Page 98 of Empire of Dark

I could feel it seeping into my own lungs, weighing me down. Slowing every movement I tried to make.

“Where is it? I can’t see you through the smoke. Put your hand on my shoulder and use your finger along my neck to point in the direction of the lava.”

It took several seconds for her shaking fingers to crawl up my arm to my shoulder and her forefinger rubbed along the front of my throat to my right.

“Good. So we go the opposite of that direction.” My throat burning, I overrode the need to cough. I couldn’t let her hear weakness in me right now. “You grab hold of me and I’ll grab hold of you. Deal?”

“Y—yes.” Her voice stuttered, trying to force the one word out.

I shifted my hold on her arm down to her wrist and she wrapped her fingers around my wrist in return.

The smoke still so dense I was blinded to the point where I couldn’t even see my nose in front of me, I ignored the possibility that I could very well be leading us straight into a dead-end and I started to crawl through the rubble, pulling Venetia behind me.

The smoke invading my body, every shift of my legs went heavier and heavier, like I was being sucked down into a bog, unable to move even though I knew I rightly could.

Forward. Hand down. Left knee. Right knee. Pull Venetia with me. Again and again.

Every foot I gained—crawling over rocks and wooden beams and shattered glass and broken concrete—seemed to take forever. Time slowing around me. Venetia’s body went limp behind me, and I had to drag her with me.

I wanted to stop—needed to stop. Lie down and let the smoke have its way with me, and when the air had cleared—a day or two from now—my lungs would clear and I could get out of here. It would be easier that way.

But the heat licked ferocious at our backs and I couldn’t stop. Not until Venetia was safe. I may be able to survive lava—but Venetia would never survive it. And she was the most important thing.

I stretched out with my left hand only to lean into open air—nothing. It sent me sprawling, and I yanked Venetia along with me. Sinking through the air until I hit the angle of a floor or a wall, we fell into a roll, spinning over and over until we landed in a crumpled mess.

I blinked. Still thick black smoke surrounding us, but less so.

My brain sent directions to my arms and legs to move, but my limbs didn’t comply, my body marinated so thoroughly in smoke, my muscles wouldn’t even twitch for a very long time.

At least Venetia was atop me.

I could only pray that the lava wouldn’t flow down on top of us.

“Ada—Venetia—Ada!” The scream reached me. Damen’s voice from far, far away. Or close. I couldn’t tell how the smoke would mangle sound.

Heaven help me, please let my tongue work. I parted my lips. It seemed like they obliged. “Damen.” I choked out as much as the smoke in my lungs allowed. “Damen. Damen.”

“Ada! Where are you? Keep talking. I can hear you.”

“Here. Here. Here.” Each word excruciating, scraping up my chest to burst out in a tiny spark I hoped was loud enough. Again and again until I felt a hand brush my arm.

I couldn’t see him through the smoke, but I could feel him.

“What?” His fingers ran against my arm, then my shin. “What the hell?”

Venetia and I were in a tangled mess, but I couldn’t quite figure out how we’d landed. “Venny.”

He muttered something I didn’t understand and my eyes scraped closed.

“Ada. Ada! Are you hurt?”

My eyes popped open, not that I could see anything. I forced my mind into working.

He needed to get Venetia out of here. To do that, he had to not worry about me. “No.”

“Good.” I could feel him extracting Venetia off of me. “I need to carry Venetia out. Can you walk?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t.