Page 228 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“Is there another way?” I barked, fear climbing into my bloodstream despite every ounce of Paladin training. We were taught that fear was the soul’s parasite. But this? This was survival.

“There has to be⁠—”

A wall of water slammed into us, hitting the side of my neck and face, nearly throwing us off the ladder. I grabbed Freya’s tac suit and held fast, shoving myself between her and the torrent. Her breaths came in quick, controlled pants as she wiped water from her eyes.

“Think, Freya!” I shouted, blinking through the relentless torrent. Already, a solid six inches had collected on the floor. The spiders that had solidified out of nowhere were now crawling across the skulls beneath the arch of water, all moving toward the end of the hallway. “There has to be another way up!”

“Yes, but you’re not gonna like it.”

“What else is new?”

“Good point!” She swung around the ladder, splashing down. I followed, stunned when she darted back to the treasure trove and started tossing weapons. A bow. A quiver. Knives. A rock?

No time to think on that one as she tucked it away, because she slammed the vault shut, turned the key, and broke into a sprint.

We nearly slammed into the wall as she banked right. I followed, taking a wave of water straight to the face.

“The gates will all begin to close!”

“I am not drowning in my ancestor’s crypt!”

“I don’t care if your fucking pants ripped!”

She sprinted toward a twelve-foot wall with a ledge above it. No shadows. No wind. No time. Just cold stone and rising water.

Freya turned back to look at me, scowling at whatever she saw. “We are not dying today, Prince.”

“We need to climb up?”

When she just nodded, I gauged the distance, the roar of my blood in my ears beginning to beat the thunderous downpour into submission. Impossible. At least for me.

“There’s not another way?”

She shook her head. “Up and out.”

“I won’t reach it once you’re up there.”

“Come on, I have a plan.” She grabbed my shoulder. “Lift me?”

“So you can leave me here?!”

“Life for a life, right?” she said, but I remembered the way she’d screamed my name before the spiders materialized.

My name.

I tucked that away for later.

“Nice, Freya. Drowning wasn’t on my list of desirable deaths.”

“It’s just hyper-aggressive hydration! You’ll be fine. But fucking hurry.”

Water up to my calves, I bent and boosted her up. She scrambled over the ledge, laid flat, reached⁠—

But I was right. She couldn’t reach me.

“Go!” I shouted. “Call us even.”

Her brow furrowed, insulted. But she vanished in the next breath.