I just wish I’d had the time to kill Khalmos slowly.
“Leina,” Katya says, the word barely audible over the din. Her eyes flutter open, then shut again.
I lift her so her lips are closer to my ear. “Leina? What?”
“Meeting us. Tunnels by—”
“I’m already headed that way. You just rest.”
“Heavy.”
I sputter a laugh. “You are definitely not heavy.”
“Your back…”
“I’m fine. It was nothing a little shapeshifting couldn’t fix.” That’s not true, actually. It was painful as fuck and took an eternity because of the wolfsbane, but she doesn’t need to know that.
The corner of her lips tips up into a half smile. “I’m glad.”
“Me too,” I say, trying to keep things light. She risked her life for me. Twice. First in the arena, then in the tunnels. The only person to ever do that was my father right before they killed him and took me anyway. I was too young to save him, but I made a promise that day to my father and myself that I would never let harm come to anyone I loved again.
It’s a promise I intend to keep.
By the time I reach the caves, the air is thick with smoke and raining soot. I tug on the handle, but the door out is locked tight. I’m hit with a moment of panic, until the door cracks open and a pair of eyes peek at me through the opening.
“Aemon?” says a scratchy male voice from the other side.
There’s some knocking and the sound of metal scraping metal and the door swings open. Rand grins up at me. “You made it just in time. We was about to seal up the tunnel.” He glances at Katya, and his smile falls, but he doesn’t comment on it. That’s what I like about Rand; he knows when to leave a man alone. He shuts the door behind me, and two men immediately swoop in with metal rods they got from gods-only-know-where and fix one end into a space chiseled from the rocky floor and the other against the door, buttressing the entrance.
“I don’t think anyone’s coming after us right now,” I tell the old man.
He nods as if he knows this already and says, “Better safe than sorry.” He turns back to his men. “Gods dammit, Rory. This isn’t that hard.” He shoves one of them to the side and repositions the rod.
I lean against the wall and take a deep breath. As much as I hate to admit it, the day is catching up to me, and Katya’s starting to get heavy. Usually, I’d rest after such an involved healing, but that just isn’t an option right now. At least I can breathe. Breathing is good.
I adjust Katya in my arms and start down the tunnel. It doesn’t take long before I hear voices coming from up ahead.
A lot of voices.
Soon, I’ve reached the tail-end of a slave cavalcade. I weave through and around the humans, and a few fae, clogging the passage. I catch a glimpse of Mave leaning against the wall, with two little girls pulled tight against her. Our eyes meet and she gives me a small smile. Katya will be happy to know she’s safe.
I'm pummeled with smiling greetings and pats on the back as I continue to cut through the throng in search of Leina. I’m not used to this kind of attention, or any attention really, and definitely nothing positive. I honestly don’t know what to do about it, so I just nod and return their smiles to the best of my ability—which, admittedly, isn’t the greatest. Finally, I reach an open cavern where I find Leina talking to the other slaves in a way that makes it clear, she’s in charge. I’ve got to say, leadership looks good on her.
After a few seconds, she spots us and her face lights up in excitement, but quickly dims when she takes note of Katya’s condition. Excusing herself, Leina jogs over. “Aemon. Gods. I thought you were dead.” She pushes onto her toes to take a closer look at Katya. “What happened?”
“She got a nasty hit to the head. You got any healers that can help her?”
Leina smooths Katya’s hair back, her eyes searching her friend’s face—for what, I don’t know. “Not here.” She drops down to her feet and turns her attention back to me. “Jael was the only one we had, and she escaped last week. The best we can do is get her to the nearest town and hope someone there can help.”
“How long will that take?”
She shrugs. “Depends on where this tunnel comes out. We’ll go as fast as we can.” She eyes my trembling arms, suspiciously. “Do you need help? She’s got to be getting heavy.”
“No.” I instinctively grip her tighter, then loosen my grip. The last thing she needs are more bruises.
Leina cocks her head and gives me a pitying look that makes my skin crawl. “Aemon—”
“Nobody’s touching her but me, Leina. End of discussion.”
