Then I became terror-stricken, too aware that these could be our final days, perhaps even our final hours.
“What if we don’t find each other again?” I said, pulling back to scan his face when I didn’t know how many chances I had left to justlookat him. “What if we don’t recognize each other?”
“Shh.” He soothed the sharpness of my near frantic panic. “Do you trust me?”
“More than anything,” I said.
“Then fight with me one last time. I promise you we’ll reign eternally if we just win one more time.”
He was so sure and confident that it was easy to believe him. So I nodded and let Nyte raise us from the tremoring ground.
A loud crack sounded near, jolting me with alarm. We both whirled to find Nadir’s home was the cause. It was like one of the cracks in the land surged under the home then shot skyward, splitting through the tall structure.
“No!” I yelled, lunging forward with my magick priming to flood out and hold the wood together myself as Zephyr’s children were still inside.
“Astraea!” Antila’s cry of my name cooled the heat flooding through my veins.
Even though the sight of her running toward me was a relief, all of us were within the radius of the building’s collapse.
“We have to move,” Nyte urged.
I ran toward Antila. “You get Raider!” I yelled to Nyte.
I tried not to look at the massive building threatening to crush us but its groans of warning had me pushing my legs through the snow. Then from behind her, Antila was scooped off her feet by a large arm around her middle, and I was both relieved that Zath’s long strides closed the distance faster and terrified that his life hung in the balance now too. As soon as I reached them I would pull us all through the void.
But I wouldn’t reach them in time.
The building rattled and cracked and split, tumbling down rapidly. My eyes flew wide and a scream bubbled inside me as a huge piece of the structure plummeted toward Zath and Antila.
Then once again, time was held in the mercy of Kairos.
I reached Zath and Antila, touching them at the same time I touched the void, and pulled us all through it. I didn’t risk going far as I hadn’t travelled the void with two people before. We all landed in tumbling heaps as though spat out.
Scrambling to my feet, I pulled Antila into me as we both winced, curling into each other as Nadir’s home came crashing down in real time.
“Nyte!” I yelled as my first instinct to be sure he cleared the danger with Raider.
I saw him before he replied as he marched through the trees toward us. He scanned me head to toe and his expression relaxed to find me unharmed.
“You heroic fool.” Rose’s grumble was a little breathless as she caught up to us in a jog. She aimed her concern at Zath.
Zath’s grin was roguish. “You’re impressed though, right?”
“I’m impressed you’re still alive when you’re constantly chasing death.”
My sight drifted and I found Nadir a few paces away, staring at their collapsed and burning home, one hand in their pocket while the other lifted a pipe to their mouth. I wandered over to them.
“I’m sorry about your home,” I said.
Nadir blew out smoke. They were so nonchalant despite all they’d lost.
“I’ve been building this home taller each year. It was like a game to me, wondering how far I could test its stability before it would collapse on me.”
I couldn’t understand such agame.It seemed like a waste to me.
“Besides,” Nadir said, slipping me a sidelong glance. “I’m rather hoping for a place within the royal court once you take back your throne. Did you think I suffered the company of your whining and jeering companions all that time with no selfish goal in mind?” They winked and me and I smirked.
“You also aided and abetted my enemies,” I pointed out. “Don’t expect too high a reward for your help too soon.”
