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Dimitri’s reluctance to leave anyone behind traveled through our locked hands. His sense of duty. His grief for Alexei.
He would not go. Would not leave them.
We would all die here.
Koshka seemed to sense the same. “Save your girl. Your honor isn’t worth more than her life.”
Yahontov shoved forward with a guttural cry. The dead fought in silence without weapons or skill or sound. It did not matter.
A surge of protectiveness flooded Dimitri’s other emotions. Perhaps he cared about me enough to see sense.
I pulled him a step back. Then another, saying, “They’ll follow.”
After a third, he let me go with a shove.
Alone, I staggered into the cold darkness.
The prince did not need to save himself for me to get away.
But I was done running without a fight. I was not letting him go to his death again.
I clung to his hand and my magic as I sought the cracks in his obsidian walls.
“Get out of here.Run!”
A flood of power, like when I reached for the griffon, when I stopped Kirill’s heart, when I heard all of Tal, rushed from me to him, my words reverberating through the world.
Time stretched.
Magic jumped from Dimitri to Koshka to Yahontov. With a final push and wordless cry, he abandoned his sword lodged in the corpse’s chest and turned despite two more undead ripping into his back.
When I ran, they followed without choice. I had promised myself never to override the will of others. This was what Popova had wanted. The turning of men’s minds Morovara warned against. What it meant to be a mind witch.
It was not kindness, but how could more senseless death make tomorrow a better day?
With one hand on the wall, I followed pitch-dark paths, hoping only to escape. Steps pounded with mine.
“Following. Slower than us,” Dimitri forced the words out between breaths. “Hide.”
Did his wind magic tell him that?
The euphoria of overuse was already starting to fracture my thoughts as I tried to feel our pursuers.
The coldness of death chased through the winding tunnels but came no closer. The magic flinched back. I stumbled to a stop. In front—
I clutched Dimitri and Koshka’s arms.
“More. Not behind.Ahead.”
My words landed like a death sentence.
The missing priestess and a mass of freezing magic wrapped around my world. I could feel nothing beyond it.
We were surrounded.
Chapter twelve
Vanya
