Noah held his gaze. “That was understood from the outset.”
Keir studied him for a long moment, searching for something in Noah’s face. Whatever he found there seemed to satisfy him. He gave a slow nod. “Then I need you to promise me something.”
His voice dropped, rough with emotion he was clearly unaccustomed to showing. “Whatever happens tonight. Whatever becomes of me, or this fortress, or The Keeper himself, promise me you’ll protect her. Not just tonight. Always. That you’ll put her happiness above everything else, including your own.”
The weight of Keir’s words pressed down on Noah’s shoulders. This wasn’t a man seeking reassurance. This was aman preparing for the possibility that he wouldn’t survive to keep his own vigil.
“On my life,” Noah replied. “I promise.”
Keir held his gaze a moment longer. “Good. Because she deserves someone who sees her. Lovesher, not for what she can do for them. Just her. I’ve watched what’s grown between you. For me to say I trust you with her happiness is no small thing. Your love for her is the only reason I agreed to help you.”
He turned back to the corridor and continued walking. “Quiet now,” Keir warned, his voice low. “If there are guards posted farther on, we don’t want them anticipating our arrival.”
They continued deeper into the maze, their torches casting a slow-moving orb of light in the blackness. Noah counted new intersections, marked them with more scratches on the walls, and fought the growing dread that they were running out of both time and corridors.
Then he heard it.
Faint. Almost imperceptible beneath the echoes of dripping water and the whisper of their own movement. A rhythmic sound, like footsteps.
His hand shot out, gripping Keir’s arm. “Listen.”
They both stopped, hardly daring to breathe. Noah realized the footsteps were not approaching. They weren’t rushed or getting louder. They were measured and steady, more like…pacing. Back and forth, back and forth, muffled but unmistakable once he’d caught it.
Keir’s eyes widened. “That way.” He pointed to an extremely narrow passage on the left, one they’d nearly passed.
The passage curved sharply,then straightened into a corridor that ended at a heavy wooden door reinforced with iron bands. A single guard sat on a stool beside it, head drooping, a half-eaten crust of bread forgotten on his knee.
Noah didn’t hesitate. He tossed his torch aside and closed the distance in four strides. Just as the guard’s head snapped up, mouth open in surprise, Keir was already there, clamping a hand over his face as Noah drove him off the stool and onto the ground. The man struggled, clawing at Keir’s grip, but a precise blow from the pommel of Noah’s sword had his eyes rolling back. He went limp.
Noah’s hands shook as he searched the guard’s belt and found a ring of heavy iron keys.
Behind the door, the pacing had stopped.
“Skye?” He kept his voice low but urgent. “Skye! It’s Noah. Can you hear me?”
He heard a sharp intake of breath from the other side. “Noah?” Her voice came through the wood, urgent and disbelieving. “How did you...? Noah, you can’t be here. If they find you?—”
“Stand back from the door.”
He fumbled with the keys, his fingers clumsy with urgency, and jammed the first one into the lock. It wouldn’t turn. The second either. Nor the third. The fourth grated, caught, and then turned with a grinding screech that seemed to echo down the corridor like a scream.
He shoved the door open and the torchlight from the outer corridor spilled into a cell barely larger than a horse stall. Rough stone walls, a narrow cot, a bucket in the corner. The single torch bracket near the door held nothing but a cold stub.
And standing alone in the center of the narrow space, Skye.
With one faint whimper she flew into his arms, clinging to him with frantic strength. Beneath it all he felt her tremble.
“Skye,” he cried, unable to hold her close enough no matter how hard he tried.
“Go, Keir,” he said without loosening his grip on her. “Quickly. Find Taran and Finn. We’ll be right behind you. Follow my scratches on the wall back through the maze. We’ll meet you near the base of the stairs.
Keir hesitated only a heartbeat before disappearing back down the corridor, taking one of the torches with him.
As the sounds of Keir’s footsteps faded, Noah buried his face and his sob of relief in her mass of tangled hair. “I was afraid I wouldn’t?—"
“I thought—” They spoke at the same time, her voice catching against his shoulder. “They said you’d be gone by dawn. That I’d never?—”
“I know.” He kissed her neck. Her cheek. “I know. But I’m here. And I’m not leaving without you.”
