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Even though I can’t have everything my heart might want, I’ve gotten more than I’d have ever dared to imagine. That’s some kind of gift, isn’t it?
I don’t know who I should thank for it, but I have to keep going.
Hold on to the strength and faith they offered me. Push through the agony.
Another step.
Another.
Veering around a couple of jagged chunks of marble, I reach the last stair left before the gaping hole. A faint breeze cools the sweat on my face, traveling up through the opening to mingle with the open air on the platform.
When I straighten up as tall as I can with my hand still pressed against the inner wall, I can see Wendos’s head and shoulders.
I’ve made it. I’m close enough.
Land a dagger in his back, and he won’t be tossing around any more magic.
Maybe he’ll die, but at this point I don’t feel I can be incredibly picky about how this confrontation ends. A whole lot of other people will die if he finishes the joint sorcery he’s attempting.
As I ready my hand, Wendos sucks in an awed breath. “Yes. Yes! It’s coming together— Look at all that stone coming crumbling down.”
A distant crash reaches my ears even all the way up here. I lose my breath.
It’s almost too late.
I whip back my arm and fling the knife forward.
At the same moment, Wendos takes a step to the side.
I clamp my lips against a noise of protest. The knife flies true—and smacks into the flesh of his upper arm that’s now in its path.
Wendos yelps and clutches at his arm. He wrenches out the knife and tosses it to the floor.
Julita lets out a cheer, but my heart has sunk.
It wasn’t enough after all.
“Fucking bitch,” Wendos snarls. “Pin her down. Stop her from moving. I don’t care how you do it.”
As he spits out several more words in that odd language, I’m struck again by the invisible projectiles that must be daimon. They hurl me to the side.
My chest bangs against one of the chunks of marble, the sharp edge raking down my sternum with the rasp of tearing silk. A new sting of pain flares across the skin beneath my now frayed bodice and undershirt.
The daimon heave me onward to slam me against the outer wall, swinging my broken leg so wildly I groan. Two, maybe three of them press against my body, resisting when I try to move.
No, no, no!Julita cries out, but no one other than me can hear her.
“Can we keep going?” the man on the floor asks in an unsteady voice. “The energies feel weakened.”
“I’m fine. I’m—” Wendos lets out a hiss of frustration. “I’m bleeding all over the fucking floor. How’m I supposed to concentrate— They’ll get loose. Torstem was counting on me…Fuck.”
Julita’s voice drops to a mutter.Ha. Serves him right.
I can’t see Wendos anymore, but I hear the scrape of his feet as he turns on his heel. I’d feel more victorious about his partial meltdown if his voice didn’t drop to a new frigid low.
“We’re so close. It’s happening—we can’t let the effort falter now. I need you. I needeverything. For the All-Giver, for the way things should exist, for creating the world this is meant to be.”
“We understand,” one of the women says, but I don’t, not at all.
