It joins the ache in my shoulder, the burn in my thighs. The sting of knowing I’ve used up a quarter of my time but can’t possibly have gotten a quarter of the way through this labyrinth. Now I’m stranded atop an impossible staircase while gravity corkscrews all over this room, just waiting to crush me into a paste, and maybe I’ll never see my sisters again, never earn my Grace, never see another Aethrolian sunrise, because all probability points to me dying in this labyrinth, one way or the other.
The knowledge presses into me, a hot, heavy ache that makes my head throb and my sinuses burn.
I curl tighter. Goddess, I don’t want to die. Especially not like this, with no one to even realize. Tocare.
Shaky gasps fill my lungs, my arms trembling around my knees.
I allow myself one full minute to fall apart. Sixty heartbeats, then I force my body straight, rolling onto my back to check my bracelet again. Sand falls, grain by grain, counting down to either my freedom or my failure. But I almost don’t want to look anymore. It only cranks my anxiety tighter.
Then again, I could always flip the orb, change what it shows me.
Part of me shies away from the thought, even as a hollow ache opens beneath my ribs. Maybe this would be easier if I had someone to talk to. If I had another voice filling this cavernous room. If I could doanythingbesides feel utterly alone in this place, lost and forgotten.
My fingers hover over the orb’s face. Just a quick spin, and the crystal will connect me to Amriel. I hesitate, then…
Good goddess. If I’m going to die here, I might as well have some company.
I flip the orb and the hourglass vanishes. For a moment, the crystal shows only darkness.
Then light blooms, Amriel’s face filling the sphere. His eyes widen.“Princess?”His voice sounds tinny, probably a side effect of communicating across a distance. As for the choked quality, though…
I think that’s all him.
“Hi,” I say.
The background shifts suddenly, as if he’s changing positions. He leans closer, his expression pinched.
I don’t recognize his surroundings. Wherever he is, it’s dark, the angles of his face lit by a reddish glow, his hair loose and messy around his face.
“Are you all right?” he says, all in a rush.
Ishanna help me. Maybe this was a bad idea, because his question eases something in me, a wound I didn’t even realize I was carrying. Warmth unfurls in my bones, the aches and pains draining from my joints.
“Yes,” I say. “I’m in a room where gravity doesn’t make sense, but yes, I’m all right.”
His expression changes. It actuallycrumples—or starts to, I think—but then the frame shifts, reducing everything to a blur. A second later, I find myself staring at a patch of moss. Amriel’s hand dangles into view, as if he’s pointed whatever he’s using to talk to me toward the floor.
“Amriel?”
When he doesn’t answer, I press my bracelet to my ear and make out a few wracking breaths. I look again to find his hand clenched into a tight, pale fist.
“Amriel.”
A throat clears. The frame shifts again, his face swimming into focus. This time, his expression looks smooth, contained. Well…almost. A glimmer survives in his eyes, a little too bright, a little too luminous for him to bury.
That spark pulls at me, a warm, sharp tug in my belly. “Were you worried about me?” I say slowly. “You weren’twaitingfor me to turn this thing on, were you?”
His mouth twitches. “No, of course not. I just happened to pick up my orb. I was going to move it, and then you…” He trails off, backtracks. “I was only…”
My breath catches. His floundering shouldn’t inject sunlight into my veins, yet I can’t stop the flood of warmth that overtakes me. It’s one thing to know his innermost secrets, to have his Shadow confess them to me outright. It’s another to hear the hitch in his voice, to see concerncarved across his brow. To understand that I mean something to him, however much he tries to deny it.
“So you’re saying I just got lucky?” I venture.
He exhales. “Yes. You just got lucky.”
I press my lips together. I should probably leave it alone, just let him have this, but… “Because you weren’t holing up in…wherever you are, staring at your orb, waiting for me?”
“No,” he says, clipped. “Definitely not.”
