Eira looked over her shoulder, the worry in the way Olivin said his brother’s name sparking fear within her.Something was wrong.
“Yonlin,” Olivin whispered, hastier than the last.
It was almost impossible to see Yonlin with how narrow the cave had become. He was on the other side of Olivin and the long shadows that the glyph cast almost completely obscured him.
“Yonlin, what is it? What’s wrong?” Olivin’s panic rose in time with his brother’s ragged and hasty breaths.
“Dark… Small…” Yonlin rasped. “No way…out.”
The words struck Eira at her core. In that second, she understood.
“Alyss, widen the cavern,” Olivin demanded.
“But the magic…” Alyss was understandably uncertain.
“Alyss—” Olivin’s tone was so harsh it was almost a growl.
“Yonlin,” Eira interrupted him. She still couldn’t quite see the young man. But his hasty breaths continued, every exhale filling the passage with hot panic. “Yonlin,” Eira repeated, a little louder.
A sharp inhale, a pause. Eira slid her hand across the wall, wedging it between the rock and Olivin’s stomach. He tried to move to give her space, but there was nowhere to go. Even her level head was threatened by the reminder of just how tight the passage was. How long they’d been still. The claustrophobic heat from just their bodies made her dizzy.
“Yonlin,” she said again, her hand breaking through flesh and rock to make it to the other side. Stone pressed into her wrist, sending pins and numbness up the length of her arm. “Here.”
He sucked in air and didn’t immediately exhale. Eira held her breath, too, stretching as far as she could. Some shifting. Two fingers brushed against hers and Eira hooked them as though she were his only lifeline—afraid that if she let him go now, he would be lost to them.
The golden light of Olivin’s glyph reflected off of two eyes that turned to her. Eira could only see one, but she focused on it with the same intensity with which she still hooked his fingers.
“You’re not there.” She emphasized every word and all the other unsaid meanings that were wedged between them. “They don’t have you anymore. And they never will ever again.”
His breathing leveled and his fingers squeezed hers in return.
“I have you—wehave you. You’re safe.”
“Thank you.” His words were barely audible.
“You can do this,” she reassured him before withdrawing.
“Eira?” Alyss asked.
“We’re fine. Press on.” Eira confidently spoke for Yonlin. She could confidently surmise what he was feeling—a potent mix of misplaced shame and heady determination.
After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel opened up once more. The covert passage was long and tedious, but safe. So none of them were in any hurry to rush the process. The faint echoes of their footfalls were in chorus with theplopsof water.
They reached the end. It was a curve of stone that the faintest glint of pale sunlight ran along the edge of. One last, narrow zigzag of passage and they’d be out. Back into enemy territory.
12
“Alyss, the slightest bit of magic, just to see if someone is on the other side,” Eira whispered, not daring to raise her voice louder than necessary.
With a nod, Alyss crept to the opening. She sidestepped halfway into it. A ripple of magic whispered across Eira’s senses, barely there, and only perceivable because she knew to look for it.
Alyss disappeared around the bend. They collectively held their breath. Another flutter of magic. Alyss shuffled back.
“So far as I can tell, we’re alone.” Even though she sounded confident, she still kept her voice down. Probably because of what she said next. “I can only sense in the immediate area though without using more magic.”
“I’ll scout ahead,” Olivin offered. “Being a Shadow gave me practice at keeping hidden without magic.”
The tunnel had opened up enough that Olivin could squeeze by the rest of them. Even though it wasn’t the time, or place, Eira didn’t have complete control over her body’s reaction to his being pressed against her once more. The smell of his skin alit memories of the night they shared. A flush burned between hercollarbones, threatening to rise to her cheeks if she didn’t keep it under control.
