Page 32 of Of Sword & Silver

My palm slams against the wall and I grit my teeth, dipping into my power, my true self, for the first time in years.

“What in the hells are you doing?” Kyrie’s voice is harsh in my ears.

The word, the cave needs more. I should know.

I designed it to be this way.

I dip my fingers into the scratch the direcat gifted me until they’re warm and wet with blood, and I speak the word again, letting the power swell as I smear the fresh blood against the rock wall.

Pain shreds through me, and that, more than anything, concerns me about how long we have. It shouldn’t cost this much to use this spell.

We. Kyrie. Me.

Finally, light blazes down the length of the tunnel because that’s what this is. That’s where we are.

It is no mere cave in the Hiirek Mountains, no mere warded entrance.

“Oh, fucking hells,” Kyrie swears. Her fingers dig into my wrist, as though she’s drawing strength from my presence here. A strange thought.

The flickering blue light illuminates what was hidden, and guilt, unbidden and unusual, slides through me at the sheer terror on her face.

“You could have told me you wanted to go in a gods-damned barrow, Sword.” Her brow furrows, anger pulling her lips into a thin slash across her face. Blue wode light makes her pale skin appear ethereal, her red hair nearly purple, her pink lips now ripe as summer berries. “You thought I wouldn’t figure it out?” She gestures to the line of human skulls with rictus grins smiling down at us from their eternal perches on the walls.

“Why? Would you have decided to stay on the mountainside?” I raise an eyebrow.

“No, but you could have warned me where we were going.” She huffs and crosses her arms over her chest.

So very human.

“Then you expect too much from one like me.” I watch her carefully, but the warning doesn’t seem to register.

There’s nothing I can do to block the machinations of fate, no matter if I would prefer a different ending.

My whims and desires have never been taken into account. Why would they be now, after all this time?

Her hand tightens on my arm, forcing me to shelve my thoughts and look away from the blue-lit tunnel ahead.

“Next time, let me know what the plan is, that way I can prepare myself.” There’s a firm edge to Kyrie’s voice and I wait for the pulse magic that will make it an order, that I’m sure will follow—but it doesn’t. “That way I can help. I know you despise me, you’ve made that clear, but until we fulfill the vows we stupidly made to each other, we are partners in this. I can tell you haven’t worked alongside many, and I won’t lie, I prefer to work alone, too. But our success depends on both of us now, and I would very much like to stay alive. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”

I blink, taking in the desperation in her voice, and the fact her very mortal, very soft skin is still up against mine, warmer than the icy thin air of the barrow.

Staying alive. Is that the point?

I don’t answer her question, because I don’t think I have it.

Not anymore.

“We’ll find your cure,” I say instead, harshly, shaking her off my arm and moving forward.

Unlike Kyrie, I speak the truth.

She pads along behind me, quiet yet again save for the quick sound of her feet on the tunnel floor.

“Listen, okay, I’m sorry I touched you. And I am sure you have good reason to hate Sola’s followers and, er, trust me, murdering loads of us has crossed my mind more than once too. But we have to work together. That means telling me when you plan to go through a fucking Hiirek barrow. That means telling me you know how to light a fucking wode fire and that you have some kind of insane Fae magic. What else are you hiding?” Her anger grows more palpable with every sentence, and I round on her, suddenly furious with her judgment and her prying.

“Everything,” I tell her curtly. “I am hiding everything, and it is not for you to question.”

For a moment, the furious fire in her eyes banks at the reprimand. She’s so very, very young. She lifts her chin and her mouth opens, and I know she’s preparing to argue more for working together, for a fresh start between us, or some other foolish nonsense.

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