Chapter 38
The sky left her, drifting higher and higher as the sand fell away beneath her.
The world tilted, and Adara fell into a dark chasm.
Her mouth opened to scream, but clamped shut at the thought of what monsters it would attract.
Her arms flailed, desperate to cling to anything that would stop her plunge.
Pain shot through her entire body, albeit dull compared to what she was expecting. Everything spun as she rolled, momentum from the fall carrying her down the slope of another sand dune. It felt like forever before she finally rolled to a stop.
Forcing herself to stand on shaking legs, Adara spat sand from her lips, brushed it out of her face, hair, and clothes.
She craned her neck to peer up. A gaping hole split the cavern wide, the slightest bit of light illuminating the void she’d fallen into.
She cursed frantically, seeing no way up to the opening through which she fell.
Her pulse quickened, stomach churning. Another scream ripped through the air.
It echoed through the cavern, followed by a mocking cackle of laughter that had her trembling.
I’m coming Dom.
That mocking laughter sounded again. So uncannily familiar. “You’re really going to risk your life trying to save him?”
Adara’s head swiveled back and forth, searching the place.
Beneath her feet was an old marble floor that would have been polished and extravagant for a royal ball if it had not been cracked and worn with desolation, covered in dust. A broken chandelier lay in a heap next to her, glass scattered about like fractured bones.
A grand staircase in front of her ascended into where a wide corridor should be, but in its place was a gaping hole.
Decrepit pillars precariously leaned against one another on either side of the opening.
Light from the outside could be seen on the other side.
Adara started in its direction.
“I mean, you hardly even know the bastard,” the voice said in disbelief.
She halted, squinting through the dim light. Was that—No, it couldn’t be him.
“Take it from me, you’d be better off escaping on your own.” A dark figure stood at the top of the stairs. It began to descend, carefully sizing her up, avoiding the fissures within the structure. Unable to help herself, she started toward him. She needed to be closer, needed to see his face.
The figure reached the bottom of the stairs. “He’ll have a better chance without you.”
Adara stepped up to him, blinking through the dust and fog.
His soft brown eyes came into view. “Alecsander?” she asked hesitantly, hand reaching out to cup his cheek.
She quickly retracted it, afraid that if she touched him he’d fade away.
Gods, she’d forgotten what he looked like.
Had never gotten a chance to memorize her friends’ faces in the midst of battle.
Had remembered only how they appeared in her dreams, mutilated and scarred in death.
But here Alec was. Standing and smiling and whole.
He grinned. “Miss me?” he asked, arms splayed in open invitation.
Adara threw herself into his embrace. She wrapped her arms around his torso, squeezing tight. A tawny hand came to rest on the back of her head, lightly stroking her hair.
“How?” she croaked through the ache in her throat. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
Alec’s hand slid to the hilt of her sword, resting comfortingly there. “Infinova,” he said. “Remember?”
She nodded against his chest, heart aching at the memory. Alecsander had been the one to suggest her sacred sword’s name.
“Stars infinite,” he said softly.
“Light prevails,” she whispered back just as she had done when, after years of imprisonment, they first glimpsed the night sky after their escape from the Shadow Empire. When the stars illuminated the darkness that surrounded them, always enveloped in shadows but forever burning bright.
“Why are you here?” she asked through sobs of relief. “How are you here?”
“We should be asking you the same question.” Fallon.
Adara turned to the girl whose orange hair reflected her fiery attitude, a spark of ambition that could not be doused.
Tears flowed down Adara’s cheeks, soaking into Alec’s shirt.
She leaned her head against his chest, basking in the bliss of his embrace.
Adara closed her eyes, reveling in this moment.
Her friends were here. They’d come back for her. Her friends had survived.
She stilled, every muscle in her body going taut.
Alec pulled her closer, his strong arms securing her against him in a comforting gesture.
Or what would have been comforting had Adara felt a heartbeat against her ear.
But all she heard as her head lay against his chest was a chasm of silence that threatened to swallow her whole.
“No,” she whispered, voice cracking. The silence that his heartbeat should have filled weighed on her. His heart would not beat, would never beat again. She had put a knife in it.
“What’s wrong, Adara?” Another voice. Draven.
“No,” she said, more stern this time. More assured.
“It’s okay.” Kiara’s voice was gentle, soft as a breeze.
“NO!” Adara screamed and planted both her palms against Alec’s chest, forcefully shoving him away. Not Alec. It wasn’t any of them. Their hearts did not beat, their chests did not rise and fall with the breath of life. They weren’t here.
They weren’t real.
They were dead. Their bodies were gone, in a land long since forgotten.
Whatever they were, they weren’t her friends.
Rage filled the space in her chest that had been so overwhelmed with relief only moments ago. She blinked away her tears, lips twisting into a snarl.
A scream reverberated through the underground castle ruins. Dom.
Shoving past Alec, Adara started toward the grand staircase with hurried steps. A hand grasped hers, pulling her to a stop.
“Don’t go.” A whispered plea.
Her entire body slumped, waves of sorrow washing over her. Cal. Oh, she’d give anything to see him one more time.
Fighting the urge to glance back at her former lover, Adara took another step forward.
His grip on her hand tightened, fingers lacing with hers. “We’re all together again,” Callan said gently. “Don’t risk your life for him. Like Alec said, you hardly know him. He’s the King of Keys for gods’ sakes. Stay with us. Please.”
Adara winced, his words assaulting her. He sounded so broken, so desperate. She knew if she turned to face him, she’d see his jade eyes staring at her with dismay, begging her to stay.
Just as she had begged him to stay in his dying breaths.
She turned to him.
No. Cal would not beg Adara to stay. Not when there was someone out there she could save. Cal would say to go. Cal would tell Adara to save him. Cal wouldn’t care that Dominic was the King of Keys. He would see the good. He would think that any life is worth saving.
“No,” Adara said, turning to face her old friends.
Flipping her palm up, she glanced at the scar there, the one that Dominic shared with her.
“I made a promise to him. Just like I made a promise to you.” Her fingers curled into fists, a barrier to protect that sacred mark they’d given one another.
“I will not break it.” Her eyes met Cal’s, and she almost melted at the sight.
But there was something hard in his eyes.
They didn’t reflect the kind, gentle soul that was Callan. It’s not him. “I will not stay.”
Another scream. Adara’s head whirled to the opening on the other side of the grand staircase. To the sky. To Dominic.
“Please,” Cal said, clasping her hand tighter, drawing her gaze back to him.
“You’re not them,” Adara murmured, heart breaking all over again as her hand shifted to Infinova’s hilt.
A hideous scream tore from Cal’s lips, sounding so much like what she’d heard when he’d been tortured by the Shadow Empire that she grimaced, thinking for a moment that perhaps he was real.
Fingers loosened around her hand, falling to the ground in a helpless pile of unmoving skin and bones.
Scarlet shone on Infinova. It would have been smarter to stab the creature in its chest, decapitate it, anything more.
But Adara couldn’t bring herself to maim it in such horrendous ways. Not when all she saw was Callan.
She gaped at the blood on her sword, at the severed hand on the ground, at Cal’s features contorted with pain and betrayal.
Run. Every instinct inside her screamed at her to run.
But Adara’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of crimson pooling between them.
Not black like those demonic beasts that had attacked her.
Red. Red like humans. Red like Cal’s.
She’d hurt him. She’d cut off his hand. “No,” she whispered, a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs. “Cal, I’m so—”
His expression hardened. The others stalked closer, eyes shining with predatory intent.
At once, they lunged. Adara told herself it wasn’t them and slashed with Infinova. A shriek echoed through the deserted castle. Warm liquid sprayed against her skin. But they were too much, suffocating her beneath the weight of their despair.
She choked for air, blinking through the haze of limbs.
Gone. Draven and Kiara and Fallon and Alec and Cal were gone. In their place, a powerful coil of scales surrounded her. It felt like her muscles were being flattened to mush, like her bones were splintering, like her organs would implode beneath its constricting grip around her.
Its hold loosened, barely. Adara blinked rapidly, vision fuzzy, blinding with pain. Eyes filled her sight. Four enormous bright orange eyes with slitted pupils, dark as the space between the stars, stared back at her. The serpent’s maw gaped, razor-sharp fangs glinting in anticipation.