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By the time I close the door behind me, I’m already struggling to catch my breath. My heart is beating too hard. I want to scream and rage and tear the world to pieces until Elizabeth lets him go.
He was free.
Now? He might as well be dead.
No. No, no, no, no…I rake my fingers through my hair, shoving it off my face, as I lose the battle against the tears spilling over.
Have I risked my life again and again only to have Alaric back for only a few hours? Is that all the time fate has deigned to allow us?
Wiping roughly at the tears with my sleeve, I make my way downstairs and through back halls. Servants give me strange looks as I shoulder past.
I take the winding spiral stairs down, running past the training room where Cassius spent countless hours teaching me how to defend myself. My ragged breaths and pulse fight to drown the other out.
As soon as I reach the landing, I break into a run, snatching up the nearest torch and race to the end of the hall. The light chases the shadows from the hidden stairway as I descend into the lower levels.
Varin helped me once, they can do it again.
I don’t care what it takes.
Whatever they want is worth it—Alaric is worth it.
By the time I reach the landing, my jaw aches from clenching it so hard.
I let the torch fall from my hand. It clatters to the floor, rocking against the stone, as I shove through the door. I sprint down the hall of empty cells toward Varin with the familiar stench of mold and rot wrapping around me like a damp blanket.
Quietly I slip into the cell. Sweat clings to the edges of my hairline, more noticeable in the chilly air of the lower level.
A sigh slithers through the dark, radiating from all directions. Calm and cool.
The demon shifts, their glowing eyes settle on me. Pale light flickers through the bars at the top of the door, highlighting the edges of Varin’s dark, misshapen form.
“I am sorry,” they say quietly.
Fresh tears well up but I shove them away. There is no time for that.
“How do I save him?”
The demon hunches, shaking their head regretfully. “There is no way.”
My fingers curl into my palms, nails digging into the soft skin. “There has to be. What do I need to sacrifice? What must I bargain away?”
“You would not—”
I stalk forward and loom over the crouching demon. “I will do whatever it takes—damn my soul to the Otherworld if I must. Tell me and I will make it happen.”
From one breath to the next, Varin is curled, crouching on the ground—then they rise, knocking me to my back.
Long fingers with too many joints, smack down on either side of my head, clacking their taloned points against the stone. Arms that bend and twist at sharp, painful angles hold the bony body above me. Varin slowly lowers their face to mine.
“Finally, you have come to me as you were meant to,” they say. When they speak the charred looking skin wrinkles and cracks around their mouth, exposing double rows of razor-sharp teeth that jut out at multiple angles.
I stare up into coal red eyes flecked with molten amber. “You’ve hounded me for weeks to bargain with you and asked for my trust. And now when I’m—” My suddenly dry throat strangles my words, as blood rushes in my ears. “The compulsion, the oracle, and cursing Alaric—you planned everything?”
“No, do not misunderstand,” they hiss. “I sensed you from the moment you stepped foot inside this cursed place.” Varin slides back on their haunches, pinning my legs to the ground. I sit, supporting myself with my hands splayed out behind me. “For over three hundred years, you are the first to learn of my existence. Do you think that you just happened to stumble upon, not one, but two passages to my cell?”
My blood boils. I want to wriggle out from under them and leave. But I can’t. “You manipulated me,” I spit out.
“You are a rarity among humans, strong enough to withstand my powers… And I need you, Clara.”
