82
Hours dripped by, leaking from the dark rock ceiling as I untied knot after knot. My arms were laced with fatigue like it had been sewn into my sinew.
The malevolent creature behind the rock walls scraped at the weakening locks. The pressure of its impatience clamped tightly around my chest. It hurt to breathe the scalding underground air.
It had been poking at me for hours. Its hateful tendrils slipped through the newly formed cracks and tested the sizzling riot of my blood. Its bites felt like the sting of a scorpion. After, it would yank back and watch me from its locked dungeon.
Somehow, Last was completely unaware of the creature’s presence. It didn’t bite or sting or push at her. She lay on the bone shelf, her knees up, cooling herself with a fan she’d conjured.
“Are you nearly done?” she asked.
“Nearly.”
I’d almost unraveled the entire medieval forest of locks. There was only a thin strip of knots holding the monster back.
Sweat dripped down my neck, and I wiped my arm across my forehead.
“When you’re close, we’ll get Primus and my father. They wanted to see it released. They’re just in the . . .” She cocked her head and sat up. “What’s that?”
There was a grumbling, scratching, shrieking noise. At first, it sounded like a scrambling mouse being crushed in an eagle’s talons and its death shriek as it was devoured, but then, the noise settled into the steady, rolling scrape and scuff of someone’s even gait.
Last hopped from the rocky shelf. Bones scattered, rattling loudly as they rolled across the ground. She dusted herself off and smoothed down her messy, knotted hair. She turned to face the dark tunnel, the cold smile she reserved for family pasted on.
I stopped untying knots and cast a worried glance as the creature’s malevolent pressure quieted. It drew back into its prison, listening and watching.
Up the slope of the dark tunnel, a soft blue light appeared. Behind the glow was a tall, dark figure obscured by the light.
“Someone’s coming.”
I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans.
It wasn’t Primus—this man’s walk was too loose and carefree. It wasn’t the Clark—this man was too tall and muscled. It wasn’t Jacob—my brother was slighter and had a different way of moving.
No. Even without the sudden whistled song echoing in the stone tunnel, I’d know who was making his way down into the dark.
Last stiffened at a jauntily whistled trill. Her eyes narrowed into two angry slits. Her mouth flattened and turned white at the edges. Then, just as quickly as the anger came on, she tossed her head high and swept it away. She twisted her hand and conjured a spidery black dress and wrapped her long hair into coils on top of her head. She didn’t look angry anymore—she looked terrifying.
Luvic whistled a refrain and then paused, waiting for the faint echo. He chuckled at the echo and the slow, eerie scrape. He whistled three short bursts, and then the monster tapped three times back.
He made a surprised sound and then strode into the rocky, bone-lined chamber. If he was surprised to see Last, he didn’t show it.
He looked better than when I’d left him. He was still tired, gray, and pale, but there was a spark glowing in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. He was buzzing with a hopeful energy that bounced like a rubber ball around the stone room.
When he looked at me, there was a small smile hiding at the edges of his mouth. My heart rolled and then thumped, and I swallowed the painful bumping in my chest.
He turned away from Last, moving his face into the shadows, and then . . . he winked.
It was only half a wink. Barely-there. But still recognizable.
My breath caught.
What was this?
“Husband,” Last said, her voice dripping with venom, “what are you doing here?”
Luvic turned his full attention on Last. The blue light hovering in front of him flared and glowed brighter, lighting up his Bard beauty. He gave her his brilliant Bard smile. Not many people could look into that storm of magnetic power and not fall at least half in love.
I’d always been immune, because Luvic was my friend, and I already loved him. His Bard magnetism, his Bard smile, couldn’t make me love him any more or any less.
