Just as she had begged him to stay in his dying breaths.
She turned to him.
No. Cal would not beg Adara to stay. Not when there was someone out there she could save. Cal would say togo.Cal would tell Adara tosave him.Cal wouldn’t care that Dominic was the King of Keys. He would see the good. He would think that any life is worth saving.
“No,” Adara said, turning to face her old friends. Flipping her palm up, she glanced at the scar there, the one that Dominic shared with her. “I made a promise to him. Just like I made a promise to you.” Her fingers curled into fists, a barrier to protect that sacred mark they’d given one another. “I will not break it.” Her eyes met Cal’s, and she almost melted at the sight. But there was something hard in his eyes. They didn’t reflect the kind, gentle soul that was Callan.It’s not him.“I will not stay.”
Another scream. Adara’s head whirled to the opening on the other side of the grand staircase. To the sky. To Dominic.
“Please,” Cal said, clasping her hand tighter, drawing her gaze back to him.
“You’re not them,” Adara murmured, heart breaking all over again as her hand shifted to Infinova’s hilt.
A hideous scream tore from Cal’s lips, sounding so much like what she’d heard when he’d been tortured by the Shadow Empire that she grimaced, thinking for a moment that perhaps hewasreal. Fingers loosened around her hand, falling to the ground in a helpless pile of unmoving skin and bones. Scarlet shone on Infinova. It would have been smarter to stab the creature in its chest, decapitate it, anything more. But Adara couldn’t bring herself to maim it in such horrendous ways. Not when all she saw was Callan.
She gaped at the blood on her sword, at the severed hand on the ground, at Cal’s features contorted with pain and betrayal.Run.Every instinct inside her screamed at her torun.But Adara’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of crimson pooling between them. Not black like those demonic beasts that had attacked her.
Red. Red like humans. Red like Cal’s.
She’d hurt him. She’d cut off his hand.“No,” she whispered, a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs. “Cal, I’m so—”
His expression hardened. The others stalked closer, eyes shining with predatory intent.
At once, they lunged. Adara told herself it wasn’t them and slashed with Infinova. A shriek echoed through the deserted castle. Warm liquid sprayed against her skin. But they were too much, suffocating her beneath the weight of their despair.
She choked for air, blinking through the haze of limbs.
Gone. Draven and Kiara and Fallon and Alec and Cal were gone. In their place, a powerful coil of scales surrounded her. It felt like her muscles were being flattened to mush, like her bones were splintering, like her organs would implode beneath its constricting grip around her.
Its hold loosened, barely. Adara blinked rapidly, vision fuzzy, blinding with pain. Eyes filled her sight. Four enormous bright orange eyes with slitted pupils, dark as the space between thestars, stared back at her. The serpent’s maw gaped, razor-sharp fangs glinting in anticipation.
Grateful to no longer face those she once loved, Adara grinned back with bared teeth and malice that challenged the beast’s own. She wriggled in its grasp, tugging free a dagger from the sheaths at her ribs. She angled it against its body so that when it constricted against her, it would pierce itself on the blade. Though she was nothing but a mere speck to its humongous form, her knife struck hard. It hissed, tongue flicking. Its grip loosened enough for Adara to draw her sword.
Raising Infinova high, she plunged the blade into its body. The serpent let out an ear-splitting shriek, dropping her entirely. Adara landed with a grunt, on her feet and running in an instant. She took the stairs by twos, threes, fours, muscles aching with every leaping stride.
She jumped again, aiming for the top of the landing.
Something lashed against her ankles. Adara went careening face-first to the wall. Pain cracked across her jaw, lancing through her already-injured shoulder. Scales coiled around her and she scrambled to her feet, slashing wildly with her weapon.
Screams ripped through the air.
Adara swiped with her blades, lacerating the serpent’s tail. It reared back in pain, and she ran. She didn’t need to kill it. She needed to escape, to find Dominic. To get those bloody ashes and leave. But she wanted that creature dead. It had toyed with her mind. It twisted her heart to see her friends again and have them taken away once more, all within minutes of getting them back.
Heart hammering against her ribcage, Adara sprinted down the corridor. She glanced up at the two massive pillars leaning precariously against one another. A hiss drew Adara’s attention over her shoulder. The colossal beast slithered swiftly toward her. Lifting her hands to the crumbling ceiling, Adara prayed to the gods that her magic would not fail her now.
Fire sputtered out at her fingertips. Whatever strange magic that simmered in the air of the Ruins blocked her power.Shit, shit, shit.The serpent’s massive fangs snapped at her and she dove out of the way just in time. She eyed the pillars again, leaping to her feet.Okay, new plan.Adara positioned herself by the wall that stretched down the lengthy corridor to where the bottom of one of the pillars was lodged against. She waited, heart pounding, hands trembling, breath catching in her lungs. She pressed two fingers to the pulse on her wrist, then the flame tattoo on her chest, and finally her forehead.Life, power, soul,she thought to herself.Itryla al rone yi mon taka.
The serpent charged at her. Its maw opened to devour her whole. Adara lifted Infinova and leaped toward the beast. The blade plunged into the space between its sinister eyes and she used its leverage to vault over its scaly head. It let out a high-pitched noise as her momentum yanked Infinova from its skin and its face crashed into the wall. The stone cracked, quavering with the force of the impact, shooting all the way down the corridor to the pillars. The structures groaned, shifted, and began to fall.
Muscles aching in protest, Adara pushed through the pain, running as fast as she could toward the falling pillars that would squash her like a bug if she wasn’t fast enough. She discarded her rucksack and the cloak she’d borrowed from Dominic, wishing she had time to finish the water in her canteen, to salvage the dress Dominic bought her, cherish the book and the rose he gifted her, or savor his scent wrapped around her from his cloak one last time. It felt like she was ridding herself of pieces of him as her pack and cloak hit the floor, but none of that mattered so long as she was fast enough to save him.
Dust and sand fell, its grit clinging to her face. She blinked through the particles pricking her eyes, gritting her teeth as she sprinted. The pillars loomed closer and closer to the ground,where they would strike with such force that the floor would surely collapse beneath her.
But there was a platform on the other side. A landing where stairs had once led. A gnarled tree limb that stuck out over the ledge, surrounded by sand and light.
The serpent’s hungry hiss echoed through the space as it advanced.
The floor rumbled. The ceiling cracked, bolstered only by the massive columns Adara had struck down. So close, the pillars were so close to striking the ground. And that beast was so close to catching her. Its tongue licked at her boots, playing with her. Blood rushed in her ears. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst from her chest. Adara didn’t know if she’d make it in time.
