“Juth.” Vi tried again. This time, she did not telegraph her attempt with a movement of her hand, nor did she direct it at the man. Instead, the front legs of the shelf burned away in a white-hot burst of fire.
Off-balance, it was sent toppling over, and Vi scrambled to her feet, running again.
One more flight of stairs; she didn’t look back. Across one more rope bridge and she’d be at her room and there… there she would…what?
Her room had always been her haven. Her safe place. But now it would be a secluded area for her to die. There was nothing there that could protect her any more than where she now stood.
Vi looked around frantically, her head spinning with every sway of the rope bridge beneath her feet. There had to be a warrior patrolling somewhere who could help her. Her eyes scanned every passage and walkway, seeing no one. It was as if she were the only one left alive in the whole fortress.
A cry for help rose in her throat, stopping as she turned toward the sudden creaking on the bridge behind her. The man was mid-lunge. His ominously glowing dagger was tracked over her chest.
He was going to kill her.
Vi looked down at her feet. If she was going to die, she’d take him with her.
“Juth,” she said, one last time, watching as his eyes went wide and the bridge exploded into flames beneath their feet.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The night rushed around her.
She’d known the sky trees were tall, but Vi had never really heeded Jax’s warnings when it came tohowtall. It seemed she would fall forever. Every second seemed longer than a hundred years and yet she knew it would be over all too soon.
Vi reached upward on instinct, flailing through the air, looking for a branch or walkway. But she couldn’t find a hold. Surely, there was a window she could grab onto? Somewhere? Her nails ripped back, the pads of her fingers scraped off against rough bark.
There was a flash of red light—the elfin’ra was performing some kind of magic. Vi braced herself. She could almost feel the magic spinning at the man’s whim—a twisted distortion of the power she knew, yet so similar it was painful.
All she could do was wait for it to strike her and then she’d be—
Two hands closed around her sides. She slipped through their grasp. They dug into her shoulders, friction ripping through her clothes. The fingertips pressed further into the meat of her arms. They gripped and didn’t let go.
Vi heard a shout, but it was cut off abruptly as she swung face first into the tree she’d been trying to catch herself on.
Everything went dark.
* * *
She was falling.
Above her were the trees of Shaldan, shadowed and faded like ghosted sentries peering down at her through a hole that became smaller and smaller the longer she fell. The ruins she’d explored in the jungle passed her. Countless eyes, peering through the darkness, stared only at her, waiting.
What were they waiting for?
Why did they look at her as if they knew her?
Her questions went unanswered. She didn’t scream. The wind whizzed around her; she must be falling fast, but her stomach was settled. Vi felt calm. She was sinking into something familiar, warm. She accepted the waiting darkness beyond the reality she knew and the worlds she’d only begun to explore.
Perhaps this was how Dia felt when she fell from the sky. Fearless. Not knowing what awaited her at the bottom but knowing it wouldn’t harm her. Knowing that wherever she landed, was where she was meant to be.
Taavin was there.
That was the first cohesive thought that registered on the edge of Vi’s mind. There was his familiar shape, pressed against her, clutching her, supporting her. He was warm like sunlight, as though all the brightness in the world was contained within him.
Familiar shape?
Her mind was at war with itself. She didn’t know him, not really. They were unlikely allies and she’d certainly never made physical contact with him in any of their meetings. Yet there was a distinct sense of rightness about him. Merely knowing of his existence put a label to something that Vi had never quite paid attention to or understood, something that inexplicably filled her with joy and excitement.
“What happened to you?” His words were muffled and distant, even here when he felt so close. Would he forever be just out of her reach? When had that even become a concern for her? “Is this the real you? Or just another night?”
