“No.” If the blade had been poisoned with an enchantment, that narrowed down the list of where Cara might have obtained it.
“There’s something wrong with the wound. It won’t stop bleeding. We need to know what enchantment is on the blade to save her.”
They did not need to know if I got the unmaking knife from Ander. I could cut away whatever the queen had intended for me.
“Give the draught to her.” I kept Cara’s hands still pinned to her stomach and her back against my chest so there was nowhere for her to go as she fought.
“No. Fear, please—” She sounded desperate, raw, in a way that once would’ve triggered my need to care for the little cur.
“I’ll take care of them. You can’t be trusted to take care of yourself.” My other hand caught her chin, forcing her head up against my chest. “Rest.”
The aide poured the draught down her throat. Cara fought it, some of it leaking from the corners of her mouth. I thought she was going to arch up and spit it all out, but she had been growing weaker all the time she struggled, and now she slumped back in my arms.
I carefully lowered my would-be murderer to the slab.
Once she was down, I ran.
I plunged into the labyrinth.
Because Cara was right to suspect me in one way. Her family was not my first priority.
She was.
For her own sake? For Lightbringer’s?
I had never been good at mathematics. I wasn’t going to trouble myself with those calculations.
A Casque came around the bend ahead of me.
They looked like an enormous roach. One of my mother’s favorites because fighting it felt gruesome, horrifying, and a bit undignified.
I didn’t break stride.
The sword came to my hand. The fight was both brief and far longer than I had patience for. The monster went down, and I leapt over it and kept running.
She wasn’t going to die like this, with my mother’s blade poisoning her wound, my mother’s victory poisoning her heart.
It was Anayla and Kiegan I found first. Anayla stabbed one monster as another dragged itself forward from another tunnel; she leaned into the blade still buried in one chest to stabilize herself as she kicked the other monster in the chest, and it flew toward Kiegan, who was ready with his own sword.
Kiegan drew the sword loose from the monster, ichor splattering in luminescent streaks across the floor.
“I need you to get to Ander,” I ordered without preamble. Kiegan’s head snapped up, his eyes wide. “Cara’s under an enchantment. I need the unmaking knife Ander has. Now.”
“Where is she?” Kiegan asked.
“With the healers.”
Kiegan’s brows drew together. “Is she all right?”
“If you get that knife, she will be.” I turned.
“Where are you going?” Anayla demanded.
“She needs me to fetch something else.” I turned back and kept walking backward. “If Cara wakes, tell her I’ve already gone. That I keep my vows.”
She gave me a dangerous look. “Tell me what’s happening, Fear.”
“I’ve no time.” And no inclination.
