Holding the Oracle tightly, I engage every muscle in my body to leap safely onto Nara’s back. She launches into action,racing past the bird and back along the tunnel, back toward the light.
I can’t dismount this time to guide Nara through the bright space, which means she’s forced to slow down, padding along the rocky floor, but she lowers her nose to the ground, her breathing deepening, following the scent of the path we took before and gradually increasing her pace again.
I’m forced to close my eyes the closer to the light we get, its energy stabbing at my body.
If anything, it’s brighter than it was the first time we passed it.
A second later, I realize that the Oracle’s right arm is rising at my side, slipping from my hold and extending toward the light.
My focus flashes to her, but she doesn’t appear conscious.
Despite that, her right arm pulls toward the light, and then her upper body follows, tugging so strongly that I’m suddenly fighting to keep hold of her.
The inside of her right forearm is fully visible, and I can’t stop my furious hiss.
I was already aware of the image of the Dragonstone Blade etched along the Oracle’s arm, the golden dagger surrounded by the twining ivory ribbon made from Lethian silk, but now black runes are imprinted along the ribbon.
A blood bind!
The darkest of fae magic.
Runes etched, not with ink but with blood, binding an object to whatever dark purpose the inscriber intends.
Fuck.
It’s impossible to know what this means for the blade or for the Oracle, but if we escape this place, I have to find out.
As disturbed as I am about the blood bind, it’s the pull of her body toward the light that concerns me mostright now.
Her entire body strains against my hold, and the closer we get to the light’s bright center, the stronger it pulses toward her, reaching andpulling?—
For the briefest moment…as my eyes squeeze shut and my arms lock around the Oracle…I think I can hear…
Another heartbeat?
Then we’re past the brightest center, and Nara’s sharp growl fills my hearing. She lunges forward, racing along the tunnel, leaving the light and its unsettling energy behind.
The Oracle’s arm drops, her body heavy in my arms once more, and now I focus on keeping her and myself steady as Nara’s speed increases until I’m leaning as low as I can, the Oracle’s body plastered to mine.
The opening looms up ahead, and I prepare for the leap across space Nara will have to make from the tunnel’s exit to the nearest mountain ridge.
An airborne path that will likely take us through a renewed swarm of vampyrs and the very real danger that the Iron King will have already reached the opening.
Our chances of getting through them all are vastly reduced because I’ll only be able to use my power one-handed—if that—and my agility is enormously hampered by my precious cargo.
I remind myself that chaos doesn’t control me.
No more.
Clearing my head, I count the heartbeats as my wolf pounds toward the exit and the darkness looms ahead of us.
In those heartbeats, I ready myself, becoming aware of every part of my body, every muscle, every skill. The strength in my legs that can carry me far and fast. The magic in my left arm, gathering and ready to strike with icy precision. The power of my mind, the accumulation of strategic knowledge that has seen me through countless assassination attempts…
My right arm supports the Oracle’s back while my right hand rests at the nape of her neck, supporting her head.
My icy fingers feather her wounds, which are closed and no longer bleeding.
An awareness of the softness of her skin beneath her tacky blood.
