Page 20 of The Queen's Shadow

Arphaxad seemed to realize it at the same time she did, and he slumped down to the uneven stone floor. He winced and cradled his bad arm.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, running a hand through his soot-covered hair. “I never thought—”

“Never thought what?” Cassandra asked. Tension buzzed in her fingertips. They couldn’t just sit here. They had to do something to find a way out. Anything.

“I never thought it would end this way.”

She stared at him for a moment. “It’s not going to end this way,” she said vehemently. Rendra had to know what Amanakar was planning. Medira had to be warned, and so did Ineti. They couldn’t allow these scums of the earth to win.

“Oh really?” he said, gesturing around them pointedly. “You think there’s a way out of here?”

“We’ll figure it out,” she snapped.

“Come on, Cass,” he said. He sounded drained, beaten.

“No!” she rounded on him, indignation rising in her gut. “I have never once seen you give up before, Arphaxad. What’s gotten into you?”

He let out a bleak “ha”. “They left us to die in here, Cassandra. In fact, I’m sure they already think we’re dead. They dropped an entire forsaken mountain on us!”

Cassandra ground her teeth together. “I’ve beaten better odds before on my own,” she said. “But now I have you. That must count for something.”

His head snapped up, and he stared at her for a long moment, his gaze unreadable. Then he gave her a soft smile. “You have no idea how much I want it to count.”

Her heart gave a fierce thud, and the space between them seemed to grow smaller, until he felt too close, too intense, and she wanted to scream and cry and rage. But most of all, with the way he was looking at her now, she wanted to live.

“I will not let them win,” she said at last.

“I believe you,” he said.

She let out a cry of frustration and kicked her boot against the wall. She swore as her boot clinked against something unforgiving, something harder than the stone surrounding them, sending a shockwave of pain up her leg. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She paused and dropped to her knees, using her aching fingers to swipe at the dirt where her foot had made contact. Her heart stuttered as she revealed the first sign of hope. A small slice of black glimmered from beneath the gray soot. It was metal. Forged metal. A tiny part of a manmade frame—one of the twelve doors that had glimmered around the cavern. A door that could lead them out of here.

“It’s here!” she cried, pulling more frantically at the stones. She could see the corner of the frame pushing from the debris. Her fingers throbbed as she pulled out another rock, and the shimmering outline of the door became visible.

“What?” Arphaxad said. He pulled himself shakily to his feet.

“One of the enclave’s doors,” she said breathlessly as she hauled another stone away, praying the space wouldn’t collapse around them. “We could use it to get out.”

Arphaxad was beside her in an instant, helping her heave stones aside as quickly as he could with his damaged shoulder.

Sweat pooled down her neck, slipping beneath her grimy tunic and down her back. They had to clear enough to be able to slip through. Right now, they could see enough to push an arm through. The door had to work, had to accept them. It had to lead them out of here, away, and not tumbling out into some nameless void. It was the only chance they were likely to have.

One of the stones they tossed back shuddered, then skittered backward of its own accord and went spiraling into the rift with a sick popping sound. Arphaxad swore, and Cassandra grabbed his good arm as the bubble around them shuddered and the ground began to shift.

Cassandra’s ears popped as a wave of power poured out of the rift, forcing the weight of the mountain back. A cry of frustration tore from her chest, then changed into one of elation as the stones and rocks and earth moved outward. The entire weight of the mountain was moving.

But the power surging from the rift didn’t weaken. If anything, it got stronger. The earth shook, tossing them both back to the floor. With a ghastly crunch, the forged-metal frame bent, its sides compacting under the pressure. The shimmer within the frame flickered out for one dreadful moment, and then came reluctantly back, holding steady for one second, then two.

“We have to go now!” Arphaxad shouted as the earth shuddered again. Cassandra let out a string of expletives as he grabbed her arm, and shouting, dragged them through the door.

They tumbled out into cold, night air. Cassandra stumbled a few feet and almost lost her footing when her boot caught against something hard. Arphaxad’s fingers tightened around her arm, pulling her up and back against his chest. They stood there for a moment, staring at each other with wide eyes, breathing heavily.

A cool breeze picked up in the branches above them, and Cassandra almost laughed in delight. She’d never take something so mundane for granted again. The door had spat them out beneath a rocky outcrop, dark forest spreading out on either side, familiar pines jutting wildly into the air. Somewhere in the distance, a stream babbled its way through the night.

“We did it,” Arphaxad said giddily, giving her a stupid grin.

“And you thought we were dead,” she said, her own grin just as ridiculous.

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