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Caught up in the vision of Lumi and Ealhswip, both with arms raised, fighting to control the dead, only years on the street prevented a yelp from escaping when my toe hit something soft and it moaned.
I pressed my hand over what felt like a mouth.
“Dimitri,”I whispered.
It sounded like a prayer to all lost gods.
He moved his lips beneath my hand, and I reluctantly let him go. We could never have been, and he had just married another. In my mind I held him close, kissing him in relief at finding him alive.
“Tempest?” His voice held fear, and I knew it was for me. “You cannot be here.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed my feelings. This was not the place. “For once, listen and let me help.”
He let out a low, wheezing laugh. “You were right. I cut halfway through her shoulder, and she healed before my eyes. They’re stronger than human… You were supposed to run, Tempest. I was supposed to have that one lie. To know that even though I was trapped here you would be out there living the life you wished.”
“You tried to force me away to protect me?”
He did not answer and that was enough. There was no time.
His muscles tensed as I followed his arm downward, finding his hands roughly tied.
Even in the dark, the knots barely needed a thought. Years of thieving had taught me a lot of transferable skills.
“What’s happened?” I said, forcing myself not to link my fingers with his.
“We married, the wall opened, and your councilwoman hit me in the head with her cane,” said a female voice in the dark. “If I had to hazard a guess, I would say they want to destroy that glowing thing.”
I crawled to her.My queen. His wife.Despite the words locking my breath in my chest and a petty part of me wanting to leave her here, I untied Helia von Heskin’s hands. As we got to our feet, a wall of orange and yellow flames entered the cave. Pyre had caught up.
Maksim sprinted our way while Orso threw two knives, drawing the attention of the priestesses.
The Gate’s song twisted into a scream.
Ealhswip twisted around, and I felt her attention like a blow as I ran toward the Gate with Dimitri’s hand in mine. Above, the Spirits flared, outlining Koshka moving unnaturally fast as she fought von Mekeln. The green Gate stood large enough to drive a carriage through, its twisted glass like frozen lightning or the roots of magic erupting from the earth. In front stood my sister, as if she alone could hold back the world’s dead.
The green light rippled like water, and the godlike attention I had felt in the treasury returned.
When only feet away, I saw through the green arch for the first time, and found darkness on the other side. The dead of our world pressed to get through. My sister held back the sea of swirling Spirits, her arms outstretched and straining, and I had no idea how to help. There was no knowing what would happen if the dead crashed into it after what Ealhswip had done to the sigils, but as she had summoned them here, I imagined it would not be good.
The painful wail built in my mind. The pressure forced me forward until my shoulder brushed against Lumi’s. “What do we do?”
“It’s the Gate of the Dead,” said Dimitri. “Solovyova’s legend is true. Our marriage should have strengthened it.”
“I can hear it crying for help. Whatever you did was not enough,” I whispered as my sister’s arms shook.
Maksim pressed the crowns into my chest. “I did the best I could. It’ll only last a moment so be quick.”
My arms automatically closed around the sigiled glass. “What’ll happen?”
“No idea. I hope your second crown was correct, for I know none of these sigils.”
Ealhswip was almost upon Pyre, seeming to have judged him the largest threat.
Dimitri frowned at the crown. “I felt the magic take hold of me. It should have worked.”
“I felt nothing,” Helia said from my right. “Besides momentarily blending my magic with yours.”
“Could she have gotten to it after I gave it to you?” My voice rose too high and von Mekeln turned to stare into the dark, his eyes burning. Koshka took the opportunity to pierce him through the chest. It did not even slow his next attack.
