“You can!” Eira pressed her eyes closed and imagined magic rising around them. She imagined the vibrating threads she felt in the Pillars’ stronghold—the magic that permeated the world around them, fraying at Deneya’s edges. She could stitch them back together, somehow. “Please, once more, for me.”
“Halleth—Halleth ruta toff.” Light flickered over Deneya’s chest, the outline of a glyph, incomplete but present.
“Again,” Eira demanded. Magic was flaring around Deneya’s body, trying to find its currents. How could she fuel it? What more could she do?
“I—”
“Again! You’re not dying here. I won’t let you. I refuse.” Eira gazed up at the dark ceiling, soot-stained and dripping from the steam of fires being extinguished. She stared through the rock, imagining the city above, and the starlit sky beyond. If there was a goddess,let Deneya live.
Just once, let Eira not be the harbinger of Death. She closed her eyes and imagined the waters that filled her also lifting Deneya. Her tides could hold both of them aloft. Deneya would find the power she needed. The magic around her thrummed in harmony, every thread vibrating in time as they floated within her imaginary waters.
“Halleth ruta toff.” The words were strong and clear this time. Eira could almost feel the power flowing through her magic and into Deneya. Their eyes widened, meeting. Deneya felt it too. Eira wasn’t imagining the sensation.
Surprise, and a touch of panic at the strange phenomena, had everything crashing down around her. The glyph guttered and vanished. Deneya’s eyes closed, her body limp.
“No,” Eira breathed. “No!” She held out her hands over Deneya’s body. Let her actually be part elfin. Let Eira have magic unlike any other. Let one of her curses turn into a blessing just this once. “Halleth ruta toff.” Nothing happened. “Halleth ruta toff. Halleth ruta toff!” she shouted.
“Eira!” Cullen and Noelle arrived. But there were more footsteps than just the two of theirs.
Standing at the entrance to the war room was a small brigade of shadows led by the Voice, Taavin, and Vi Solaris. Eira blinked, trying to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
“Save her,” Eira pleaded to any of them—all of them.
Vi Solaris, the crown princess of the Empire, was at Deneya’s opposite side in a breath. She held out a hand, long fingers steady.
“Stay with me, friend,” Vi commanded softly. “Halleth ruta toff.” The words flowed from the princess’s lips as though she had been born to say them. Eira watched in awe as a glyph, blue at its center, yellow at the edges, formed under her palm. It spun slowly as she moved her hand up and down Deneya’s body. “Halleth ruta sot.” Vi summoned another glyph. This one spread underneath Deneya, warm light drifting upward. “You.”
“Yes?” Eira had been so mesmerized she’d forgotten herself a moment.
“Take out the crossbow bolts,” the crown princess commanded. “The skin won’t knit correctly if we leave them in.”
Eira did as she was told, breaking the bolts and, as gently as she was able, quickly pulling them out. Deneya let out a hiss of pain. But pain was good because pain meant there was still life.
Vi continued to use Lightspinning to finish healing Deneya. When she sat back on her heels with a sigh, Deneya looked—save for her torn and dirty clothing—refreshed and perfect. The elfin sat with a mischievous grin, as if she hadn’t just been on Death’s doorstep.
“You always did have a knack for showing up at the last second,” Deneya said to Vi.
“You’re lucky I’m here at all. I was almost too late.”
“People who bend fate are never late.” Deneya chuckled. Vi gave a huff of amusement and shook her head.
Eira continued to stare, blinking. The crown princess had used Lightspinning.How?Vi Solaris was a Firebearer…wasn’t she?
“Thank you, for getting the fires under control,” Deneya said to Vi. “The bastards used flash beads and oil.”
“That wasn’t me.” Vi shifted her gaze to Eira, leaving her to squirm uncomfortably under the weight of the princess’s stare. “You have these Solaris competitors to thank for quelling the fires. If not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to come straight here when I arrived and you might have been dead.”
Deneya’s attention slowly drifted back to Eira. They shared a long stare. Every time she blinked, the Deneya who had been on the verge of death overlaid with the smiling—and slightly perturbed—woman sitting before her now.
“I guess a thank you is in order,” Deneya said finally.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Eira said weakly.
“That makes two of us.” Vi stood and held out a hand. The princess helped Deneya to her feet. “Because I want you to be there when we take down the bastards who did this.”
32
Those still alive were quickly patched up. In the brigade that had arrived with Vi and Taavin were about six Lightspinners. There weren’t many shadows left living in the cavern. Only ten people. That meant that, total, the Court of Shadows now consisted of twenty-two people, most back in the main cavern beginning to collect the dead. Ducot had been among the brigade, but there wasn’t any time for them to exchange words before he was sent to gather the dead.
