Page 68 of In Darkness Forged

“Stay close,” he said. “It will be over soon.”

Turning his back to Aislin, Tal held the sword and dagger before him, blades crossed near the hilts. His eyes closed, his head tilted back, and suddenly the cavern was filled with light.

At first, it was only a soft, white glow—warm and unthreatening.

The tidal wave of aranthas paused. They seemed temporarily unnerved by the light, but Tal was not done.

“More,” he murmured, and the glow intensified. The veins stood out on his neck, and his lips curled back in a rictus of pain, but he did not stop.

Pressure began to build, until Aislin could feel it prickling along her skin and pressing against her ears, and was forced to close her eyes against the brilliance.

This… This must be why the other night elves regarded Talyn with horrified awe. Even wounded and at the end of his strength, he possessed the kind of power that could halt an entire army in its tracks. And yet, Aislin could not imagine being afraid of him. Even now, all of her terror wasforhim. Surely he could not hold so many enemies at bay forever, but there was nothing she could do to help him. She could only fall to her knees, listen, and pray as Tal let out a wild cry of triumph and released his magic at last.

The cavern exploded with light. Aislin quailed and hid her head beneath her arms, but even behind her eyelids, it was searingly bright. Something buffeted her, like a strong wind, but one that swirled around her with teeth and claws that did not quite mark her skin.

The ground shook, a roaring sounded in her ears, and then the wind died, leaving the cavern in silence once more.

For a handful of panting, shivering breaths, Aislin could not force herself to move. But when she heard nothing, not even a single footfall, she finally dropped her arms, opened her eyes, and blinked a few times into the relative darkness.

There was still a dim illumination rising from somewhere, enough to see that the cavern was now utterly empty of aranthas. There was no glow of eyes, nor even any remains to mark their destruction. The entire horde was simply… gone. Dissolved into nothingness by the magic still emanating gently from Tal’s sword and dagger where they lay, fallen to the cavern floor beside him.

“Tal!” Aislin staggered across the short distance only to drop to her knees at his side. She rolled him to his back and a sob caught in her throat.

His eyes were closed, his features slack. His torso was covered in blood, and when she pulled back the tattered remains of his shirt, she found dozens of wounds. Slashes, abrasions, and… punctures.

He’d been bitten. Multiple times. Together with blood loss and the draining of his magic…

“Tal,no.” His name came out as a breathless plea. A sob of anguish. He could not be dead. Pressing her fingers against his neck, Aislin lowered her ear to his chest and waited for some sign—anysign that he still lived.

A faint flutter beneath her fingertips—that was all. What had Tal said about the aranthas’ venom? It subdued their prey and was only deadly in large doses…

Aislin began to count where he’d been bitten and left off after five. It was too many—far too many—and now his magic was gone. He’d used every last drop of it to destroy the aranthas and save her life.

He’d promised he wouldn’t let her die, and he’d kept that promise, but at a cost Aislin would never have willingly paid.

Dropping her forehead to his scarred and bleeding chest, Aislin shut her eyes and let the hot, scalding tears flow unchecked. If he were awake, she would never dare come so close, never dream of revealing her heart, but now it seemed the worst of betrayals not to simply admit that he was far more to her than a companion. He was everything, and she’d barely even realized how much she needed him before she lost him.

Unless she could save him somehow. But what could she do? She had no medicines, no knowledge of the aranthas’ poison. Only… Tal’s words suddenly returned with startling clarity.

…The queen is the largest and deadliest. She is likely old and slow, but her fangs bear a venom with strange and mysterious properties. To those who are filled with life, it brings death, and to those near death, it can bring life…

The queen’s venom—thatwas what she needed to save Tal.

It was impossible. It was ridiculous. It washopeless. And she was going to do it anyway.

Moving like one caught in a dream she could not escape, Aislin took Tal’s pack, removed the rolled-up mass of her skirts, and placed them beneath his head. Then she shouldered the remaining gear, picked up the still faintly glowing dagger, and turned to face the tunnel they’d attempted only a short time before.

She would have to hope that the queen had expended all of her guards in a single attempt to repel them. That Rhone and his wildings had not beaten her to the queen’s lair and taken the prize for themselves.

And if they had… Well, she would be no worse off than she was now. She only knew that she could not live with herself after that moment if she did not try.

Talyn had sacrificed himself for her—for a helpless human—and she would not simply leave him to die.

“I’m not leaving you,” she said softly, brushing the tears from her cheeks and taking a deep breath. “I’m going to get what we need, and then I’ll come back. I’ll save you. And then we’ll leave here together.”

With a firm nod that was mostly for herself, she turned and strode off down the tunnel.

CHAPTER19

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