What happened to him here?
Pain encompasses my chest, squeezing my heart so hard I think it might burst. Beneath that, rage simmers. Fury and anguish mingle into one at what had been done to him.
Next, we find Nightfall. And we take Vidaris and Moros out.
I shove away the pain, needing to focus on getting us out of here.
We’ve already been here longer than we should. I want nothing more than to throw myself into his arms and bury my face in his chest, but we don’t have time for that.
His eyes are dull—haunted. Filled with an emptiness that makes my heart squeeze. It’s hard to breathe with the thick crimson rain that pours from the sky, but seeing him like this—the deep marred tissue on his wrists where the chains clamped, the small scars peppered across his face—nearly brings me to my knees.
My gaze catches on a new tattoo—a snake’s head just beneath his jaw with a body that trails down his back and disappears below his waistline.
I gasp, bile rising in my throat. He’s always prided himself on his tattoos, and this…it’s a mockery of them.
I shake my head and pull him with me. He’s slowly coming out of a daze, like he can’t figure out if I’m real or not. His feet stagger beneath him as he takes a step forward, but that’s the only movement he makes before he’s teetering sideways toward the ground.
I lunge forward, hands slipping around his waist as I pull him back up. I grit my teeth as his weight settles against me, his arm thrown around my shoulders. He grunts, muttering an apology as I fight to support his weight.
Graylen leans toward me, his hand tightening on my left shoulder as if he thinks I’ll disappear.
“How are we getting out of here, little princess?”he rasps into my mind.
There’s a fear in his eyes that nearly sends me to my knees. It sends a shudder through my body, and his hand tightens around my shoulder in response. But I have to be strong for him—strong enough for the both of us right now.
With trembling fingers, I pull out the shard with my freehand, praying my shadows answer. I’m afraid of just how much the shard took.
But if that’s what it takes to bring Graylen home, then so fucking be it.
The crimson rain begins to slow as we rush toward the rift—of course it stopsnow.
“She’s here,” Graylen’s gravelly voice rushes out loud.“Hurry.”
Anticipation licks up my spine. We have nothing to use to fight her—we’d be trapped here in her domain with nothing to defend ourselves. We’d either be dead or wishing we were.
I quickly stuff the cloth back in my vest and shove the jagged lump into Graylen’s dangling hand. His brow creases as he looks down at it, and I quickly tell him what to do next.
Extending my palm to him, I say, “Slice it down the center of my hand.” He hesitates. I push my arm closer to him. “Now, Graylen.”
There’s a shift in the air the moment we reach the rift, a slimy darkness that presses against my skull. He must feel it, too, because that’s all it takes for him to press the sharp end of the shard against my flesh and swipe it down the length of my palm.
Quickly taking it from him, I squeeze my eyes closed. My muscles tense as the familiar caress of the shard’s magic brushes against mine. With a shaky breath, I open my magic back up to it, pushing my Woodland side to the front this time.
The shard’s power rushes in once more, tendrils weaving into my soul into a messy, tangled heap.
I don’t think—don’t weigh the options like I probably should. The decision is hastily made, a sloppy choice that I might regret later. But the only other option is to stay in the Vale with Vidaris.
Once again, I feel the connection to one piece of my magic drain. I try not to think about whether this is atemporarydepletion or a permanent one.
We’re plunged into darkness, the world dark as we float into the void.
I can’t feel the ground beneath me, can’t breathe or move. But I can feel Graylen’s hand in mine. His skin pressed against mine is a beacon I cling to as we find ourselves beneath a familiar blue sky in grassy, tree-covered lands.
A bone-rattling cough bursts from my chest; the sound of Graylen beside me lets me know the same is happening to him. I can hardly breathe, gasping for breath. Fear begins to creep in, afraid of what the ramifications of traveling like this mean for our bodies.
But just as my lungs begin to empty, my knees meet the cold forest floor. My hands fly out to brace myself. I cough lightly this time, finally able to breathe better. I greedily suck in a ragged breath, the air feeling like broken glass against my throat.
Moments later, silence breathes down my neck, scraping against my ears like it’s the loudest thing I’ve ever heard.
