I released her immediately.
But Veyka reached for my hand, curling it around hers and lifting it to her lips.
“I’d only be gone for a moment.”
“No.”
Her breath skittered across my knuckles. “It’s farther than I’ve ever gone before, but I can do it. What is the point of my power if not for this?”
“We agreed.” I ground out. “Together.”
The night around us was suddenly oppressive, threatening. Like the void, determined to steal my mate away from me.
Veyka pressed closer, still gripping my hand. “You cannot leave the terrestrials now. We’ve only just brought them to heel. There is an army to assemble. We must be ready.”
“Veyka—”
She squeezed my hand hard enough to break bones. “I can do this.”
I closed my eyes, because I could not bear to look at her beautiful face. To see the desire to help, to push herself, sacrifice herself, without knowing the cost…
“I know you can.”You can do anything.My forehead fell forward against hers. “But I can’t.”
We stood there, foreheads pressed together, breathing each other’s air. Reminding one another that the other was alive, and whole, and here.
I worked my jaw as another idea—new, untested and unreasoned—formed in my head. “Open a rift.”
Her chin stabbed the air. “I will be back. A few minutes, I promise. Just enough time to explain the communication crystals.”
I grabbed her arm, afraid she might disappear into the void right then. “No. That is not what I meant.” It felt like a risk, taking a hand away from her. Like she might disappear at any moment. But I forced myself to gesture to the bridge before us. “Open a rift.”
Veyka’s eyes widened. “Rifts don’t work that way. They go between the realms.”
“You command the voids of darkness. The rift will do what you command.”
Her hand slid to mine. Squeezed tightly, once.
Then she stepped free. Letting her was a physical slice into my chest, but I fought it. Watched as she curled her hands into fists at her side.
For a moment, I thought it a lost cause. That she would throw herself into the void, because it had not worked. Panic flooded through me, hot and stifling and—
The air was glowing.
Moon-white, like her hair. A pinprick of light that grew outward in a spiral. Out, and out, and out. Until the spiral was nearly as wide as the bridge. Big enough for the two of us to walk through, and shining bright with her power.
Veyka flicked her wrist, and the white light solidified. An image appeared in its center—no, not an image.
Not just a rift, but a portal.
Those were the familiar stones of the goldstone palace.
They were drenched with noxious black bile.
Vekya’s daggers were in her palms. I felt the weight of my battle axe, not even knowing how it had gotten into my hand.
No one had noticed us yet—no one appeared. But the screams were agonizing. They ripped through the portal Veyka had created, filling the air around us, echoing off the lake.
Veyka lurched forward. “Gwen—”
