Page 90 of Heart of Night
“If we don’t join you by dawn, leave without us.” Myron’s words encompass every last one of my fears.
I swallow them down. If I allow myself to think about the potential consequences, I might try to talk Myron into leaving Royad behind just to make sure my mate gets out alive. Myron wouldn’t forgive me, and I wouldn’t forgive myself.
“Be careful,” Clio hisses, already halfway up the earthen wall. “I’d hate to start all over again with making an almost human friend.” Her tone is light, but the fear is written on her face as she glances back at me.
“We’ll be fine.” I wave toward the faint stars above her. “You can tell me how much you love me later. Now get out of here.”
Astorian huffs a chuckle then grunts as she lifts Silas into Clio’s arms when she reaches the top. I don’t ask him what’s so funny, simply wave at the small group and head after Myron, who’s already waiting halfway down the corridor.
“Don’t die,” Kaira calls after me in her mind, but I don’t reassure her I won’t. We all know this could be our last goodbye.
“Take care of them,” I tell her instead. Because if anything happens to Astorian, Clio will shatter, and I can’t live with that. And if anything happens to Clio or Silas… I try not to let my mind wander to all the myriad possible ways this could go wrong. How they could get caught on their way out or through the city. Instead, I focus on the tall, dark form in the half-light of the corridor, setting one foot after the other toward doom.
Myron doesn’t comment when I take his hand, following him as he leads the way down the rows of cells. So far, no one has come to check on this part of the dungeon, but it won’t be long.
Not long is exactly one turn later where two guards step into our path, their eyes wide as they take in the menace in Myron’s eyes and the long knife in my hand. My heart leaps into my throat at the sight of their sharp blades and the definite recognition in their eyes as they take in Myron’s massive form.
“You—”
“Me?” Myron cocks his head, a gesture so birdlike I can almost see the feathers spilling down his neck and back, but his appearance remains distinctly human despite the predatory demeanor. If I didn’t trust him with my life, I’d be scared shitless right now.
As are the guards. One of them opens his mouth to shout for reinforcements, but Myron’s power has already wrapped around his neck, snapping it with ease while he lifts his own sword to stab the second one in the heart. Blood pours from the wound when he pulls the blade out, letting the guard drop on top of his companion, soaking the ground crimson while all I can do is stare.
“Let’s go.” This time, Myron doesn’t take my hand, keeping both his sword and his magic at the ready, and so do I. Knife in hand and magic grazing the space for any water I can use while staying clear of the bars, I run at his side down the torchlit corridor, following the rough stone walls as we leave the cell area and continue toward a wooden door that has seen better days.
There, Myron stops, waiting for me to come to a halt beside him, and holds his finger to his lips as we both listen intently.
Silence encompasses the space, thick and looming like a predator, and that’s what scares me even more than the sound of Ephegos’s voice would have, or Royad’s screams. It’s the absolute silence of a shielded room, I realize, and there could be anything waiting behind it.
I try not to imagine Royad’s dead body or a small army assembled to welcome us. An assault of Ephegos’s magic might be enough to take both of us out with our power barely recovered and not nearly enough control to wield it like the weapon it could be.
“I don’t know what we’ll find behind this door,” Myron whispers, his focus snapping from the tortured wood of the door to my face, the utter devastation in his eyes hitting me in the stomach like a physical blow. “I can’t promise we’ll get out alive. You can still go back and run. You’ll catch up with the others before they make it to the shed.”
Lifting to my toes, I cup his cheek with my free hand and pull his mouth to mine for a whisper of a kiss. “We both live or we both die. I won’t leave without you.”
Myron’s lips mold over mine in a fierce, desperate kiss that tells me better than any words could that he feels the same way. “I love you, Wolayna Milevishja. I love you with everything I am. My dark Crow heart is yours until my last breath, be it moments from now when we walk through this door, or millennia from now when the gods get bored with my presence in this world. I’m yours.”
I trace his cheekbone with my thumb, sweeping a strand of dark hair aside as I allow his words to settle inside of me.
“As I am yours.” Those simple words are all it takes to drive a tear to my eyes—a tear I cannot afford but lift from my eye with my magic and tuck away.
Myron watches it float from my cheek into my open palm with wonder.
“Let’s save your cousin.” There is no time for big goodbyes and extensive embraces. Royad is dying behind this door, and we can’t be too late. We simply can’t. Herinor will be there to help us or not, but we can’t rely on anything other than our own strength, our own magic, to free him and make it out alive.
Myron inclines his head, face hardening into that of the relentless king I used to fear, and he draws upon his power, releasing it onto the door in one earthshaking blow.
Forty-Four
Ayna
Debris rains down from where Myron blasted half of the wall around the door, and where forbidding silence was dominating, coughs and curses now penetrate the space. My knife weighs nothing in my hand as I hold it ready to stab whoever comes at us through the settling haze.
Myron is already sneaking to the side of the opening, gesturing for me to follow. It’s clear he wants me out of harm’s way should anyone attack without seeing who actually tore down the wall. Not that I don’t appreciate his concern for my safety, but I have magic and a blade. And if one of us dies, I’d rather it be me.
“I’ve been wondering when you’d show up,” Ephegos’s voice snakes through the settling dust like a viper, making my pulse speed with fear and wrath.
He’s the one responsible for all this misery. He’s the one who kidnapped me and brought me to this palace, the one who captured Myron and Clio and Royad and Kaira. The one who didn’t care whom he damaged on his path to revenge.