Page 36 of Each Their Own Devil

Val appeared to be asleep when she stumbled into the room where he was kept behind another set of shimmering wards. He was not on the bed but the floor, with his back pressed against the wall and his long legs splayed out in front of him. A tray of uneaten food lay at the edge of the wards, bathed in red light.

“Wake up,” she snapped.

Val’s mask fluttered as he scrambled to his feet. Despite his height, the frailty of his body beneath his robes was obvious. His ribs resembled a bird cage beneath the thin fabric.

“Come to execute me after all, Lady of Wrath?” he asked. Aleja could tell that he had tried to imbue his voice with the same bored flatness the Knowing One had mastered and failed. She could relate.

“No. I’m freeing you,” she said, stepping close to examine the wards. Nicolas had said her fire would open them. “Stand back.”

“Excuse me?” Val said, but there was no time to explain. She concentrated her fire into a thin stream. As if her flames were a blade, the wards peeled back; without the layer of reddish magic separating them, Val looked even paler than before.

“That should be big enough for you to get through. Come on, we have to hurry,” she said.

“I’m starting to believe something strange is going on,” Val said, tucking his mask in close so he could get through the gap.“Where is Taddeas? The last time we spoke, he expressed doubt that I would be freed before the war ended.”

“The situation has changed. You’re needed urgently to study the Second. You won’t need boots. We’ll fly there,” Aleja said, urging him forward. Though it was obvious that Val’s time in the cell had weakened him, his long stride meant he kept up with her easily, pausing only when she stopped to open the ornate door once again.

“Fly? On an Avisai? Will they accept an Astraelis passenger?”

The thought hadn’t occurred to Aleja until now. Her heart raced so quickly that it felt like the only thing keeping her body animated. “This one will.”

“And the Knowing One?” Val asked. “I’m surprised he would let me near the Second without being present himself.”

“The Knowing One is occupied. I’ll explain on the way. Just get on the damn dragon, all right?”

As they reached the palace’s front entrance, Aleja spotted Garm in the garden through the open door. His face was turned to the skies, but all that hovered above them were clouds gradually deepening into a rich violet.

“Hurry! I could hear others behind me,” Garm barked as Aleja grabbed Val’s hand and pulled him toward the Avisai.

“Behind you?” Val asked, grinding his heels into the soil. An onion was crushed beneath his weight. “What’s going on, Lady of Wrath?”

“There has been debate among the Dark Saints over whether or not we should let you speak to the Second,” Aleja told him. “Some of the soldiers are upset with the fact that I want to free you. We’ll deal with it once you’re in the safety of the mountains. Climb on.”

Val held up his bandaged arm. At least the wrappings had been recently cleaned. “I’m afraid I can’t hold on to the reigns. And your dragon seems to want to eat me.”

She glanced to her side and saw that the Avisai had drawn its face so close that her vision was filled entirely by two rows of sharp teeth.

“Back off,” she snapped. “The three of us are going for a ride. Val, climb on behind me and wrap your arms around my waist. Garm, can you follow us from the ground?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Don’t let anyone stop you.”

“I won’t,” he told her.

“If you see Nic, tell him—no. Never mind. Keep up with us.”

Aleja pulled herself into the saddle, but when she turned to offer Val a hand, there was no need. The Astraelis man was tall enough to climb onto the Avisai’s back despite his injury. She could feel his deep heartbeat as his chest pressed against her back.

“Up. Head north,” Aleja said.

“North?” Val muttered as the Avisai groaned in protest from the extra weight and was forced into a running start off the ground. “The Second’s mountain is to the west. The Astraelis have had this intelligence since the last war.”

Aleja made a show of soothing the Avisai by stroking its neck with her left hand. They were still too close to the ground. If Val decided to throw himself off the Avisai and flee, he would survive the fall.

“Lady of Wrath?” he asked, voice lower. “Where are you actually taking me? If I’m to be killed?—”

“You’re not about to be executed,” she said as the trees below them shrank to distant specks, like a dense array of needles sticking out of the ground. “If that was the case, I wouldn’t have bothered dragging you out of your cell.”

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