The sound persisted, but its direction remained ambiguous.
“As soon as we find Caym, I will bend him to my whims,”she promised.
Doubt pressed heavy in my chest.
“We won’t fail,”she answered the unspoken question.
A chill ran down my neck. I’d always hated when Sybilla peeked into my head—the unnerving sensation had yet to grow on me. Though, Lark and I were kindred in our mission; she’d loved my son for all he was when I couldn’t.
“You have failed already.” A snarl behind us sent me and Lark spinning toward our enemy.
Before we could take an offensive position, the ground shifted beneath our feet. It cracked, and craters of molten, steaming rock formed, forcing us to leap apart. Landing hard, I crouched on a rock ledge just out of the lava’s reach as amber smoke surrounded us.
Caym stood yards away on a slab of volcanic rock and held one hand over Dritan’s mouth. In his other hand, he held a dagger dripping crimson blood.
A gaping wound on Dritan’s chest revealed his beating heart.
Sources save us.Yet they couldn’t.
He’d tear Dritan apart.
The Death Origin’s wicked grin chilled me to the bone—streaks of blood coated the matted blond locks of hair he had brushed back. His skin had worn away, revealing bone and ligament; dark claws had grown from his fingers—more monster than man.
Above the groan of shifting stone, Lark’s shriek cut through the cave.
My grip tightened on the rock. Dritan’s absent stare and lack of reaction to us told me he didn’t have long. I’d fought that fate for years—I’d known in my bones that this place would be my end if Death chose it.
Regaining my footing, I stood and leapt to the rock that Lark clung to, then steadied her. She’d never make it to the next ledge. But I could clear it. By a hair.
Jumping would give Caym too much time to act—time we didn’t have on our side.
“Dritan!” Lark shouted. Her panic did us no good.
“We will get him,” I reassured her with a hand on her back. “Focus. Stick to your plan. Make him pay.”
“Come, little Isleen, surrender the relics, or I’ll carve your lover’s heart out right here and he will breathe no more,” Caym taunted and ran his blade over Dritan’s left pectoral.
“I will surrender nothing to you,” Lark growled out with vicious intent.
Dritan jerked to free himself, only deepening the wound. Lacerations and bruises covered his skin, and his tunic was in ribbons.
I sucked in a breath, remembering the way Caym had tried to carve me up too, remembering the constant fight to get to Elsedora’s voice in that damned mirror.
Rage lit Lark’s green irises as Caym’s arm pulled back, preparing to stab through Dritan’s exposed heart.
Lark shrieked, and Caym’s dagger hand stopped, straining against her invisible hold. His mouth hung open. Our Source power could not be called here—but the carcanet’s ability took Death by surprise.
That’s it,I thought. A menacing smirk crossed Lark’s features.
“Don’t break focus,” I commanded.
I bent my knees and folded her arms around my neck, careful not to nick myself on the blade. Inhaling a deep breath of taintedair, I used every ounce of strength to jump down onto a rock protruding from the bubbling lava. Her grip tightened as we landed, her arms trembling. Caym growled, straining against her mental hold on him.
There was a path of stones to Dritan. The ground shook again, breaking the rock beneath my feet. Lark gasped and slid off my back, clinging to me to gain her footing.
“Run!” I shouted as the stones before us began breaking apart. We thrust ourselves onto each shattering stone until our feet met the larger slab where Caym still held my son.
“You are mistaken to think you can control this place, little Isleen. No one ever leaves the home of Death alive.” A voice boomed from above, as though the walls of the cave sought to decimate us, too.
