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“But she said nothing else?” Ari asked. Tharion cracked an eye, fighting to stay present.
“Just that we can crash here tonight,” Flynn said, plopping on the couch beside Tharion and grabbing the remote. He flipped to some sports highlights.
“We should make a run for Tiberian or for the river,” Declan said.
“You’re not getting out if the Viper Queen doesn’t want you to,” Tharion rasped.
“So we’re trapped?” Sigrid’s voice hitched with something like panic.
“No,” Holstrom said. “But we need to think through our steps carefully. It’s a question of strategy.”
“Lead on, oh great sunball captain,” Flynn intoned with mock solemnity.
Ithan rolled his eyes, and the gesture was so normal, so friendly, that something in Tharion’s chest tightened. He’d thrown all this away, any shot at a normal life. And now his friends were here … seeing him like this.
Tharion closed his eyes once more, this time because he couldn’t stand the sight of his friends. Couldn’t stand the worry and pity in Holstrom’s eyes as the wolf took in his sorry state.
Captain Whatever. More like Captain Worthless.
* * *
The beasts were much larger, much fouler-smelling up close. Bryce’s magic sputtered as they turned her way. She teetered on the rock ledge before steadying herself.
One leap upward, and they’d devour her. Her star illuminated only the closest ones, all hissing mouths, writhing bodies, slashing tails—
She rallied her power, but … nothing. Just glittering stardust in her veins. Only enough to keep that star glowing on her chest. No teleporting, then. Could these creatures see enough to be blinded? They dwelled in the darkness. Could they have evolved past the need for sight?
The thoughts raced and crashed through her. The grate was thirty feet up—no way to go back now. And the floor of the pit was covered with these things, all smelling her, assessing her.
But not … advancing. Like something about her gave them pause.
Made. Maybe it also meant something to these creatures.
Bryce tugged the neckline of her T-shirt down, revealing the star in all its glory. The beasts shrank back, hissing, tossing massive, scaled heads. Their teeth glinted in the starlight.
A tunnel stretched on either side of the pit. She could only make out the cavernous mouths, but it seemed like this pit sat in the middle of a passage. To where, though? This was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. In a life full of stupid ideas and mistakes, that was saying something, but …
Bryce turned toward one of the tunnels, trying to better see what lay beyond. The star in her chest dimmed. Like her magic was rapidly fading. She whirled toward the other tunnel, trying to see what she could before the magic vanished—
The star flared brightly again.
“Huh,” she murmured. Bryce turned back the other way. The star faded. To the opposite side: it brightened.
Rigelus had said the star reacted to people—those loyal to her, her chosen knights or whatever. He’d also said that Theia herself had borne this star on her chest. And in this world, this home planet of Theia and the Starborn …
Bryce had no choice but to trust that star.
“That way, then,” she said, her voice echoing in the chamber. But she still had to get over the gulf of those beasts between her and the next rocky outcropping in the tunnel wall.
She’d never before wished for wings, but fuck if they wouldn’t have been handy right then. If Hunt had been here with her—
Her throat closed up. The beasts hissed, tails lashing. As if they could sense her shift in attention.
Bryce focused on her breathing, as she’d learned to do in the wake of losing Danika, as she’d learned to do in the face of all those Vanir and Fae who’d sneered at her. The star kept glowing, pointing the way. The creatures settled, as if her emotions were theirs.
She willed herself to calm. To feel no fear. The creatures settled further. Some laid their heads down.
She glanced at the star in her chest. Still glowing brightly. They are your champions, too, it seemed to say. The star hadn’t been wrong about Hunt. Or Cormac.
