“Where is he?” I screamed, falling to my knees beside them.
I saw it then; a hand. It protruded from the rock, from wrist up, and it was twitching, still moving.
“Darius,” I screamed before frantically joining Roxy and Kane in pulling rock from around him.
“Oh gods,” I heardZyamutter a moment before she fell to her knees as well.
We all dug through the rocks as fast as we could. I used every Blessing I had. Speed, strength, enhanced senses. I gripped his wrist and felt his heartbeat through my healing ability. It was still there but fading.
Then Kane moved a smaller rock and a whole host of larger ones came tumbling toward us, piling even more weight on top of where Darius lay buried beneath the stone. Roxy screamed and lurched away before she was crushed herself. Kane andZyacursed, coughing through the dust the new rockfall had caused.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop it, you’re killing him!”
Everyone stopped. I reached out to his wrist and felt his pulse again. Even weaker.
“No,” I muttered, tears streaming through the dirt on my cheeks.
Behind me, Roxy began to weep softly, turning into her brother who closed his eyes and led them both away from the scene.Zyajust stood nearby, eyes wide and fingers flexing, waiting to jump into action at my command. But what could we do? Moving the rocks could crush him. Not moving them would suffocate him.
“No, no, no,” I said because it was all I could say. “Darius, no. Please don’t do this. I can’t lose you again. I can’t. I can’t.”
Roxy’s weeping grew louder. I was sobbing now, my whole body shaking. I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit here and let him die. I had to do something. I had to save him. I could save him. I had all my Blessings, I had my immortal life, I had my training. But I couldn’t think. I didn’tknowwhat to do. I stared down at my hands, willing them to dosomething, to help. Then I gripped his wrist, surged into him with all the healing power I could manage. His heart beat stronger for a moment but then it began to fade again and no amount of infusion of my Blessing could bring it back. I let out a sob andhis fingers wrapped around mine. I stared at our joined hands, listening to Roxy wailing behind me, Kane’s whispered attempts of comfort,Zya’sharsh breathing, and Hugh’s sniffling.
“Please,” I begged gods I knew were too cruel to hear me, to care. “Please. Please. Please!”
I screamed, slamming my fist into the rock beneath my knees.
There was another rumble and the others flinched, preparing for another rockfall, but it never came. Because the rumble wasn’t coming from the tunnel. It was coming from me.
A cloud of inky black darkness burst from my chest, streaming out like smoke to cover the entirety of the tunnel around us in a darkness so thick even I couldn’t see through it with my enhanced senses.
The force of it blew everything away from me. The shadows that had come from within me made contact with the rocks and sent them all skittering away into the dark. Only my hand, holding Darius’, kept him from being tossed along with them.
Zyascreamed but dug her nails into a crack in the wall to keep from being tossed aside as well. Zane and Roxy dove to Hugh and the three of them hunkered down behind me, waiting for the blow to cease. I watched, in awe, as the shadows crept upward toward the ceiling above, snaking through the cracks and making them wider.
I gasped, pulling Darius toward me and throwing myself over him in protection as the ceiling fell a second time, the stone above us and to our right crumbling away. I closed my eyes, waiting for the rumbling to end, shielding Darius from the worst of it as stones bounced off my strength-enhanced back. I hissed at the impact but grit my teeth and held firm over my best friend.
I felt the shadows receding a moment later. They seeped back into me, filling my chest with a strange, cool sensation as they did. I gasped as I glanced down to watch them disappear backwithin me. I had the strangest sensation, in that moment, that I was whole.
“Gods,”Zyacursed again and I realized then I was no longer the only one who could see.
Lifting my chin, I blinked against the glaring sunlight now streaming into the tunnel from where the walls had been before. Now, they were gone.
The rocks from the ceiling, from the walls, had all tumbled away entirely to reveal the daylight beyond. There was a hole only a few feet across and a few feet high, atop a mountain of piled up rock before it. The others gaped at it, stunned. Then I heard the crunch of stone under a boot and someone was kneeling down to peer through the opening from the other side.
Roxy gasped, scrambling into her stunned brother’s arms.
The stranger eyed us all in turn, gaze sweeping from Roxy, Kane, and Hugh in the corner to whereZyastood behind me, and finally to where I was hunched over Darius at the base of the stone.
His eyes met mine, a brilliant shade of blue so cerulean I knew I'd never seen anything like them before. His full lips quirked into a frown as his gaze fell to my injured friend in my arms, the friend I hadn’t yet been brave enough to assess. Silver hair fell forward in a curtain of smooth silk as he leaned forward and reached out a hand.
Blinking, I took it.
Chapter Nineteen
Dante
“If I have to burn this city to ash for it to be free of it’s blasphemy, then hand me the torch.”
