My breathing has turned ragged. Blood is soaking the whole tourniquet.
A shadow appears at the mouth of the cave.
Gods. Please don’t let it be that hound again.
“Zaira.” Thane’s voice echoes in the cave, and I nearly cry with relief.
Oh, thank Orvena.“I’m…I’m in here!”
He hurries inside, crouching low.
“Gods, what happened to you?” He goes to touch my leg but pulls back, seeming unsure how to proceed.
“One of those shadowhounds got me with its claw.”
He tosses up an orb of gold light to illuminate the cave. I belt out a scream when I see a corpse to the left of him, resting against one of the walls.
“That corpse will have a friend if I don’t get you out of here,” he says, eyeing my thigh.
“It’s bleeding a lot,” I tell him. “But I drank a healing elixir, so it should stop soon. Where’s Rynthea and Algar?”
“Whatever you gave Rynthea worked. She just killed two more of the hounds…but not easily. They struck her again. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as the first strike.”
“And Algar?”
“He’s fine. Still a little out of it, but fine. We need to get you out of here.”
When Thane throws my arm over his shoulders and hauls me up against him, I bite back a pained cry. He crouches forward, assisting me out of the cave while keeping me close to his body.
Near the temple, I catch Rynthea sitting next to Algar. In the center of the field are five dead shadowhounds. One is so badly mutilated, I can’t tell which part is the head and which is the tail.
“How did you know what those were?” I ask as Thane guides us toward our friends.
“It’s one of Xaimur’s creations,” he answers. “Read about it during academics when I was with The Divine. Most people think they’re myths. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about how Xaimur created wicked creatures to combat Orvena’s virtue?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“Well, The Shallows wasn’t always a bad place, according to the books. This place was called Noreven once before. It was a paradise, and Orvena spent a lot of time here among the mortals. This is where Azidel resided.”
“Okay,” I reply with a groan. To keep him talking and to distract myself from the pain shooting in my thigh, I ask, “But what does that have to do with Xaimur?”
“Xaimur wasn’t pleased to know she was empowering the mortals. After all, how could he corrupt them if they were magical?” We dodge a puddle of wolf guts. “So he used his own magic to try and destroy the island, hence this massive crater we’re in. But Orvena took Azidel and hid him in a blessed temple.Thattemple.” He tips his head at Elphar’s temple, which is a short distance ahead. “Elphar was the son of Azidel, and he possessed magic, too. He traveled often and brought back a lot of food, goods, and treasure as a way to thank Orvena for protecting them. But I assume it all became too much. Xaimur kept throwing his creatures at Azidel in hopes of stealing his power. He killed off many mortals while this happened, so Azidel decided to send Elphar away from Noreven for good. No one truly knows what happened between Orvena and Azidel afterward, but what we do know is nothing created by Xaimur can enter that temple.”
“And you studied all of this?” I ask, side-eyeing him.
Thane places me on the ground next to Algar, who is resting his head on a large stone with his eyes closed. His skin looks ashen and devoid of its usual color.
“Yes.” Thane takes the wrap off of my thigh. “It’s healing. Good.”
I look down with him, watching the skin slowly stitch back together.
Rynthea lifts her head. Her chest is covered in blood, but her first wounds are slowly healing.
“Rynthea. Are you okay?” I ask.
“Stupid hound nicked me again, but I’ll be all right.” A grunt slips out of her as she wipes some of the blood off her buffers.
I put my focus on Algar. “Algar?”
