“Hold on,” I begged. “Rheya.”
She looked at me, her older sister. The one who was supposed to protect her. Who’d failed her.
Her eyes softened. “I’m sorry.”
My chest caved in.
The magic gave a final tug, and she was falling. Arms outstretched like she was reaching for me.
A scream shredded my throat. I lunged, but Kairos grabbed my waist and hauled me back. Ihadto reach her. She had to be there—caught on a ledge, clinging to the rock, waiting for me like she always did.
I leaned forward.
The abyss stared at me, empty.
Bootsteps thundered behind us.
“Uther, no!” Kairos shouted.
Wind tore past me, and then Uther was gone—launching himself into the fissure.
“Uther!” Kairos roared.
58
THE ABYSS
My sister was gone.
Memories poured inside my head. Rheya sitting between my knees while I braided her hair. Rheya asleep on my shoulder in the foundlings hall. Rheya and I stealing bread from the market, laughing as we ran, convinced that nothing could touch us if we stayed together.
A lifetime of love erased in a few seconds.
Kairos held me tightly, but his arms were shaking. The helpless rage of a male who’d spent a century watching people slip through his hands. Centuries of friendship—gone in a heartbeat. He stared at the fissure, swallowing hard.
You didn’t fail her,he whispered, his voice threaded with pain.You kept her alive longer than this city ever intended.
I shook my head, my breath hitching into sobs.
His forehead pressed to my temple, his warmth wrapping around me. I let myself break against him and the world was silent, shrinking down to the edge of that fissure and the emptiness where my sister used to be.
“Aelie,” Vaeris murmured. “Rheya’s not dead.”
I raised my head, trapped in Kairos’s arms. “What did you say?”
Vaeris ripped off his gauntlet and rolled up his tunic, baring his forearm where a rune blazed on his tanned skin—the faerie deal, perfectly intact.
Sparks erupted in the pit of my stomach.Keep my sister safe. The terms of the deal were binding, and Vaeris was still breathing.
I blinked rapidly. “They’re alive.”
Vaeris flexed his forearm. “For now.”
A sick feeling swooped inside me.
“They’re in Myndra.” Vaeris rolled his sleeve down, his mouth set in a grim line. “Time moves differently there. A minute here could be days for them.”
I licked my lips. Days passing for her while I knelt here, useless.
