My gaze drops to his hands. I hate that it does. I hate that I’m looking for a grenade or a gun—Gaea only knows how he’d have procured himself one.
When I look back at his face, grief shades his features. A beat of tense silence echoes against the sunburnt limestone before he says, “I’d do it again, you know.”
“What would you do again?” My voice is thready with the emotion I’m desperately trying to suppress.
He gives me a heartbreaking smile. “Come into your life by any means possible.”
Someone sniffles behind me. “What?” I hear Calanthe hiss. “That was really sweet.” Under her breath, she huffs, “And my emotions are heightened because ofyourbabies.”
I’m not pregnant, yet my emotions are all over the place.
“I hope…” Reeve stares down into the mine like it’s calling to him. Like he’s suddenly developed vertigo.
“Reeve?” The runes on my neck begin to burn like they’ve caught fire.
He glances back up at me, licks his lips, then looks back down.
“Don’t you dare!” I whip my palms to blow him away from the mine’s entrance just as the ground shudders.
My knees buckle, and I pitch forward.
So does Reeve.
Except he doesn’t smash into the ground as I do. No, he tumbles right into the mine. I scream his name as I scramble to my feet. I’m again brought down by a tremor.
I twist around and snarl, “Tarian, stop!”
A deep furrow grooves his brow. “I’m not doing anything, Elle.”
“Well, someone fucking is.” The instant I get my feet under me, the earth moves, sending me hurtling down. I growl, “I swear to Gaea?—”
“Elle, I think itisGaea who’s keeping you down,” Calanthe whispers softly. “The ground under us isn’t moving.”
I suck in a startled breath, blinking down at the gritty soil beneath my palms and knees. Though it hums, it doesn’t shake. I inch my fingers forward. When it stays still, I edge my knee.
I succeed at crawling forward a full foot before a tremor rolls through the earth, tossing so much sand into my startled face that I cough out what feels like a lungful.
Once my hacking subsides, I sit back on my heels. All is once again still.
“You’re really not doing this, Tarian?” My throat burns so hard that my voice is a mere squeak.
“I swear, I’m not.”
I swallow. Why is Gaea keeping me away from Reeve? What is she doing to him?
I rest my hands on my knees and squeeze the bones as I look toward the dark mouth that swallowed Reeve whole.
My lips shape a silent plea:I forgive him. Please forgive him too.
Chapter 64
Reeve
I’m in freefall, and then I’m not.
And then I’m landing, not face-first but feet-first, like some invisible wind is blowing against my body and tilting it upright.
When the soles of my high-tops—which Electra restored and returned to me—kiss the stone, the air rushes out of me.
