Just as I’d promised.
I stopped, my face so close to his that I could feel the foul rasp of his breath against my cheeks. Sweat was beginning to bead his forehead, but there was fury in his eyes and incantations on his lips. I waited and watched as the realization dawned that
my
cage had rendered him as helpless as I’d been only moments before. The incantation became swearing. But he didn’t plead for his life, and there was hard light in his pale eyes.
“Kill me,” he spat, “and you kill the reaper.”
“Actually, no,” I replied evenly. “You see, that sword you had me throw away was his, not mine, and a reaper’s sword is designed to protect its master against all manner of evil. Including, I’m afraid, the sort of magic you’ve conjured with that cage.”
“My life force is all that holds this place together.” The slightest hint of desperation had begun to creep into his gaze. “Destroy me, and the whole cavern will fall in on you.”
“That,” I said, “is a chance I’m willing to take. Amaya?”
She chuckled softly, the sound so filled with menace even I shivered. Fingers of flame began to tease and slap
his skin, and his whole body shuddered under the impact. With every touch she tasted him, drawing his soul into her, piece by tiny piece. And all the while, my grip on his heart slowly tightened, until his expression was one of horror and he was screaming in pain.
It was enough.
As much as I’d sworn to kill him as slowly as possible, the taste of revenge had suddenly become sour.
End it,
I ordered Amaya, even as I clenched my fist and shattered his heart, killing him in an instant.
He was dead—and his soul fully devoured—before he even hit the cavern’s floor.
I half turned to see if Azriel was okay, but a powerful explosion rocked the cavern and blew me off my feet. I hit the ground hard and tumbled ass over tit several times before coming to a halt on my back.
But as I stared up at the ceiling, fighting to catch my breath and desperate to know whether Azriel was okay, I realized the ceiling was
moving
.
This whole place was collapsing, just as Mike had
promised.
Chapter 13
“Azriel?” I screamed, both physically and mentally. “Are you okay?”
There was no answer. And though I could no longer feel the barrier that had prevented us from communicating before, I couldn’t feel
him
, either. Either he was out cold or he was dead.
Fear surged and I scrambled to my feet. The air was thick with dust and debris, making it almost impossible to see. Damn it, he couldn’t be dead! Not now. Not before we’d had some chance of a life together.
Amaya, can you sense him or Valdis?
I didn’t actually wait for her answer, but dashed across the cavern, heading for the place where the cage had been. Stones began to shudder around me, the chunks getting bigger and bigger.
Something,
she said. Her flames flared to life again, this time forming an umbrella that protected my head from everything that was crashing down around us.
Right go.
I swerved that way, leapt over a boulder that landed heavily enough to make the ground quiver, and ran on. Somewhere ahead in the dust and the confusion, blue glimmered. It was little more than a flicker, feeble and not bright, but it had hope surging. If Valdis was still aflame, then surely Azriel was alive.
The rain of dirt and stone was getting heavier, and overhead, huge fissures were forming. The whole place
was getting ready to collapse. We had to be out of here before that happened. I scrambled over rocks, my gaze not leaving the flickering flame, hoping against hope that he wasn’t hurt, that he’d just been knocked unconscious.
Finally, I saw him. He was lying on his side, his face bloody and bruised, and a myriad of cuts over his torso. Thankfully, none of the wounds appeared particularly deep, and his limbs—though covered by dirt and rubble—didn’t look to be injured in any way.
I dropped to my knees beside him and roughly pinched his grimy cheek. We had no time for finesse; we had to get out of here before we were buried.
“Azriel,” I shouted. “You have to wake up!”
There was no response. Frustration and fear swirled through me. I took a shuddery breath, then brushed the hair and dust from his eyes with a bloody hand and saw the large lump on his forehead. He’d been knocked out cold.
Something cracked high overhead. I glanced up sharply and watched a fissure form in the stone overhead, then move, with ever-increasing speed, toward the center of the cavern. The ragged fingers of several other fissures were also reaching toward the center; when they all met, the whole place would cave in.
I swore and grabbed Valdis, then dragged Azriel into a sitting position and hugged him close. We couldn’t wait for him to wake; we had to get out of here.
Now.
I called to the Aedh. The magic surged around us, thick and fast, tearing us apart even as the rain of dirt and stone grew fiercer.
In particle form, I arrowed for the archway and tunnel Mike had pointed out. Though I desperately wanted to get out of here as fast as I could, the dust cut visibility down to practically zero, and the stones—while they couldn’t actually hurt me in particle form—could and did impact, and it made moving through them fucking unpleasant.
Another crack echoed loudly, and a heartbeat later
there was a huge
whoomph
of noise as half the cavern disintegrated. It fell with such force that the wind of it battered me, sending my particles tumbling for several yards. I eventually controlled it, but the air was now so thick with dust I literally couldn’t see.
I spun around, uncertain where I was in relation to the door. Panic surged, but I forced it down.
Amaya, have you any idea where the fucking exit is?
Left,
she said.
Can feel fresh air.
I was glad she could, because I couldn’t. I went left, as fast as I was able. But carrying Azriel was taking its toll on my body and my strength, and I didn’t have a whole lot of it to spare in the first place.
Bigger chunks of ceiling were beginning to rain all around us, and the nearby walls were beginning to crack as well. I swore and tried to go faster. But it felt as if I were swimming through a sea of molasses, and any sort of speed was just impossible.
Close,
Amaya said.
Try harder.
Like I wasn’t already giving it all I had? There was nothing left in the tank. There really
wasn’t
. Every particle was burning, and I very much suspected that if I didn’t get out of this cavern and find somewhere safe to shift shape, instinct would kick in and the choice would be taken out of my hands.
An archway appeared out of the gloom, but its sides were cracked and beginning to fall apart, and the whole upper section of the arch looked in imminent danger of collapse—and, in fact, did, just as I went through it.
The falling stones tore through me, and pain was a wave that threatened to overwhelm me. I kept going, needing to put as much space between me and the fragmenting cavern as was possible before my strength inevitably gave out.
The tunnel, like all the other ones in this place, had been hewn out of the earth and possessed sharp edges
that tore into my particles every time I brushed against its walls—which happened a lot. Behind me, an odd rumbling began to override the noise of the falling stones, getting louder and louder, until it almost sounded like a freight train was bearing down on top of me. The walls of the tunnel began to vibrate under the force of it, and it felt like the whole world was about to come down on top of me.
Then it did.
Air slapped me, sending me tumbling yet again as a rolling wave of stones and dust and debris began to fill the tunnel. I had little choice but to roll along with it, simply because I didn’t have the speed to outrun it.
After what seemed like an interminably long time, the force of the wave began to ease, until it was only the wash of dust that accompanied me through the tunnel. It was at that point that my strength gave out.
The Aedh magic crawled across my skin and slowly shifted both me and Azriel back into flesh form. We crashed to the grimy floor as one, his body pressed against my back and taking the brunt of the fall. I rolled off him but for several minutes could do nothing more than suck in air and thank the fates, the gods, and whoever else might be listening for letting us survive.
We might still have Hunter ahead of us, but we’d at least survived two of our three major adversaries, and that was far further than I’d ever thought we’d get.
You need to have more faith in your own strength,
came the somewhat weak comment.
Relief surged. I twisted around and flung myself into Azriel’s arms. “You’re okay,” I said, kissing his cheeks, his nose, his lips, all in rapid succession. “Thank
god
you’re okay.”
He laughed softly and wrapped his arms around me, the fierceness of his grip belying the wash of weakness I could still feel in him. “You just spent five minutes
thanking everyone imaginable for our survival, and yet you sound both relieved and surprised to hear me speak.”
“Surviving is one thing. Surviving
intact
and relatively unhurt is another.” I paused and pulled back a little. “You are unhurt, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Weaker than sin, but yes, unhurt.”
“Thank god,” I said again. I ran a finger down his cheek, creating a clean spot. “What actually happened to you and the cage when I killed Mike?”
“The cage exploded and would undoubtedly have killed me had I not had the protection of Valdis.” He smiled and kissed my fingertip. “That was a very clever move on your part.”
“I couldn’t think of any other way of getting both Amaya and Valdis inside whatever trap Mike had waiting.” I shrugged. “I’m just glad it worked out as well as it did.”
“So am I.” He kissed my finger again, then released me and pushed—somewhat gingerly—into a sitting position. “Valdis protected me from the worst of the explosion, but the force of it basically shredded her net and blew us both across the cavern. I’m not sure what I hit my head on, but the first thing I remember after that was waking to your weight landing on top of me.”
I lightly slapped his arm. “You say that like I weigh a ton.”
He smiled. “In my current condition, a feather would feel like a ton.”
My amusement fled. “How badly did that cage drain you?”
He shrugged. “It is nothing that I can’t recover from.”
“That’s not exactly answering my question, you know.”
“I know. Shall we return to the office, or the room we have acquired at the Langham?”
“My clothes are all at the café, but if you need to recharge, we’d better head to the Langham. It’s more private.”
“I do not think we should run the risk of recharging given we are little more than seven hours away from Hunter’s deadline.”
“Which is precisely why we can’t run the risk of
not
regaining our strength,” I said crossly. “Hunter will be the hardest of them all to defeat, and who knows if she’ll actually wait until eight in the morning anyway.”
And if it is Myer who watches us astrally rather than Markel, you just gave the game away,
Azriel said.
Hunter is undoubtedly aware of the fact that I have no plans to actually give her the key.
I half shrugged.
Myer will become a problem when we actually find the key. We can’t let her—or Hunter—know what we plan to do with it.
His gaze sharpened.
We know what you’re going to do with it—give it to the reapers for safekeeping.
Which was undoubtedly a sensible move except for the fact that it was never safe for something of such power to be held entirely in one space . . . My thoughts stalled.
That was
what Kiandra’s warning—that safety lies in four—had meant. If we wanted to be safe, then the key had to be broken into four pieces, with each piece being guarded separately from the others. While the Raziq were no longer a problem, there were still plenty of dark forces left in this world
and
the next that might yet discover the existence of the key and attempt to find it. But if it was split, and no one but myself and Azriel knew where all four pieces were, there was a greater chance that its existence would be forgotten.
And it is possibly an action the fates might live with,
Azriel said.
It’s not like they’ve got any other choice, given I’m the only one who can find it.
I pushed to my feet. The tunnel wobbled around me for a bit, and I flung out a hand, pressing it against the rough wall to steady myself.
Oh, they have plenty of choices, and plenty of means of getting what they want.
His tone was grim.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.
I didn’t say anything, mainly because there really wasn’t anything I
could
actually say. I offered him a hand. His fingers clasped mind and I hauled him upright, though it was touch and go for a moment whether we’d both remain upright or not.
“You’re right,” he muttered. “We cannot proceed with our strength levels this low.”
“Finally, the reaper agrees with something I say. Have you got enough strength left to get us out of here?”
He hesitated. “Perhaps.”
“Then let’s head to the room at the Langham first. At least we can recharge and shower.”
He nodded, tugged me further into his embrace, and got us out of there.
* * *
Two hours later, recharged, freshly showered, and wrapped in one of the Langham’s thick, comfy bathrobes, I made myself coffee, then moved across the room to stand at the window beside Azriel. Melbourne stretched before me, bright and beautiful at night. We were two steps closer to making that beauty safe from the shadow of hell; all we had to do now was find a key and beat a bitch with a god on her side.
I drank some coffee, then said, “We need to go see Stane. Hopefully he’s had some success in pinning down the list of possible locations.”