Page 93 of Of Serpents and Ruins
The handle refused to turn. It was locked.
Of course it was.
"Hey!" I banged my fist against the door. The cold metal greeted me. Stopping then, I pressed my fingers against my scalp, remembering what Elias had said. "No one can hear us."
"Probably not." Brandt’s eyes shuttered. "I'm sorry, Stella."
"Elias gave me…" My hand reached for the charm and met only warm skin. Ihlkit! I dropped my head to my chest.
"What?"
"I just…" I shook my head. "I thought I had a way to get help."
"They'll be here in the morning."
I stared at the black iron-bound door, my jaw set. Then I spun on my heel and charged toward the lancet window. My hands struck the window ledge. Rain spattered beyond the overhang.
"I don't recommend you try climbing out there again," he said. "That's a sheer drop at least a hundred feet on this side straight into the ocean. Even with years’ experience, I wouldn't recommend those waters at this time in this weather."
More tears choked me. Shaking my head, I hugged myself tight. The cold wind made my skin prickle as it howled through the windows.
"Looks like you're stuck with me till morning," he said, "but you don't have to worry about me hurting you or anything. I'm completely tied down."
I dashed the tears from my eyes once more. This was wrong on so many levels, and that low rumble in his voice made me go weak in the knees.
"I'm not afraid of you hurting me. I just… There has to be someone we can talk to who can figure out something."
"We have figured out something." He gave a small shake of his head. "Hm."
"What?" I kept my hand pressed to my temple.
"Do you remember our last night together?"
"In the grotto?" I left my hand up, unable to look at him. "When I told you that there was no way that this ended except in death?"
His shoulders lifted. "That wasn't actually the part I was remembering." His smile went crooked.
My heart raced faster. Highlights of memories swept along my mind, fragments and sensations, but that dream and memory ended with the knowledge that I had to die. At the time, I'd believed with my entire being that this was it. Yet here I stood.
I turned my face toward the window.
"We made love one last time," he said. "Right in that cavern."
"And what does that have to do with anything?" I refused to look at him, staring instead into the darkness beyond the window. Indigo-black waves with lilac foam crashed and rolled in the sea beyond.
That low chuckle of his followed. Soft. Intimate. Underpinned with sadness. Almost as if he were whispering in my ear. "I tried to take you against the amethyst, but we had to keep stopping and find a place where the geodes wouldn’t scrape you. We wound up on the stone beside the river, and I thought I could make love to you all night, but the grief… It was so intense. As if we were both being dropped from a great height and crushed all at once. I felt like I was drowning. All I could think about was the fact that, in a matter of hours, you would walk to your death, and I couldn’t save you. I had to let you go. It was all I could think about as I held you for what I thought would be the last time."
I shuddered, closing my eyes as if that could block the memory from returning.
The heat of his body against mine.
His tongue pressing between my lips.
The taste of salt from tears and sweat.
Frantic in our need for comfort and release. Desperate to make the seconds last forever. Clinging to one another and mourning the loss that was yet to come.
"I made you shake and scream. You made me howl. I kept thinking this can’t be the end. How could someone so perfect…sowondrous…so beautiful… How could my mate have to lay down her life like this?"
