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The stone floor, or what’s left of it, bucks under my feet like a wild animal, and the waist-high grass covering it seems to have come untethered. Now this strange meadow is floating into the sky, piece by piece, as though every heavy, nodding seed head is slowly being called toward the moon.
Behind Alindra, the great, dark metal door has fallen into the grass, its hinges still smoking from whatever magic they used to break it down, and there’s a human man in the doorway who’s aiming a crossbow at my head. Above us, the old god appears to have turned into a monstrous snake-thing with dozens of clawed legs, and it’s crawling out of the ruined tower even as black goo climbs up the walls and then drops to the floor, hissing with acrid smoke. I don’t know what in the screaming voids that gravity-defying goo is made of, but I know well enough to avoid it.
And Alindra appears to be on fire. Her body glows with cold silver light. I don’t need to be a magician to sense the raw power pouring out of that silver pipe and into her body. Her dark curls rise in the air all around her, drifting upward like the grass, as light pours from her eyes and mouth. She looks like a goddess. Or a demon.
I’ve been in tight spots before, and I’ve seen some weird shit. None of which holds a candle to what’s happening right now. I am so clearly fucked.
Because my escape is right there, shining with its own unearthly light. Alindra snapped it into existence like me creating an illusion daisy to tuck behind her ear. Cold air from the Lands Below leaks through the portal and pools around my ankles, carrying the scent of snow and the distant whisper of dead branches rubbing together. That’s my way out, right next to me; all I have to do is turn around and step into it.
And I can’t go. The path home is directly in front of me, but I can’t step through.
My chest feels like it’s being torn apart. Screaming voids below, Rowan, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
“Go!” Alindra says. Her voice sounds like it’s coming through sand. “I can’t hold it open forever.”
Tears stream down my face, blurring my vision. Behind Alindra, there’s a soft clicking sound as the man with the crossbow winds his bolt. The floor shudders beneath us, like an animal in pain, and Alindra’s magic outshines the moon.
She is so brave, this woman who managed to capture my heart. So brave, and so beautiful, and so agonizingly vulnerable. The man with the crossbow hasn’t fired yet, and the screaming voids know the fact that this building appears to be actively collapsing means he’s got a candle’s chance in a snowstorm of actually hitting her, but my mind still takes the time to imagine exactly how Alindra would look with a crossbow bolt through her chest.
And I can’t go through that portal.
Because I’m in love with Alindra.
I drop my hand to my side and open my palm, ready to grab Skyfire from her hip. Dimly, I wonder how much of a chance we’ll have to fight our way out before this whole tower collapses like a castle of cards.
Not that it matters. No matter what happens next, I’m going to be by her side. For however long we both have left to live.
“I can’t,” I say. My voice sounds like dead grass whispering under the moon. “I can’t leave you.”
Something explodes below us. The entire tower shakes like a rattle. The man with the crossbow screams, and a chorus of voices behind him screams as well. From the sounds of it, someone is hurt. Badly. There’s a cracking noise beside me. I turn and watch as a dozen fist-sized paving stones fall out of the floor beneath me and spin into the emptiness below. Alindra gasps softly, as if she’s in pain, and I lean forward, reaching for her. There’s a click, then a hiss, and a crossbow bolt flies over Alindra’s head.
Bastards. Rage floods my body, and I turn toward the man who dared fire at the woman I can’t leave behind, the woman I—
Alindra leaps forward, moving so quickly that I don’t have time to react before she slams into my chest and sends me stumbling backward. My skin burns as the portal closes around me. Darkness swallows me, stealing my breath. There’s one horrible moment when my body is suspended in the portal, falling backward into nothingness, my mouth open but my lungs frozen, filled with stone. My back slams into something very hard and very cold. My skull hits the ice, and then everything is black.
* * *
My lips crack open.It’s so dark I’m not sure if my eyes are closed, or if perhaps I’ve gone blind. Cold cuts through my clothes like a steel blade and rips at the inside of my throat, and my chest feels like it’s being crushed. Already, my tears are freezing on my cheeks.
Welcome home, my mind whispers, and the words feel like a knife slipped between my ribs. I press my eyes shut and think of Alindra, of her body leaping toward me, her shoulder crashing into my chest. Her weight shoving me through the portal, forcing me to leave her behind.
“No,” I whisper.
Something whimpers in response.
My eyes fly open, although it’s no damned good in the darkness of the Lands Below. I shift forward, groaning against the soft weight on my chest, then reach for my magic. With my right hand. Which I don’t have anymore.
I sink back into the snow and pull another freezing breath over my lips. Every part of my body aches. Slowly, I force my left hand to rise from the snow and concentrate my magic. Light and heat; the first things we mastered in the Lands Below.
The little golden orb I create floats gently into the darkness above me. I close my eyes again and take a deep breath as the weak heat of my magic flickers across my face. I don’t particularly want to see what that light will reveal. It feels like half my body’s been crushed. I’m not in pain, but I know enough about pain to know that serious injuries, deep injuries, don’t always sting. And this time, Rowan isn’t here to patch me up.
Rowan. My eyes burn beneath my lids. Alindra was supposed to help me find him, but now I’ve lost that chance as well.
That soft little whimper threads through the frozen air again. Is it me? I hold my breath, but the whimper doesn’t stop. If anything, it grows stronger. Very slowly, and with dread pooling in my gut like meltwater, I open my eyes.
Black curls spread across my chest. I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach as my eyes trace the familiar contours of Alindra’s soft, sweet body lying on top of mine, as my mind slowly makes sense of what I’m seeing. Rage and horror claw their way up my throat as I pull back.
“No,” I whisper.
