” I ordered.
“You don’t mean…” Quinn looked between me and the ceiling. “Your leg won’t hold my weight. Besides, even if I can make it back through, there’s no way I can pull you up.”
Nor were there any ropes in the tunnels she could use to assist her.
“Yael should be close.”
“Oh, don’t you dare, Maris. I’m not leaving you in here alone.” She held up a hand as I started to argue. “I’m not sure what self-sacrificing gene runs through your lineage, or if it’s just a knack for reckless courage, but you and your sister both need to quit it.”
The worry she had mitigated crept back like it was seeping from the walls. One of us needed to get out of here. And we both knew it wasn’t going to be me.
“It’s simple, Sagray,” I said pointedly. “You’re the doctor. You’re the one who has a chance at figuring out a cure if we can’t get it back from Silvius.”
“And you’re the godsdamn King of Soleara. You’re—”
“Replaceable.”
“You’re not,” Quinn snapped, heartbreak in every word. “Not to me.”
I could sense the panic she was barely holding back like a wave of static. It tightened around my ribcage, constricting my next breath.
“Five things,” I reminded her, as I tried to push a sense of calm her way in the same way she did for me. “Tell me what you can hear, what you can see…maybe you’ll find something we’re missing. But unless you see a rope in here, this is the best plan we have.”
As if on cue, a note appeared as if blown in by a gust of wind. Yael’s words took a second to decipher, having obviously been written in a hurry.
Ambush. Hold tight.
“Tobias…”
The alarm in Quinn’s voice made me spin toward her, my dagger raised. My panic rose to match her own.
White particles hovered above us like mist swiftly moving downward. My light soared to meet it, forming a wall as I tried to sear them from the air.
The gas only seemed to multiply in response, though perhaps it was being pumped in faster. Quinn turned to me, her eyes wide as the air grew thick with fog.
Helplessness clogged my throat.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do to save her. And nothing I could do.
This time, there was nowhere to run as the gas descended. I fell to my knees as it choked its way down my throat, thickening in my lungs. Before my light was extinguished, I pulled Quinn into my arms.
Her body went limp just as our bond slackened. Then everything went black.