“Greer.”
Her eyes flashed open at the sound of Ellis’s voice.
She heard it distinctly, as if he was there in the tunnel with her now, but she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see much of anything past the tufts of black hair at Elowen’s ears.
“Come find me,” he beckoned, and, despite everything that was happening to her, Greer smiled.
Their old whispering game.
“I need you to come find me,” he instructed.
Greer thought she nodded.
“Now, Greer. Find me now.”
His insistence pulled her from the drowsy fog, wrenching her back into the pain, but it was good. There was pain because she was present. There was pain because she was alive.
And if she was alive, she could fight.
Carefully, as if falling into a swoon, Greer arched back against the stony Bright-Eyed. She shifted, bringing up her legs till her feet were on Elowen’s chest. The queen, so intent on feeding, didn’t seem to notice. The sound of her blood being gulped down in great swallows made Greer’s stomach twist.
She tensed the muscles in her calves, preparing for the inevitable pain to come, then kicked as hard as she could, ripping Elowen from her. Elowen stumbled backward, and Greer fell. Using the swing of momentum, she pulled her captor toward the spot the white bear hadscratched. She swiped claws across his rocky face, pressing the lacerations to the iron.
His roar of pain scattered the other Bright-Eyeds who had gathered round. Greer recognized the tusked guard, the pair of wolves, and counted three new others. How many Bright-Eyeds did this mountain hold?
Without warning, a dark shape whizzed by, racing along the side of the tunnel wall and slashing at two of the Bright-Eyeds. The largest wolf and the tusked guard hissed, falling to their knees as they clutched their throats, trying in vain to hold back the curtains of blood pouring from the deep and ragged wounds.
The figure skittered to a stop, stomping on the stony Bright-Eyed and snapping his neck. The monster fell slack, a mountainous mass of unmoving flesh.
Greer looked up in wonder, unable to contain her smile.
Noah Finn had returned.
45
“Where’s Ellis?”Greer demanded as Finn pulled her to her feet.
The tunnel was a mess of shrieks and death rattles. There were too many bodies sprawled in too many severe angles for Greer to truly understand what was happening. The bites on her body pulsed, screaming with hot, fiery agony. She could feel where every fang had sunk in, each puncture ragged and inflamed.
“He’s safe.”
Finn tugged her through the mess of wounded Bright-Eyeds, moving the two of them deeper into the mine with a skittering speed that made Greer want to throw up.
Elowen’s rage echoed after them. “Bring her back!”
There were murmurs of protest, cries of outrage and death rattles as the Bright-Eyeds Finn had wounded took their last, heaving gasps.
“Stay with me,” he ordered.
Greer wondered who he was talking to. She was right beside him, keeping up as best as she could, though now that she thought of it, she wasn’t entirely sure her feet were moving. Perhaps Finn was moving so fast that she flew along, trailing after him like a pennant in the wind. She could feel pounding jolts ricocheting through her body,but wasn’t certain if they were her footfalls clattering down the stone corridor or the painful clunk of her blood pulsing through her veins. She was woozy with blood loss; her thoughts were as lethargic as her heartbeat.
“Greer!” he shouted as the tunnel faded in and out of focus. “You have to stay with me!”
He means me,she realized, the thought imploding through her like a dying star.Why wouldn’t I stay with him?
Greer didn’t know how much of her mother’s magic had been drunk from her. She could still feel a residual dark energy lingering in her limbs, wanting to strike and bite, but it no longer consumed her every thought and impulse.
I’m here. She wanted to say it, but pain spiked across her shoulder as Finn jerked her arm, hard. Electric fury radiated into her fingers. She reached out, disoriented, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Greer blinked, trying to push away the haze filtering her vision. She gasped.
