An opening.
She runs.
She runs like something hunted.
Something broken.
Her heels slam against the stone corridor, breath tearing through her throat in ragged bursts. Blood pours warm down her side, slicking the silk of her dress, soaking the fabric until it clings to her skin like a second wound.
Behind her—Kael’s roar.
Metal crashing.
The sound of soldiers screaming, shouting commands.
She almost stops.
Almost turns.
The tether between them stretches so violently it feels like it might rip her ribs open.
Leave me.
The command is not spoken aloud.
But it rattles through her bones anyway.
She stumbles up the stairs, one hand dragging along the wall to keep herself upright. The stone scrapes her palm open, skin splitting beneath the rough surface.
Up.
Another step.
The corridor tilts sideways.
No.
Not the corridor.
Her.
Black spots bloom across her vision.
Her lungs burn. Every breath tastes like iron.
She crashes through the black iron doors, barely remembering to shove them open, and the corridor beyond blurs into shifting shadows and gold lanternlight.
The palace above feels wrong now.
Too bright.
Too quiet.
Too far away from the man she just left bleeding beneath the earth.
Her heels slip.
She catches herself against the wall.
