I nodded. “I’m still trying to figure it out, but I need to get you back first. You can’t become a Nightling.”
He looked down the hall with determination. “I’ve lost track of time down here. I don’t know how many days I have left until the tribunal is over. If I win, I’m granted permission to be reborn. Fallon, you have to get me out of here.”
Panic seized me. Were days here the same as they were for me? What if it was less? What if I couldn’t figure out how to bring him back?
Ariyon peered behind me, down the hall again, and then lowered his voice. “I overheard some of them talking. This place is full of House of Ash and Shadow descendants. Some of the ones who don’t survive the tribunal stay down here forever, but they still speak to those up top. When a Nightling is in shadow form in the land of the living, their soul body is down here, Fallon. It’s crazy. I don’t fully understand it.”
A shudder ran through me at his words. It seemed impossible, but it also made sense.
“Have you seen…” I couldn’t bear to finish the sentence, but he nodded, knowing who I meant.
“Marissa is active down here. Her mother, Amethyst Bane, runs the place.”
Amethyst Bane. The one I read about who mastered switching powers.
“What do you hear them saying?” I matched his whisper.
His face went ashen, and he collapsed back on his pillow, taking my hands into his. “Things that don’t make sense. Things I need to ask my aunt about. That the Nightlings seek permanent bodies. Ones they will get if Marissa rises to power as queen. That she needsyouto do it.”
I frowned, shaking my head to clear it. “What? That doesn’t make sense. Even if Marissa became queen, how would that give Nightlings permanent bodies?” And how did that involve me?
Nightlings fed on the blood of the living to stabilize their form and were otherwise mostly shadows. But Marissa being queen couldn’t happen. It would be a nightmare come to life!
I felt a familiar tug at my navel, and I thrust myself forward in panic, clinging to Ariyon. My bare hands on his arms combined with my emotions immediately fired up my healing power, and I watched in delight as Ariyon’s bruises and cuts mended before my eyes. He sighed in relief, looking more like the Ariyon I remembered.
“Ariyon, I’m being pulled back, but I won’t let you get turned into a Nightling. I promise,” I whispered against his neck.
He held me tightly against his chest, and I was so glad to hear his heart beating. He was alive—he was okay.
The pull on my navel was stronger now. When I pushed myself up to look at him, there was a look of confusion on his face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, as the tug at my navel grew more powerful.
“I wonder if Emmeric was real,” he muttered.
“Who?” I asked, panic tinging my voice as the pull strengthened.
“I dreamed of him. He’s an Ealdor Fae. Find him and—” His voice cut off as I was ripped from his arms.
I screamed and scrabbled at his arms, trying to stay with him, but the pull was too strong. It felt like I’d been sucked intoa wind tunnel. Before I knew it, I was on my hands and knees, panting on the grass in front of the school. Queen Solana sat beside me, watching me with wide eyes.
I peered over at her. “I saw Ariyon,” I said before I’d even gotten my breathing back under control. “He’s okay!”
She looked shocked at that news. Her Royal Guard rushed around us, barking orders and pulling blades as they tried to coax her onto a healing stretcher.
“I’m okay!” she snapped at them, still looking at me. “Fallon saved my life.” Her lips pursed as if she didn’t want to admit it.
“Fallon!” I heard Ayden’s voice from across the courtyard and craned my neck to see him running toward us, sword aloft. He was covered in blood and ash but looked unharmed.
Eden broke away from where she’d been protecting us and stepped into his line of sight.
“E!” He crashed into her as he reached her first. They embraced and pulled away smiling. I pulled on my gloves and stood, helping the queen up.
She wouldn’t stop looking at me with a quizzical gaze, as if I was some puzzle she was trying to solve.
Ayden reached me then, and I gave him both hands to squeeze, so grateful he wasn’t hurt.
“Is Master Clarke okay?” I asked him.
