His baritone laugh fills the room. “I think it’s much more likely thathe’llhurtme, but sure. I’ll leave him alive. Just for you.” He grins, a fang-filled threat that makes me shiver.
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s not meant to be.” He crosses to a chest at the foot of the bed and withdraws a coil of rope, tests its strength by snapping it between two hands.
“Calen?”
“Mmm-hmm?”
“What’sthatfor?”
His gaze cuts to mine. “You want me to keep him from his mate. I’ll have to physically restrain him. Tie him up. Even that may not be enough.”
I pinch between my closed eyes and turn away. “Oh, okay. Lovely.” Whatever it takes, I guess.
My fingers tap out a rhythm on my leg as I pace. At any moment, Ravenna will appear with my means of survival.
But a minute dies away, then another, and nothing happens.
I peek through the window at the sinking sun. “What’s taking so long? How long does it take to find a rowboat?”
Calen shrugs. “Ravenna knows the Cloisters better than anyone. So…this long.”
A huff overflows my lips as my boots punch out a rhythm across the floor. I dip a hand into my pocket, cradling my gyre in my glove. I’ll be ready when Ravenna gets here. I’ll jump into the boat and hang on tight, make sure it comes with me into the labyrinth. Then I’ll paddle to shore, or jump, or whatever it takes to survive. To keep going.
To save Amriel. To free him.
A commotion rises, out in the hall. I spin toward Calen and find his expression tight.
A moment later, someone pounds on the door. “Sariah? Are you in there? What’re you doing in Ravenna’s room?”
I suppress a wince. Amriel sounds angry. Panicked.
“Sariah!” His pounding grows louder. “You’re not going back into the labyrinth, are you?”
Calen and I exchange glances.
“Because you can’t.” His voice rises to a shout. “I forbid it. I command you not to. I command you to go home, to?—”
“She’s not in here,” Calen calls. “You’re wasting your time.”
A moment of silence, then a snarl, a rattle of the knob. “I know the smell of my own mate. What’re you doing with her? Is Ravenna in there, too?”
“No. Now go away. I’m busy.”
Amriel’s snarls turn frenzied. “Why’re youbusywith my mate? Alone?” Something solid bashes against the door.
I spear Calen with a pointed, wide-eyed look. “Why’d you say that?” I whisper. “Now he’s going to break it down.”
He gives me a bored look. “He was going to break it down, anyway. At least this way, he’ll go for me, first.”
“I—” I retreat an inch. “Okay. Good thinking, actually.”
“Sariah! Let me in!” The door frame shudders beneath the force of Amriel’s rage. Each thud of flesh against wood drives asympathetic stab of pain through me, but I brace my feet, my muscles knitting as I wait for Ravenna to show.
A crack arrows down the center of the door, the wood groaning as its surrender becomes imminent.
Anticipation squeezes my airway, my pulse shortening to a rattle of jumbled heartbeats. Calen uncoils the rope and stations himself by the door, his feet braced, one massive blue shoulder lowered in readiness.
