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Finally, we halted. I’d hidden with Eliza in the walls to escape my reality enough times that I knew without a doubt we were in the right place.

“Knock on the wall when you’re ready,” Eliza whispered.

I nodded, and Eliza opened the wall.

I stepped out into the bleak, dank dungeon, almost directly in front of Cali’s cell. After all, most of the cells here hadn’t functioned in at least a century, now used for no more than storage—it was too much of a risk to hold offenders here. They simply went to jail to wait for their execution. Or as of late, were executed directly.

My heart broke and simultaneously mended when I saw Cali, huddled on the floor. She must have heard my steps, because she looked up, fear shifting from shock into relief when she saw me. She leapt to her feet and ran to the bars.

We reached for each other, our hands finding their way through the metal bars to hold on tight. It was indescribable, how overwhelmingly relieved I was to see her, hold her. I kissed her hands, forcing back tears for her sake.

“You escaped,” she said. She held my face as I moved closer. “Ann’s gone mad with power. She’s taken control of—” Her expression dropped to something more horrified, and I knew she’d seen the blood. “Did he try to kill you like he did Kat?”

“I wore him down with my magic before he had the chance.”

“But you’re bleeding.”

I could hear her beautiful voice, frantic in my memory, even if my ears wouldn’t allow it. It was odd how little it mattered to me that I couldn’t hear my own voice, yet I so desperately missed Cali’s. But that was the least of my worries now.

“I’m all right,” I insisted. A strange thing to say when you can barely move your arm and your eardrums have been blown to oblivion. “Though … would you mind healing my shoulder?”

Her eyes went wide when she saw it—she’d been so focused, looking into my eyes, at my face, that she hadn’t noticed the bloody mess of my shoulder. I pulled the bolt out, careful not to let blood drip, and she set to work quickly. This was time we couldn’t afford to waste. She could heal the rest of me when we were away from here. When she was safe. If only nightfall wasn’t still hours away.

She’s a knight, Beric. She can take care of herself.

Noise had so long hindered me that hearing nothing somehow felt easier to adapt to than only having one arm to fight with.

When she was done, she gently put her hands over my ears, meaning to heal them too. Part of me wanted to protest against it—I’d never felt so mentally clear, so calm, in my life, and I wanted to hold on to that as much as I could.

Although, I could do without the searing pain.

That left first, thank God, before she began knitting my eardrums back together. But she jolted suddenly, her grip becoming desperate against me.

“Someone’s coming,” she said—and this time I could hear her, though her voice sounded distant. Still it was a sweet relief that I wouldn’t be without it, in some form. “You have to go. I can get out of here myself.”

“Take your time. When it’s safe, meet me at the secret garden.” I put my fingers against her lips, to cull the protest I saw coming in her expression. Instead, she kissed them, and it made me want to hold her so badly. “When it’s safe.”

She gave my hand a last squeeze. “Please don’t get caught.”

I stepped back toward the opposite wall and knocked, just as I felt the vibration of footsteps hitting the bottom of the stairs. Eliza opened the seam and pulled me in. Cali’s look of shock and relief was the last thing I saw as I was shut away in the darkness.

My mind ran over the possibility that the footsteps belonged to a guard, coming to escort Cali to her execution. But I shook the worry away. I couldn’t let intrusive thoughts get the better of me. Except, less than an hour ago, I’d thought she was dead. And now I knew she was alive and yet she was still out of reach.

For now, at least.

I dropped the bloody bolt on the ground, sitting down across from Eliza in our little enclosure in the wall. She looked a bit sick, and I couldn’t blame her.

“I don’t think we should wait until nightfall,” I said.

“The longer we wait, the more challenging it’ll be, I know.” She sighed, weary. “Today has already been so much.”

“Rest for a little while,” I said. I opened my arms, offering her a more comfortable spot to at least try. She accepted, laying her head against my chest with a trembling sigh. “Because I think I have an idea that’ll allow you to sleep soundly tonight.”

I steeled my voice. “As queen.”

CHAPTER43CALLIOPE

I fought to even out my pulse—the last thing I wanted was for whoever entered this room to think I was afraid. To suspect that I was nervous for Beric and Eliza, just inside the walls of the dungeon. To know how angry I was, that my cousin had caused all of this to happen.