The commander’s eyes widen, his tongue darting out and licking his lips in a salacious grin. They fire arrows at him, but he avoids every one. I used to say Stellan had nine lives, but I think he’s on number four hundred and fifty by now.
"Catch me if you can!" Teases Stellan, cackling like a madman and drawing back towards me and out of their sight as the remainder of the army barrels towards the Forest. He winks at me. "Don't move. Not for a while. Give me time to draw them out."
"No!" I beg, as he holds my head between his hands and kisses my forehead.
"It has to be you to take that stone back. It doesn't matter how many times you tell us how to open the doors, we won't remember. We’e as thick as pig shit. I’ll see you later, Rennalya, I promise.”
I rake my hands through my hair, distraught. I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to either of them now. I just hope they can hold them off until Rexxan arrives.
* * *
I watchand wait for the cover and the silence of nightfall before pulling myself up a few more branches and plucking the stone from where Stellan said he'd leave it. Quietly, carefully, I make my way down to the forest floor, an arrow nestled in my bow. Only the sound of my breath fills the cool but stagnant air. It's eerie, a disconcerting silence settling around me and prickling my skim.
Even the birds have fled.
I breathe in slowly and make a run for it, bursting out of the clearing and into the field.
"Where do you think you're going?" Snaps a voice, and my heart skids to a halt. I turn to see a hunter aiming a crossbow at my head.
Only a fool would take on the Shadow Commander in an archery match. He's quick, but I'm quicker, and he's dead before he can pull the trigger.
With that, I sprint across the fields. My legs must be being driven on by some divine force because I ran out of energy about two days ago. Still they push me on, and I look over my shoulder to see four soldiers and a fucking wolf close behind me.
I push myself further, the hidden door to the Vault looming nearer. But the footsteps behind me are nearer too. Twenty dead guards lie at the entrance, so I launch myself up the rocks to pull the hidden lever myself, all but throwing myself back down the rocks to the grass below. I’ve broken my fingers, but I don’t care. Not now.
"My lady," says a Vault Guard, as I run through the now-open door, faced with the second door and the twenty unharmed guards behind the first. There is no one outside to shut the first door with the lever, and I know I’ve unintentionally killed these guards.
"They're coming," I whisper, starting to slide all the bolts into place. "They're fucking coming!"
"You can do this, Commander," reassures a guard. They don't know the code, only the five Kings and Queens, and now me. I slide the last lock into place as the first of the Cataclysmic Hunters arrive.
Nothing happens.
I slam my shoulder at the door, sharp pain shooting across my arm.
"Why isn't it opening?" I shout, looking over my shoulder as they come through the first door into the Hall of the Gods. I slam my broken fist against it, my heartbeat spiralling out of control. "Why isn't it fucking opening!"
"Keep trying," begs the guard from Hela's Kingdom, desperate for his family back home. "Don't stop to fight them, we'll handle it."
I check all thirty-two of the bolts as an arrow lands in the neck of the Ocean Guard beside me. She drops to the floor, her blue eyes now a lifeless grey. Guilt punches me hard in the gut. I block out the chaos as they crowd to defend me. Obviously, I've got this wrong. They’re breaching the hall, and fear has me in a chokehold. Every breath feels like needles in my chest. My violently shaking fingers slide the twentieth bolt a fraction to the left and the door clicks open.
"Go, we've got it under control!” Shouts Espan's guard, roughly shoving me through. Sorrow weighs me down, because I know they will be his final words. The iron door slams shut and I hear him scrambling the locks from the other side. I’m safe. My vision blurs and I press my forehead against the next door, fighting unconsciousness.
I have to do this.
The sooner I do this, the sooner I can find and help Stellan and O.
"You're doing incredible," urges a guard on the eighth door. "Keep going."
I nod, reciting all twenty of Rexxan's titles over and over in my head to keep myself conscious and calm. I killed those twenty guards at the second door.
I had no choice.
But I killed them.
It wasn’t my fucking fault.
It wasallmy fault.
