Ander strode toward me, leaving Fieran’s broken body behind.
And I ran to Fieran.
Forty-Six
Ander grabbed me, his arm circling my waist. His mouth dipped toward my ear. “We have to get out of here.”
The hilt of the knife at his belt jabbed into my hip, and I was tempted to pull it loose and stab him. But the situation unfolding around us was hard to read, especially when I felt wild with my feelings.
“Fieran claimed you’re always clever,” he murmured before he released me.
But his words still made me slow, my fury simmering.
“He’s not going to die today. The arena won’t allow it,” Ander promised me. “Now move.”
I looked back over my shoulder.
Fieran didn’t stir.
Guilt speared through me so sharply it stole my breath.
The platforms lurched again. One cracked down the middle, the two halves beginning to sink. Water surged over my feet, icy enough to shock me.
“Cara.” Ander reached for me but stopped short when he saw the look I leveled his way. “Listen to me. The arena is coming down. You have to get out. Tay is waiting.”
Tay.
The name hit like a blade sliding between my ribs. I had done this—Ihad tipped the scales,Ihad broken Fieran open for the sake of saving my brother. The guilt surged so violently it tasted like blood in my mouth.
I had chosen, the only way I could, and Fieran had paid in blood.
“The healers will come for Fieran.” Ander cut himself off as the platform shifted beneath our feet.
I leapt from one platform to Fieran’s, barely managing to keep my balance as Ander landed beside me.
“We’re not leaving him behind to drown,” I told Ander. “You hate him. You have good reasons. I know him well enough to believe your hatred is entirely deserved. But still, Ander. Please.”
Ander looked down at me. There was blood smeared across his knuckles and his face. He looked weary, as if he carried far more than one fight’s exhaustion.
“I carried my brother. You saw me do it.” I stepped toward Fieran, bracing myself to stumble out of here with his body.
Ander let out a curse, then cut in front of me. He bent and grabbed Fieran’s wrist, muscling Fieran’s tall frame over his broad shoulders. Fieran’s other arm hung slack, dangling behind the small of Ander’s chiseled back.
There was anothercrackas another platform splintered apart.
“Lead the way out of here,” Ander muttered.
I surveyed the wreckage around us, the path through the dark water that remained. As the platforms continued to fall apart around us, Ander and I leapt from one to another.
Finally, my boots landed on ground that didn’t rock. I almost overbalanced because I had landed bent-kneed, hands out to stabilize myself, on all those other platforms. But now we stood at the tall gates to the hall.
I looked back at the far-distant stands.
Ander landed beside me. As healers bustled toward us, he unslung Fieran from his shoulders with so much force, it seemed as if he was going to just drop him on the ground.
But I checked him with a look, and Ander—with a muttered curse—laid him with reasonable care on the nearest slab.
Fieran groaned, somehow pushing himself up.
