I grieved for her. For both of them. But we didn’t have time for feelings.
“I truly am so sorry. But we need to find a way out of here. The light will only be on our side for so long.”
The air was thick. Their mourning of the relationship they had—the truths they knew—hung heavily around us.
Lydia kept her back to us as Cova finally asked, “What do you propose we do? We don’t have keys. Everyone is dead.”
“Not everyone,” I declared, because Dommik wasn’t dead. And if Eryx and Vaspar had kept him alive, who else might be alive?
She raised a brow as I walked to the bars that separated us.
I reached through the metal and said, “Give me your hand.”
Chapter 42
Messy Business
Cova looked at my outstretched hand as if it were poisonous.
“Please, time is not on our side.”
Her eyes flicked from my palm and back to meet my gaze. Her hesitation was as plain as the imminent danger we faced.
“Please,” I urged. “I need to know. To see what happened. It might help us get out of here.”
My fingers buzzed with magic begging to be let out, like it was coming alive in her presence.
“Will it—will it hurt?” She took a step toward me.
I softened my features. “Not at all.”
Her hand hovered over mine. “What are you searching for?”
“Your necklace,” I stated plainly. It was the key to everything. “It’s important to them and if I focus on finding it, it might tell me what they’re planning.”
She froze again.
“What is it?”
“They don’t have the necklace,” she breathed.
I retracted my arm and wrapped my fingers around the gritty metal bars.
“What do you mean?” My hunger for her knowledge gnawed at my insides. This wasn’t gossip about the latest scandal over tea during a social visit. This was life and death. The possible toppling of a violent regime.
“Cova!” I yelled, making her flinch slightly.
She steadied herself, something I have never seen my infallible sister need to do before. Cova lifted her gaze to me. The light blues of her eyes were serious but soft. Vulnerable, even.
“I hid it,” she admitted so softly, I almost couldn’t hear the words over the dripping water of the dungeon.
“You what?”
“I hid the necklace from them.”
Lydia turned to face us, intrigued despite her anger.
“How?” A prickling shiver raced down my spine as I remembered his feeding on me. I shook away the memory and re-focused on what she had claimed. It didn’t seem possible.
