CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
I am so angry. I miss Lyv. And I could kill Bayne.
—Journal of Isla Jasira
The song of battle echoed through the night as we raced through the trees, dodging the silver-armored men and warriors clad in bone that crashed among them. The bellow of white bears plowed through the night as I leaped over a fallen bench and ducked behind a building.
“They can handle Nivis. Half the bears are down, and I spotted a pack of dune runners with their riders coming south when I came to find you,” Nerissa breathed next to me. “Are you sure you can get us in?”
I nodded. “Yes, but I’m sure they have it guarded tonight. Especially after the Impostor’s arrival.” I turned to face her, my voice becoming firm. “We leave them alive.”
Nerissa’s eyes were vivid. The flashes of fires among the trees danced in her green irises as her lips tilted upward for a moment in eagerness before she muttered, “Let’s go get it.”
The cries in the village above reduced to mumbled thumping and the occasional thud when we entered the underground network of ice tunnels leading to the amphitheater and Faron’s burial chamber.
Nerissa silenced the first two guards with a pinch on the neck, not making a sound, even as she slid them to the ground. We sprinted noiselessly down the long tunnel before running into four more standing guard in front of the large, carved stone door.
Shouts erupted as two hurtled toward us, their bone spears positioned overhead as they sprinted down the tunnel. With preternatural speed, Nerissa flew past me, dodging the first thrust and sending the staff of the spear careening into the nose of a guard. He fell with a thud as she slammed the base of the staff into the back of another’s head.
I leaped over his body, with Nerissa already engaging the two nearest the door. A third went down by the time I reached them.
The last remaining guard wore the skull of an amatohk and held two sharpened femurs in both hands. He swung the bones like swords, and Nerissa met them with a single curved blade, jumping out of reach as she danced around the warrior like a wolf circling a bear.
He leaped as she drew him out, spinning farther from the stone door. Her bright eyes flashed at me as she neared, and I waited for the opening I knew she’d make. She feigned a stumble back, allowing the warrior to believe he gained ground, and she ducked at his next attack, slamming her leg into the back of his knees.
I flew past them, leaped over the large form, and skidded to a slippery stop in front of the slate door. Key in hand, I slammed the diamond tip into the center of the door and murmured the memorized spell beneath my breath. The door slid open with a hiss.
Nerissa’s snarl reached my ears as the curved blade flew from her hand. Large, armored claws gripped Nerissa’s muscled shoulders as his skulled head slammed into her face. Blood spewed from her nose, dotting the ivory skull with a crimson spray as she landed a knee to his groin. His thick hand clenched Nerissa’s neck.
My heart picked up a furious beat as a tiny whimper escaped Nerissa’s lips, and his muscled hand began to squeeze. Anger and fear pulsed through my veins as I sprinted from the open burial chamber to where he held her against the icy wall, closing the gap within a heartbeat. I speared a tendril of darkness toward the guard. The Obscura snuffed out the scream that rose in his throat as I obliterated the warrior and his bone armor.
Nerissa’s limp body fell into the pile of ash left behind, and I placed two shaking fingers to her neck. A weak, subtle pulse thumped beneath them, and I breathed a sigh. I gripped her under the shoulders as I slid her down the hall and into Faron’s chamber.
I snatched the round stone holding the Advetis Bone as shouts arose from down the hall.
Fuck. Reinforcements were coming.
I scrambled to get my arms around Nerissa.
Shouts in Rhashtai rose in echoes, and I readied my darkness, waiting for the onslaught. A shadow moved around the last corner of the hall, and my heart stuttered as Vulcan’s form rounded the curve and flew to the entrance to the chamber.
“We need to go!” he shouted. His face and arms were covered in blood.
“Nerissa is down!”
His jaw clenched as he slid to a stop and knelt beside her, lifting her eyelids.
“I can carry her,” he murmured. “Nivis retreated, and they’ve found Xenelpha. Kai is on his way with at least fifty Bone Warriors.”
He swiftly tossed her over his shoulder, and we made for the exit when Kai’s dark form appeared in the doorway. His teeth flashed in a malevolent grin beneath the skull he wore as his hands gripped the smooth edges of the door.
Vulcan’s wide eyes found mine in the dimming light from the tunnel as the door swung shut. The deafening boom was nothing compared to the pounding of my heart that followed.
Trapped.
I blinked against the darkness. Pitch black.
I am not afraid of the dark, I chanted in my mind, but the blackness of this room was suffocating, and the building pressure of claustrophobia pushed on me from all sides.
