Page 30 of Fallacies

“Lucina.” I do my best to clear the anger from my voice. “I had eyes on you the whole time. I watched everything. I’m not allowed to intervene in Albatross, but do you really think I wouldn’t have?”

She says nothing, her eyes growing a bit heavy now that the adrenaline is wearing off. She must be utterly empty. Or as close to it as someone with her kind of power can be—I’m not sure how deep that well runs.

Lucina licks her dry lips, a kindling of anger still burning in the depths of her stare, but she doesn’t respond.

“For you?” I look down at her like she’s gone completely mad, and when I loosen my hold on her wrists, she keeps them flat in the dirt. “Fuck, Lucina, seriously? I’d do anything for you.”

It’s bitter when it leaves my mouth because that’s how it makes me feel. Raw. Vulnerable. Defenseless. It isn’t meant to be romantic; it isn’t a declaration of that kind of love. It’s a harsh and terrifying truth… the lengths I’d go to keep her heart beating.

“You are out of your godsdamn mind if you think I’d let you die in there.”

Something in her stare softens then. She swallows, licking her dry lips before parting them wide enough to say, “So, you were playing chicken with me?”

I exhale, blowing out the last of my anger.

Her words come out slower, each blink longer than the last. “Was it you who put that hatch there?” Lucina’s eyes drift closed. “Under the water,” she mumbles.

I wonder how much time she thinks has passed. Everything in Albatross is skewed, but Lucina ran Albatross in three hours and twenty-six minutes.

Seven minutes quicker than I did at sixteen.

I have no plans to tell her that.

“No, Lucina,” I huff a laugh, remembering how confidently she’d stepped off that plank. “You were supposed to jump. I could have gotten you out of there in less than a heartbeat, and believe me, there were moments when I wanted to, but you did all of it on your own. You did it perfectly.”

She cracks an eye open at that. “Even the ending?”

She must be referring to the ruins that surround us—a centuries-old maze reduced to rubble. If she has any ounce of fear, regret, or remorse, she isn’t showing it.

“The ending,” I start, “was reckless and stupid, and you’re lucky to be alive.” Grabbing her hands, I help her to her feet, switching my hold to her waist when her knees buckle.

Lucina’s head wobbles as she turns to face the rest of the coven. “Sorry about your death trap, boys,” she slurs. “Blame Devon.”

My eyes lift to his. That’s why she did that?

Hearing what he said to her pissed me off, but knowing that she nearly died trying to prove herself to him makes my blood boil. If he had just kept his mouth shut⁠—

“Callan,” Lucina exhales. She looks up at me and then down at her feet. “I can’t feel my legs.”

Right.

“Yeah, I bet.” I pull her wrist across the back of my shoulder and bend down to help her up onto my back. “You’ll need to sleep for a while, okay?”

“Okay,” she breathes against my neck, arms falling loosely around my neck.

“Cin.” I lightly tap her wrists. “I need you to hold on.”

Her elbows bend as she tightens her hold around my neck. Once I feel like she’s situated, I start walking, and my coven—who are all thankfully uninjured—follow in silence.

When we start on the path, Lucina’s head shifts, nearly sliding off my shoulder. I slow my walking to maneuver her around until she’s settled against my chest. It’s the same way I held her when I raced to the Infirmary for the antidote to the Ashvine.

Lucina’s eyes drift shut, her breaths deepening, while I fight to keep my pulse steady.

She was dying. Limp and frail and lifeless. The memory of it is violent enough that I have to force myself to focus on something else, not wanting any of my triggered panic to stir her.

The sun is in full bloom, but not nearly as hot as it was this summer. Thankfully. The trees still hold most of their color, leaves swaying with the passing breeze that jostles wind chimes somewhere nearby. The soft melody echoes through the dense forest around us as we make our way back to camp—Pax, Easton, and Devon up ahead, and Hunter and Phoenix trailing a few steps behind.

I’m doing my best to dodge the dips in the path when Lucina whispers, “Callan.”