She crawled out to minimize obvious movement, watching where she put her hands and careful not to slide against the floor. She bear-crawled to the side of the room before standing against the wall. The window, the shade pulled up, stood to her right. Tarian waited in the trapdoor opening, watching her. She nodded at him, giving him the all-clear.
Except for stalling to gently close the trapdoor after him, he came faster but just as quietly, flattening against the wall with her. Nothing to it.
A pulse rocked the room, dense and focused, looking for its prey. The sounds of scratching and stomping in the destruction slowed, the creature’s focus shifting. Another compression came, then another, beating into them. In a moment it would know where they were, if it didn’t already.
Shit,she mentally bit out as her teeth chattered with fear. Tarian’s fingers curled around her wrist.Go, she mentally barked, and ran.
He was right behind her. The compression of huge feet shook the ground, heading right for them. Tarian and Daisy reached the opened door together. The darkrend lunged, ten feet away, half the length of its body.
“Say the magic,” she shouted, her palms hitting the door as his did. They slammed it shut together. The lock latched, the last word leaving his mouth at the same time as the darkrend hit. The wood bowed asthough in slow motion, started to split, and then all went still. Silence filled the space.
The small slice of light that the split in the door allowed showed moving shadows. A flurry of activity. In moments, however, the creature slowed. The slit in the door turned pitch black, and then the huge mass was gone. The light bled through.
Tarian released an audible breath.We made it?—
A concussion of air made Tarian and Daisy jump. She reached out with shaking hands, grabbing his tunic. He took hold of her wrist and reeled her in.
“We shouldn’t feel that,” he whispered, staring at the door. He stepped away, keeping her close. “The ward stopped it from coming through. It held. We should be good. We shouldn’t feel…”
A soft thumping sounded from the roof. Their heads jerked that way, and she could feel him shaking right along with her. He wasn’t impervious to its terror, or the terror of the moment.
Another thump, this one louder. A little dust shook loose from the roof.
Tarian’s fingers tightened against her.
An eye filled the window. It darted around until it locked on them. Its pupil contracted.
They jumped together. Tarian swore under his breath. The creature leaned back. Teeth flashed in the window, and a roar bled through the ward. The eye appeared once more before it lunged forward, its teeth gnashing at the window. At the walls. Thumps andscratching got through the magic. The structure groaned and bowed.
Tarian dragged Daisy toward the back of the shanty. She clutched at him.
“Leave or go,” he said softly. “Leave or—I mean, stay or go. Strengthen the ward or pull it down entirely so we can get through the trapdoor.”
“If you pull it down, all of this will come crashing down on our heads in a matter of seconds. One of us would make it down. The other would not. There wouldn’t be time, and the space isn’t big enough for both of us at once.”
They looked at each other, his eyes so open. He wouldn’t leave if it meant she’d die. She saw it there, lurking, confusing him but true. She could see he would not leave her to that creature. Not after what they’d been through. Not after what they’d endured and escaped together.
And he could read in her mind that she wouldn’t either. He might need to die eventually, but not like this. Not after saving her. She’d made this decision before, and here she was making it again. Maybe it didn’t make sense, but she didn’t care.
“I can try to strengthen it,” he said softly, looking at the bed. “With a chalice. I haven’t yet tried to wield the power directly, but I can try.”
“Try.” She looked at the bed as well. “But…where are they?”
He squeezed her arms and hurried past her. Heducked beside the bed as the shanty rumbled and her heart hitched. He dragged out first one pack, then the other. He’d magically sent them to this location while in the cavern. She’d been sleeping on top of the crystal chalice and hadn’t even known.
“That was removed,” he said as he pulled out a flat object speckled in black. It gleamed in the low light. “I didn’t want to go traipsing after you when you inevitably grabbed it and ran.”
He reached for her hand, and she took it without thinking, allowing him to drag her toward the front door.
“If that thing gets through, we might as well run for it,” he murmured in explanation. “No sense delivering ourselves in a box.”
His smirk said he was paraphrasing her. It was still true, so she didn’t respond.
He paused, looking down on her. He grabbed her around the waist, pulled her against him, and kissed her, hard, branding his kiss on her lips. It didn’t take a genius to know he worried it might be their last.
“Stay near me,” he said after he’d grudgingly released her, turning toward the door and half looking over his shoulder at her. “Touch me so I know you’re there.”
He could hear in her thoughts that she was there, since her mind never stopped spinning, but she did as he said, flinching with the next thump. The creature moved away from the window, climbing onto the roofagain. The structure groaned under its weight. Tarian’s whole body shook against hers—or was that hers shaking against his? She clung to him as he dropped his head, the chalice held in both hands, his eyes closed.
