55. Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter 55
“C haucer, are you fucking kidding me?” Rieka kicked the boulder with everything she had left as she screamed into the void. The small cave was no bigger than fifteen feet wide and was almost encased entirely in darkness. Twinkling pale lights lit the ceiling, bright enough that she could make out a small ledge above her. “Are you going to leave them out there? It’s an ambush!”
A sense of powerlessness washed over Rieka, but she ignored it, pushing it down as she focused on the rage that burned through her. It was all-consuming, like a flame that threatened to burn her from the inside out. The bracelet pulsed, each electrical jolt fanning the torment within her. It was like a valve was releasing within her. The hotter the flame, the more she wanted to consume it until she was nothing more than a raging inferno, willing to burn everything in her path. A true wildfire. Rieka lifted her hand; a violet flame licked her fingers before disappearing.
Chaucer stared back, his mouth open in a perfect circle. He stepped forward, shaking his head as he turned back and started walking towards the ledge; their way out. The pale-yellow lights flickered, casting shadows across his face. “We need to keep moving.”
She wasn’t leaving Dante behind; she was done not fighting for what she wanted. There was no guarantee to what would happen in the future, but she was going to try. “No.”
“Do you want their sacrifice to be in vain?” Chaucer softly whispered. “They want the bracelet, and they will do everything in their power to get it or die trying.”
“They need me alive.”
“No.” Chaucer shook his head. “Not in the way you think.” He sighed as he slowly looked back the way they had come from. “You aren’t going to change your mind.”
Good. They were on the same page. “Why khatya ?”
Rieka had never actually believed the oath existed. But apparently Dante and Chaucer took it seriously. Too bad it was her life, and they had no influence on her actions.
“It is a verbal bond of protection—I will do anything and everything within my means to ensure that you are unharmed,” Chaucer explained. “Until you release me.”
“I release you.”
“It is not that simple.”
Of course not—that would be too easy.
Rieka straightened and looked Chaucer straight in the eye, careful to enunciate every word. “Let me make this clear—I will get to Dante. You can either help me or get out of my way.” Rieka smiled sweetly. “I don’t need to be rescued.”
“Are you willing to kill a wayfarer? They are in essence human or Atlantean,” Chaucer asked.
The question threw her. She had never really thought about it. She had always valued life; had never thought she could kill someone. But the blood of queens and monsters ran through her. “Yes.”
Chaucer sighed again, his gaze filled with conflicting emotions.
As far as she was concerned, he could atone for his sins on his own time. Not on hers.
“And what happens afterward? You don’t have the pendant or the sword.”
The Anki were awakening because of her. After eleven thousand years, she had given them exactly what they had wanted: access to finding the O’hurani. “We stop them. But first we help Dante and the others.”
“You sound very sure of yourself.”
“We can’t fail,” Rieka replied.
“You may be able to link with them.” Chaucer gestured to the bracelet. “The way Idris did and shut them down.” He nodded to the ledge. “There is a small opening, it is about a hundred yards from here. It loops back to the cavern. We may be able to distract the serpopards and the wayfarers for long enough to give the others time to get away.”
“Tell me how Idris did it.” Rieka forced down the shiver. Linking with them would open her mind to them again. She swallowed. It would be harder to resist their pull. But there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do. If she looked deep inside her, she wasn’t that different from them.
“Idris used pain. Physical pain,” Chaucer admitted. “Whatever you are planning on doing, you only get one chance.”
Another pep talk she didn’t need.
Chaucer started to walk away but he stopped, looking over his shoulder. There was a sadness in his gaze that had appeared over the last few hours.
Not that she was feeling sorry for him.
“Don’t die.”
She didn’t plan on it. “Why are you willing to help me?”
“Perhaps we can be friends again in the distant future.”
Rieka wasn’t so sure, but Chaucer didn’t wait for her to answer. He effortlessly climbed up to the opening he had pointed out. Rieka scrambled after him.