Kaelith’s body arched with a raw, strangled sound, part pain, part breathless shock.
Then the stone slammed back down with a dull, unforgiving thud.
“Fuck.” Her boot slipped in the slick sheen of Kaelith’s blood, and he collapsed back against the floor as the wind punched from her lungs.
Gasping, she looked up as his head dropped, limbs going slack. Then, the archway at the far end shuddered, and the stone above it groaned, dust billowing as the gap shrank with every heartbeat.
“Get them through the door, Bran!” Fenn’s voice boomed across the chamber. “We’ll follow!”
“Yes, Guide!” Flames burst from Bran’s skin in answer, spiraling up his arms and across his back in a roar of heat and light.
His eyes blazed, more flame than pupil, and he flung his arms wide, then swept the inferno around Taren and Elara in a sudden, searing arc. Fire swallowed them, and in a single motion, Bran hauled all of them together before the power exploded outward, lifting all three off the ground.
“Hurry!” Bran looked back, locking eyes with Rynna and Fenn across the firelit chamber.
Then he launched forward, trailing molten stone like a comet as he shot toward the closing door. And a heartbeat later, the trio vanished through the gap.
“Rynna.” Fenn’s eyes stayed locked on the space where they disappeared. “We need to help them.”
From the other side of the cavern, almost immediately, came the beginnings of elemental battle, blasts reverberating through the stone, each one accompanied by flashes of light that flickered through fractures in the walls.
“But Kaelith—” she began.
“Go,” the other man urged. “I’ll slither over when I’m ready.” He flashed her a crooked grin as electricity lit the chamber in brief, blinding bursts. “It sounds like they need you.”
“Kae.” Rynna rolled her eyes, blinking back the tears. Her throat burned. This wasn’t the time to fall apart.
“Can’t you jump him out?” Fenn’s voice cut through the thunder of flame and crumbling stone. “Or whatever you call it.”
She looked up, brows scrunching. His eyes burned with a silver predatory glow, and his fangs gleamed as they peeked out from beneath his lips.
Rynna froze, then startled with a choked inhale.
Of course.
She didn’t have to lift the stone. She could blink them straight to the narrow space just behind the falling door. Her stomach tightened at how obvious it was. She hadn’t seen it, not with the panic wailing through her veins.
“Yes,” she said, voice barely there. “But we have to gonow.”
Fenn’s hand found hers instantly, fingers encircling her own.
“You ready?” Rynna reached for Kaelith’s shoulder with her other hand. “Coming out from under the slab’s going to hurt.”
His mouth twitched. A faint lift. Then it fell again beneath the strain. “Of course, pet.”
“Okay.” She focused, drawing her Will. It was only one jump, a clean step through space, faster than the stone’s final drop. Hopefully.
Kaelith’s eyes softened as the world folded.
Even one more second with youis worth every agony, he sighed in her mind.
Then the air split open, and they were gone.
Chapter sixty-one
“Whatinthefuck...”Her eyes were wide as she dropped with Kaelith still in her grasp, bracing herself against the waves of power rolling off the battle raging from deeper within the chamber.
Beside his sagging form, her fingers flew to her belt as his head lolled.
