Quinn
Iwould bring him back no matter what the cost.
Was Tobias trapped in those mental cells, caged once again in the prison of his own making?
He said we had torn those walls down together, but if he was a captive in his own mind, I had a horrible feeling he used his time last night to rebuild if only to bar the pain I couldn’t save him from.
My heart shattered as I pictured him, alone and scared, trying to keep the fog out with iron bars and dank stone.
I didn’t care. I didn’t so much as consider the impossible odds or the slim chance of rescuing him with his mind intact because it didn’t matter. Not when there was still a chance of saving him.
This wouldn’t be the first time he’d come back from the dead.
And if he didn’t…
“He’ll take my soul with him either way,” I countered, my voice firm. “Stop wasting time and help me, or I’ll find someone else who will.”
Her eyes flickered with concern, even as I saw the resignation on her face.
The moment she whispered a terse, “Fine,” I slid into bed beside Tobias. He was a living furnace despite the number of windows I opened to let in the crisp air. The damp cloth on his forehead instantly heated every time I applied a cool compress.
I dipped my head in a nod, bracing myself. “How does this work?”
“Reach out to him as I put you under,” Marin said curtly. “Try to feel your way to him across your bond. Picture him, and don’t let yourself get distracted.”
I wrapped my body against his side, laying my head on his chest as I placed my hand against his heart. Its sluggish rhythm was a sharp contrast to the frantic drumbeat of my own. My blood magic answered automatically, urging it to continue—every part of me begging him to stay with me.
Marin touched two fingers against each of our temples, her magic flickering in the corner of my vision as it streamed into me.
I pictured Tobias’s face: the cleft to his chin, the dimple I adored, the rare but precious way his eyes crinkled when he laughed.
I remembered the way he had watched me as we worked, like he couldn’t help himself, his gaze attentive and patient and full of a quiet admiration that made my chest ache.
I thought of the look in his eyes the first time I told him I loved him, and the smile I had received in return, all the more precious for its rarity.
I would give anything to see it again.
“Good luck,” Marin whispered. “I hope you find a way—”
Between one word and the next, I was gone.
?
I ran through Soleara, its streets eerily empty.
My footsteps echoed strangely as the cobblestones swirled unnaturally beneath my feet.
A thick fog blocked the rooftops from sight, the two magnificent peaks of the mountain hidden from view.
The bronze castle ahead was nearly covered with clouds, its normally vibrant luster dull and fading.
No, not clouds.
Fog.
“TOBIAS.”
My scream was swallowed by the dense mist, only a muffled, ghostly echo bouncing back at me. A cold sweat trickled down my spine as I turned in a full circle, frantically searching for him and finding no trace. My breathing came quick and shallow as I broke into a run.
The healing magic at my fingertips seemed to mimic the glowing orbs of Tobias’s as it reflected against the fog.
It pressed in with every step, my power barely holding it back from touching me.
I was so focused on avoiding it that I didn’t notice the feeling of wrongness engulfing me as I sprinted toward the familiar bronze castle.
The second I reached it, I knew he wasn’t inside.
My hand curled into a fist against the castle doors, my gasps starting to sound like sobs. It was impossible to breathe—not when he was lost, or worse.
“Tobias, please,” I begged aloud. “Where are you?”
A breeze whipped around me in a whirlwind of dust, spinning me around.
My yellow skirt twirled around me, the wind fluttering along the long slit up my thigh—the same dress I wore to Eva and Bash’s catastrophic rehearsal dinner.
A flurry of dust caught my gaze as it raced across the drawbridge, sparkling like glimmers of glass.
Something inside my chest tugged me forward as surely as Tobias’s heart beat against my palm. I chased that pull, my heels clattering along the bridge. I knew without a doubt who was waiting on the other side.
As soon as I made it across the drawbridge, my heels sank into the grass. I sucked in a breath at the sight before me.
Tobias lay on his back in a meadow beneath a cloudless sky.
Flowers bloomed all around him in a sea of yellow, so bright they couldn’t be real.
Yarrow, daffodils, hibiscus…and so many sunflowers, a swath of smaller ones blooming around his head like a crown.
Rows upon rows of them towered around the meadow, their golden faces raised in defiance as they kept the fog at bay.
But the ones closest to me spread apart, creating a tunnel for me to walk through.
He looked so at peace, far more than I had ever seen him in real life. His arms were crossed behind him, cradling his head as he looked up at the sky. He was barefoot, his pants and unbuttoned shirt a soft, ethereal white.
A smile curved his lips, that dimple firmly in place.
“I forgot how much I loved the sun,” Tobias said quietly. “That warmth and light didn’t need to mean pain. That the openness of the sky could feel like freedom.”
Slipping off my shoes, I carefully stepped through the flowers. Their leaves tickled my toes, petals brushing pollen against the inside of my ankles as I passed. It felt so real that for a heartbeat I imagined it was—that we were here and safe together.
Tobias lazily reached out a hand for me. The second I took it, he tugged me down next to him.
A surprised laugh left me as he caught me in his arms. He pulled me close, my legs tangling with his. My hand tucked beneath his shirt to rest against his heart. There was no sign of the fever flushing his cheeks, the chills wracking his body. No hint of his chapped lips and sweat soaked skin.
Those silver scars remained, the band around his neck even more stark against the healthy flush of his skin. I was glad—the scars were part of his story.
“I thought I’d find you beneath Morehaven,” I admitted.
Tobias shook his head, his eyes finally opening.
The gold of them caught the sunlight as he gazed into my own.
“I couldn’t go back into that cell even if I wanted to after we destroyed it.
I tried to rebuild it, but it wouldn’t hold anymore.
So I thought I’d come home, one last time.
” He pressed a kiss against my forehead.
“I should’ve realized how well I know every detail about you, to recreate you so perfectly. ”
I stiffened, pushing onto my forearms. “I’m not some daydream, Maris. I’m here. This dream isn’t home—” My voice caught. “Home is where I’m going to bring you back with me.”
Horror overtook his calm, wind whipping through the flowers as Tobias jerked upright, his arm crushing me against his chest.
“You can’t be here,” he whispered, his voice tight with fear.
“Then come back with me,” I demanded. My hands moved to his face, my thumb stroking his cheek. “I’ll follow you anywhere, Maris.”
“I-I can’t,” Tobias stammered. “Do you think I didn’t try, Sagray?
I started at the top of the mountain, and the fog flooded through every room of our home.
It followed me, chasing me down every step to my castle, and then it took my city too.
” His next words were hesitant, like they were being ripped from him.
“I tried to get back to you, but I can’t keep running.
It was all I could do to find my way here. ”
I shook my head, refusing to accept it. “I can cure you…I just need time. I need you to keep fighting. I need…you.”
Tears welled in my eyes, my lower lip trembling.
“Silvius said there was no cure for me,” Tobias reminded me unnecessarily.
“That the version of the virus he made for me was specifically created to work around what we made together.” His throat bobbed, his eyes searching my face like he was memorizing each detail.
“We both know I’m dying. But I made my peace with death once before, if it meant saving you.
You need to get out of here before I take you with me. ”
The acceptance in his tone made me want to murder him.
“Not without you.” I wasn’t sure if it was a threat or a plea as my breath splintered into desperate, shallow gasps.
“Breathe, Sagray,” Tobias ordered, distress bleeding into his tone. “That’s it. Breathe for me.”
I focused on the timbre of his voice, instinctually responding to his instructions. Tobias’s hand stroked my cheek.
“That’s my girl.”
I was his. And he was mine.
“Only one of us is getting out of here,” he continued gently.
His voice was so assured, so convincing, that for a heartbeat he almost convinced me.
“Which means you need to go, before the choice is taken from you. If anyone can survive the breaking of our bond, it’s you. You’ve always been stronger than me.”
If we survived this, I was going to throttle him for his utter lack of regard for his own self-preservation—and for how blindly he dismissed how losing him would affect me.
Because it would shatter me.
“I don’t accept that,” I seethed, resolve sharpening my tone.
“You need to give me a chance to try. If I can keep you stable like Bash did for Eva, then Dolion can find a fix for whatever Silvius changed. There has to be an answer in one of those notebooks, or in his lab, something we can find before you…” My voice cracked, unable to finish the thought.
“Don’t you want to live? To have a life with me? ”
“Of course I want that,” Tobias said forcefully. “But not if the price is you.”
I couldn’t bear the quiet surrender in his voice; the wistful way he was watching me.
A frown crossed his face, beads of sweat appearing between the lines on his forehead. “The cure. Did it work for my sister?”