“Run!”she yelled.
I could feel the stones rumbling beneath my feet.Some were falling away into the abyss.
Darion got to his feet next to me.He could barely stand.He quickly glanced at Elena, then at me.He didn’t look afraid.He looked resolved.He mouthedgoodbyeto me as a golden light shimmered around him, then disappeared.
An instant later, he and Elena appeared on solid ground past the south edge of the bridge.Darion crumpled to the ground in a heap.He had pulled Elena off the bridge in the blink of an eye.He had saved her life.
The entire bridge shifted downward, so I turned to run.The north side was impossibly far away.I sprinted as fast as I could.As the stones began to fall, I made one final leap.
I reached out.
The bridge crumbled beneath me.
I hit the side of the cliff, desperately grabbing for any handhold.I slid a long way before my arms wrapped around a tangled root that had been unearthed as the stones around it crumbled.I turned my head to see the entire structure falling into the chasm.After standing for ages, Titan’s Span was no more.
Tumbling downward amid the rubble was the woman-beast Syra, her howl muffled by the awesome, terrible sound of the collapse.She bellowed the entire way down, and then her cries stopped abruptly as she hit the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below, huge stones and debris falling on top of her.
For a fleeting moment, the world was deathly silent.
I clung to the side of the cliff, breathing hard, trying to gather my wits.
“Cas?”Elena’s voice called out, echoing off the cliffs.“Cas!”
“I’m here!”I yelled back.I twisted around to see her standing on the southern cliff above what used to be the start of the bridge.
“Cas, thank all the gods!”Elena cried out joyfully.“I didn’t know if you’d made it.Can you climb up?”
I looked upward.The edge was only about thirty feet away.There were plenty of handholds above me, though I didn’t know if they were stable.“I think so.”I paused, desperately afraid to ask the next question.But I had to know.“Is Darion okay?”
“I can’t wake him up.”
Deep breath.Try not to panic, Cas.
“Keep trying,” I called out to Elena.“I’m going to try to climb.”
“I will.”
Slowly, gingerly, I tested each foothold and handhold.Some were stable.Many were not.I had multiple false starts on my way up.I had finally just found a viable path when I was hit quite suddenly with the full force of the thrumming.
“Elena!”I cried.“The null field is back!Watch out for the Sentinels.”
Chanting rose from somewhere above me, cold and inhuman.The sound of boots on stone echoed through the valley.My heart stopped.The Sentinels were already here.
Elena screamed—a sound from my nightmares.I twisted my head but could see nothing.And then she went quiet.I could barely contain my terror as I raced to the top of the cliff, scarcely caring if a handhold or foothold gave way.I reached the top at the northern edge of the chasm.Jagged stones poked out where the bridge used to be.
I peered toward the south edge.
Elena and Darion were gone.
Chapter forty-three
The Chase
Ifelltomykneesat the edge of what remained of Titan’s Span.My worst nightmare had come true.The people I cared for most had been captured or worse, and I was powerless to stop it.The pain in my chest was a real, physical thing.
But I had to keep going.I had totry.
I ran to what remained of the north tower and scaled the structure.Stones shifted as I climbed, but I ignored the danger.At the top, I peered south.Not far down the path, a group of Sentinels marched.In the middle, Darion and Elena rode on horseback, tied up and bound to their horses.
