Their weight against my broken ribs was nearly unbearable, but I had to endure it. I didn’t have any other choice, as there was nowhere for me to go.
Blood still seeped from the sword puncture in my stomach. It wasn’t healing fast enough to keep the loss of blood from affecting me; numbness crept through my feet and hands while my heart gave a lurching beat.
With little sparks lighting the darkness, I tried to see beyond the rocks, but it was impossible. When I strained to hear anything beyond the shrill screeching in my ears, I detected a faint scraping sound.
I frowned as I tried to figure out if the sound was real or more strange noises coming from my battered brain. My eyes drooped as a sudden wave of exhaustion rolled over me.
I couldn’t fall asleep, but my healing body was seeking a way to nourish itself further. I had to stay awake; I had to get to Ellery.
We were at the second-lowest level of the palace when it collapsed. Not only that, but we’d fallen into the city of the dead.
When they built the castle, did they know they were doing it on top of that buried city? Or had they seen the spot and decided it was the perfect place to erect their new monstrosity?
If they had known what they were building on top of, then they were idiots. The weight of the palace might have caused it to collapse one day, even without Ellery’s explosion.
I suspected the builders hadn’t known. They’d simply chosen the best, most central location in the realm. The Heart of Stone might have helped them pick their location too; they might have felt an inexplicable pull toward it. But maybe not, I’d never felt anything until we were much closer to it.
This place, whether the builders knew it or not, possessed power, and, in a way, bound them to the gargoyles their ancestors betrayed. And now it was all in ruins, and the remnants of the palace had buried us in a town few had known existed.
What is going on outside? I wondered as I released another bolt of lightning to break apart a few more rocks. Is the battle over? What was their reaction to the palace collapsing?
Did the fight also collapse when it happened? Had the amsirah fled?
No, Tucker, Ianto, and Fletcher won’t let that happen. They’ll hold everyone together.
But who will hold the guards together?
Ianto, Tucker, Fletcher, and maybe the gargoyles would keep our fighters on the field, but no one remained to keep the soldiers united. The palace’s destruction would have rattled them.
In an instant, they’d lost everything they knew, and even with higher-ranking officials on the field, they’d be confused and scrambling. Most of them had probably forgotten how to think on their own.
If we hadn’t lost the battle before the palace collapsed, there was a good chance its destruction sealed the win for us. Or at least that’s what I hoped for, because other than still feeling Ellery’s lightning within me, it was all I had left.
That scratching sound came again from somewhere nearby. It reminded me of those fucking rats in the dungeon, and for all I knew, they were the ones creating the noise as they tried to escape the debris too.
When a rock clattered from the direction of the scratching, I increased the brightness of my lightning. It did nothing but reflect off the endless sea of rocks surrounding me.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Ryker
My chest constricted, and I closed my eyes against the crushing weight of the claustrophobia trying to grip me. This isn’t a cell. I can’t move, but I can be freed. If we won the battle, they’ll come for us.
And if we lost?
I shoved that awful, niggling doubt down deep. If I let it take hold, I’d go crazy down here. It was going to take a while for them to find us; if I went crazy now, they’d pull a blubbering disaster from the rubble, and I would not let Ellery see me that way.
I used my lightning to zap away the stones closest to me but stopped when more filled their place. A burst of dust billowed toward me, tickling my nose. I gritted my teeth to keep from sneezing; I was sure it would only jab my ribs deeper into my lungs if I did.
When the urge to sneeze finally passed, I managed a small breath and turned my head to rest my cheek against the jagged, cool rocks beneath me. I prayed Ellery was doing better, but I didn’t see how that was possible.
She was probably blaming herself for this, even though it wasn’t her fault. She’d created the blast, but she hadn’t put us here. Ivan, the duke, and all their cronies had done this.
She’d done what was necessary to keep us alive and end this bullshit. No one had known what she was capable of releasing, not even her; I was certain of that.
We’d wondered what she could be capable of, and now we knew. Except, it wouldn’t astonish me if she could do more. This was only her first major release; with time and training, she could focus her abilities into one of the most destructive forces in all the realms.
I smiled as I recalled her hovering above the ground, enveloped in white as she drew on my powers and strengthened her abilities. She’d been so fucking beautiful.
