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“Daj,” she whimpered. “It’s m-m-my foot. It’s stuck.”
No. A sick rush of bile burned my throat. A few more violent quakes and she’d be buried. No matter how desperately I pleaded with the isles, they would not cease the movement. It was becoming clearer, a different power, a different glamour was at play here.
“Saga.” Ari tossed me the heirloom sword. He maneuvered to his knees and started to slide through the hole.
“Ari, no.”
He paused, only long enough to flicker a quick grin. “Back in a moment, sweet menace.”
A promise was buried in his words. A promise we both knew he couldn’t keep, yet it mattered little. Either Ari or I were going in that damn hole, and the only reason it was him was due to those long, bleeding Night Folk legs.
His mussed head of golden hair disappeared into the burrow. I closed my eyes, pleading to the night for his return, for my girl to be unharmed.
Gods, one more cruel shiver of the bedrock and they’d be trapped. My family, the two people I cared most for in the whole of the world, would be lost to me. Hot tears of hate, of fear, of regret, scorched through my veins.
Davorin was my tyrant. I’d brought him back. In more than one way I could not help but feel as though this scourge, this pain, was the fault of my foolish young heart. To think, I once thought I knew love with that bastard.
The love I had now with Ari, all I’d ever known before my husband was mere infatuation.
I took Ari’s place at the top of the hole and blinked through the billows of falling dirt as Ari skidded his way toward Mira. How long had she been trapped in the dark? The trolls could burrow away from the cave in, but Mira could’ve been trapped there if Rune and Gorm had not sent the signal.
“It looks to be the ankle,” Gorm said plainly.
He was flat and direct in most cases, but I’d known Lord Gorm long enough now to catch the flickers of anxiety in his tone. It was there. He valued the little princess. Not only because she was a royal and Gorm honored the royal house, but he . . . he truly cared for her. Like a strange, gentle uncle who never understood the meaning of her jokes.
I lifted the lantern, feeding more light to the darkness. Pebbles and bits of dirt struck my face. I didn’t blink. I hardly breathed until Ari reached Mira.
She sobbed and gasped. Danger was all around, but he took a few breaths to wrap her in his arms, to kiss her head, to assure her he’d be there.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said.
Ari slapped a heavy mound of dirt. “Get out Dunker. Damn troll. They’re still hanging around as if that’s useful.”
No doubt, the trolls could not stomach leaving their royal charge. Still, it would’ve made a great deal more sense if their hefty claws dug out, came to warn us, or dug a new hole to better reach Mira.
The ground shook, enough Ari had to brace against the dirt cavern walls. He hunched over Mira, creating a shield over her small body. Gorm’s heavy palm gripped my lower leg when the edge of the burrow gave and nearly tossed me down the flume with the rest.
“Mira,” Ari said when the shudder lessened. “I’m going to lift this stone, and I need you to move.” He held up a hand. “No, I know it hurts, but we cannot stay here. You are strong, like warriors. Besides, think of how you’ll be able to boast of your strength the next time you see those pesky twins.”
Mira coughed, and if I had to guess, she almost laughed. It was a delight of her existence to prove to the Eriksson twins she was brave and cunning.
“Ready. One,” Ari braced his shoulder under the stone. “Two. Three.”
He grunted and the stone shifted. Mira cried, gasping, but dragged herself away until another angry quake rocked the ground.
“Ari!” I stretched my arms into the tunnel. “Hurry, gods, please hurry.”
In the next breath, Ari scooped Mira up, he maneuvered her onto his back. “Head down, Mira. Keep your head down.”
His fingers dug into the walls of the tunnel. I cursed and stretched out my hands as the sides gave slightly against the quaking. Gorm held my ankles, but I leaned deeper into the tunnel, desperate to get my hands on them.
“Go to Maj,” Ari commanded. “Mira, go, go.”
She reached her skinny arms over his shoulder. Our fingers hooked, then slid apart. Ari cursed, his muscles flinching as he held steady on a ledge of the tunnel, trying to balance and ease Mira toward the surface without falling backward.
“A little more, my girl.” I was practically tumbling into the tunnel. If not for Gorm, I would spill over the side.
Mira slapped for my hands, sobbing, but in the next attempt her palm landed against mine. I pulled her up the side. Gorm pulled my legs. Like a rope of bodies, we dragged Mira free of the tunnel. She collapsed in fitful tears against my chest.
