Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. “I’ve got you.”
I turned into Kairos, my face pressed against his armor.
“Don’t stop now,” he said quietly. “We’re going to get her back.”
I nodded, turning back to the core. The light seared straight through my gloves, crawling up my veins, and thestench of burned leather and flesh filled my nose. My bones felt like they were splintering.
I forced one step, then another. The light clawed into my mind, digging through every fear I’d ever tried to bury. Rheya’s face, pale and accusing. Kairos bleeding out. Dragons tearing the sky open while the world burned. All of it flickered behind my eyes.
By the time we reached the core, I was sobbing from the crushing weight of everything that could happen.
Kairos’s arm locked around my waist, carrying me forward. “Do it. Break the fucking thing.”
I pressed both palms against the core and screamed. Agony slivered up my arms as the rune’s core clawed into me, prying my ribs apart, trying to pull me inside.
Threads snapped, hissing like serpents as they recoiled. The light convulsed, thrashing. My scream joined its wail, my hands fused to the searing core as it split down the middle.
The light shattered in a thousand shards of brilliance, and a shockwave ripped through the maze, flattening us both, the sky tearing like a sheet of paper. The walls caved, folding into a void. I was falling again.
Wind screamed in my ears. I couldn’t tell which way was up, and I slammed into something solid. Pain burst through my shoulder, my hip, my skull. Cold bit into my cheek.
I lay there, stunned, unable to move. The air stank of rotting meat and fish, and the rock of the underground cavern loomed above me.
Back in the well.
Relief hit me so hard my vision blurred. We’d made it out. The villagers were free.
I tried to push myself up to tell Kairos, but my arms wouldn’t work. My whole body felt like it had been shattered. Metal and heat flooded my mouth. I coughed, and blood spattered across the stone beneath my face.
Kairos groaned beside me. “Aelie?”
Then darkness swallowed everything.
46
WHAT’S WORTH DYING FOR
I waded in and out of consciousness, my body weightless as it drifted along a sea of clouds. Something hard jolted beneath me—a mairen. Then hands pulled me from the saddle. A male shouted, hauling me over his shoulder.
“Get Elwen. Now.”
Kairos. That was Kairos.
Gentle arms laid me down on a mattress, and I vomited. Crimson spilled over the white linen and kept trailing from my lips. Every inhale stuck in my lungs like sparks from a campfire. The world spun as two voices argued—Kairos and Elwen.
“She can’t breathe. Do something!”
“Step aside!”
Rough hands grabbed my neck, and magic slammed into me. Heat tore through damaged tissue, stitching, ripping, and rebuilding. I tried to scream but I choked on blood.
“I know,” Kairos said brokenly. “Stay with me.”
More blood bubbled up my throat, and I convulsed.
“Kairos, you need to move.”
“Fuck off.”
