He knew my father might die here.
I can’t blame him for not telling me. He needed me focused, and if Esta had left our father’s soul where it was, there would have been no need to divulge the risk.
“We accept your challenge,” I say to Esta. “We’ll come with you to the arena.”
Esta’s hands are awash with dark power now, and I’m sure she was seconds away from releasing it to make Roman move. She lifts her chin, as if she’s satisfied with my promise, but then she gives a sly smile. “Don’t be surprised if I kill you along the way.”
“You won’t,” I reply. “Our people need to witness this fight. Otherwise, who’s to sayyoukilled us? Maybe we perished in the energy storm. Maybe we died on Stella-Astrum. Pyra-Mortem’s demons will never worship you if there are rumors that you won by accident or default.”
I play on her fear of being unloved and ignored and it works to draw her anger. Her lips draw back in a snarl that reveals her sharpening teeth. “Move!” she snaps, gesturing to the stone wall on our left. “There’s a light beam beyond the wall that will take you straight to the arena.”
She spins to Roman with a sweet smile. “Crone will be happy to see you, Lord Rune. She’s been looking forward to your downfall for centuries. Your wolf is dead, and soon your lover will be, too.”
I catch Roman’s hand before he can release the runes glowing in a circlet around his left wrist. It’s my turn to subdue his anger and give him a moment to calm down before he does something rash. Causing her death in this form won’t get us anywhere.
My biggest concern in this moment is how to protect my father.
Esta turns from Roman as if he is inconsequential and fixates on Jareth instead. “You don’t look well, Father,” she says.
Jareth’s response is strong, even though he doesn’t open his eyes and his shoulders slump even further against the prison’s wall. “You will never be Mortem’s Queen, Esta. You will never be adored.”
She screams in response, “Well, you are done being its King!”
My heart lurches as she retaliates without warning, releasing a shot of dark power that spears across the distance, directly at our father’s heart.
CHAPTERFORTY-THREE
Ilaunch myself forward into the path of the nightmare power, taking the blow across my back, the force knocking me into my father while my right hand plants on the surface of the prison.
My armor can’t protect against the strength of Esta’s new nightmare power, and a scream wrenches from me as icy pain shoots through my back.
Then my scream turns to fear, and it’s not because of Esta.
It’s the first time I’ve touched the prison since we arrived here and the moment my palm lands on it, a door appears in its wall right behind my father.
It slides open and because he’s leaning on it, he falls into the gap.
His eyes flash open at the sound of my cry and widen farther as he drops into the gaping darkness behind him.
Instinctively, I try to grab hold of him, yelling curses at the smoothness of his armor when I can’t grip it. And then…
“Nova, let me go,” Jareth whispers.
It only takes a heartbeat to process the determination and trust in his eyes and then… I do as he asks.
He slips from my hands and into the darkness and I pray I haven’t made a terrible mistake.
I leap back onto the path outside the prison before the door can close on me and trap me inside, too.
Esta’s cruel laughter rings out behind me. “Oh, dear,” she says. “Looks like you couldn’t save him.”
I step slowly away from the side of the prison, my shoulders stiff, my heart pounding. Already I’m second-guessing my choice, deep fear swirling in my stomach. “I guess I couldn’t.”
Koda races to the shining wall, beating his fists against it and raging at the prison, but I grab him. “Stop.” I seize his face and force him to look at me. “There’s nothing you can do now. He’s gone.”
Koda struggles, but I don’t let him go. “He’s at peace now, brother.”
I can’t tell Koda what I really mean, but Roman is watching me carefully and I hope he’ll know what I can’t say aloud in front of Esta.
