I make a quiet promise that I will return to them.
CHAPTERFORTY
The cavern feels smaller than it did only moments ago, diminished in size as soon as Roman steps inside it. Somehow, he makes everything around him seem more insignificant. Or maybe it’s because my heart feels so full when he’s near me.
While my father and Koda proceed to the back of the cavern, Roman stops with me nearer to the entrance.
“You need armor,” he says.
His gaze follows the contours of my face before he trails his fingers through my hair and down my neck to my shoulder. At his touch, bright runes glow at the edge of my vision. My hair rapidly forms multiple braids across my head and new armor appears from my neck, glistening as it solidifies around my arms and chest and down my legs to finally finish off with boots.
Reaching for my face again, he brushes runes across each of my cheeks. At first, I think he’s giving me some kind of additional armor, but I don’t feel anything against my skin.
He holds his palm up, facing me, when he’s finished.
My reflection forms within his hand and I can’t help my smile. My eyes are now rimmed in dark kohl that tapers at the outer edges. My lips are blood-red, and my skin is dusted in violet shimmer the color of my hair.
But the starkest difference is the purple rune painted down the left side of my face, an intricate mix of swirls that follows the contours around my eye and cheek and to my jaw.
“That rune is for strength,” Roman says.
He taps his chest, and armor quickly forms across his own body before he strikes another two runes. He flings one rune to Koda and one to my father, each of whom catch them. The runes flare around their hands and spread across their arms, quickly encasing their bodies in armor.
My father is all business as he studies the runes on the clasp of Angelus Lux, but I don’t miss the way he glances a few times at the entrance. He and Mom just reunited. It can’t be easy leaving her so soon.
“In different circumstances, we wouldn’t need this weapon,” Jareth says, clearing his throat and focusing. “With my power and status as Demon King, I would normally be able to transport you through. But right now, I have neither power nor status.” He points to the symbols representing Pyra-Mortem. “This symbol appears to represent the crystal bridge, but with the gates closed, we are likely to arrive through the nearest fissure—assuming there is one.”
“The Scourge,” I say since that’s how we escaped Mortem. “There’s a crack that’s close to the bridge.”
Jareth makes an unhappy noise in the back of his throat. “The Scourge is difficult to escape from.” He taps the next symbol on the clasp. “This rune depicts a temple. There was an old temple in the Wilds near Mortem’s prison. It’s fallen to ruins now, but if there’s a crack near it, it could be our best hope.”
“Crone will sense our presence,” I say, remembering how fast she met us on the bridge the first time we arrived. “To give you the chance to get to the prison, the rest of us should distract her and Esta. Run interference. Lead them away. But… where?”
Roman is deep in thought. “I’d rather pick our battleground than allow Esta and Crone to choose it.”
“The Wilds,” I say immediately. “If the temple’s ruins are already there, then let’s lead Esta and Crone away from the city and into your territory, Roman.”
“Ever farther than that, if we can,” he says. “Into the Forbidden Lands.”
I catch my breath. The last time I was in the Forbidden Lands, I nearly died, but I was out of my element, in a territory that I understand much better now.
“Reaper is there,” I say, with a spark of hope. Still fresh in my memory is the fact that Crone had chosen a conjuring of Reaper to be killed during an earlier trial in the Elimination, but that was only after I announced my alliance with the fearsome demon wolf. It’s my guess that Crone wanted Reaper’s conjured form to be killed because she fears Reaper.
“Reaper, wild horses. Bats.” A smile grows on Roman’s face. “There are obstacles that Crone and Esta won’t see coming. Along with the hungry souls that Esta cast into those lands. We can use that environment to our advantage.”
“Then it’s decided,” Jareth says. “I will find you as soon as I regain my soul.”
“How will you know where we are?” I ask.
“Daughter, once I have my power, I will know where you are.” He hands Angelus Lux to Roman, and I wonder if this will be the last time we travel using this weapon.
I reach for Koda’s hand. I’ve managed to hold on to him during our previous journeys, and as much as I want to keep Roman close beside me, it’s Koda’s power that I’ll need to combine with my own if we find Crone waiting for us when we arrive.
Roman waits a beat as we gather in close. “Ready?”
As I’ll ever be.
The stone clicks and light fills the air around me, filling my mind and dragging me downward. The process of travel is so familiar to me now that it feels seamless.
