Page 44 of Tethered Thrones

“There is something here.”

Chapter 14

Kiar

Above ground was complete pandemonium. The humans all fought each other, rabid. Bracken, Clem and I were forgotten as we hid in the branches above them. Just as well. There was no way that I could fight now. Not when Sun was gone.

Not when they’d fallen and the earth had collapsed on top of them…

“He's weak,” Clem said, his voice in a panic. “He's fading.”

He was shaking so hard that I could see his red light flickering from the corner of my eye but to my surprise, it was not from fear, but from anger.

“Where were you when Sun was stabbed?!” he suddenly demanded. “Why was no one there to protect him? There are three of you!”

“Clem!” Bracken warned.

“No. He's right,” I agreed. “We failed him.”

And now Sun was dying somewhere below ground with no one but Hadi to keep him company.

It was obvious that Hadi had warmed to him, that perhaps he was starting to feel for Sun the way that the rest of us did.

That was little comfort.

If Sun was dying, then I should have been there, holding his hand.

“What about your damn visions?” Bracken demanded. “Surely Tsuki should have warned you about this!”

“She didn’t!” Clem wailed. “I saw our allies rising, humans, horses, nocs. She showed me the future should we succeed?—”

Frustrated, Bracken shot into the air before he could finish, immediately exposing our position.

Arrows flew at him from the commotion below. A moment later, Clem barely escaped being hit. Then, to my surprise, an arrow cut clean through his wing, and he flicked it off like it was nothing more than a gnat. I watched, enthralled as the red light intensified around the wound and quickly closed it like nothing had happened.

Was that Clem's power growing? I wondered. Or was it Tsuki's eclipse?

“There!” Bracken shouted, pointing.

I followed his gaze, suddenly seeing the fissure he pointed to. One large enough to take us in even though it wasn't the one that Sun and Hadi had fallen into. No, that one was sealed shut.

The moment my eyes landed on it, Bracken swept down, scooping me up like I was weightless and diving down toward it, Clem following tight on his heel.

Without hesitation, he threw himself–and subsequently me–into the pitch-black hole.

A moment later red light flooded it as Clem entered behind us.

We landed on the uneven earth, quickly looking around with disappointment to see that there was nowhere to go. It was simply a hole. A few cracks ran through it but nothing large enough to crawl through and when Clem's light shone into the spots, there was only more dirt anyway.

“Dammit all!” I cursed, hitting the wall. “Sun needs us.”

“We'll dig through to them!” Bracken suggested and without even knowing where to start, he dug his large fists into the muddy walls.

“There's no need.”

The quiet sound ofHadi'svoice stopped us all dead.

Looking around, there was no sign of where his voice had come from.

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