Page 77 of Wicked Prince of Shadows
“What?” He dropped to his knees at the edge and reached for me, his arm stretching across the final gap between the column and where I knelt on the bridge. More vines swiped around his waist. The eels tried to chase them off as he strained for me.
The ground trembled. Pebbles and rock chips clattered free, careening off the stone ribbon into the chasm below.
My eyes widened.
She was trying to get up!
Another wail tore through the air as the blood moon rose higher, bathing the land in dull red light.
My heart dropped.
An icy hand wrapped around my forearm and jerked me forward. I barely looked up in time to see Vetle as he hauled me toward him with such force my shoulder wrenched in the socket and my knees scraped across stone.
Then I was against him, crushed to his chest as his arms locked around me and he pulled me to the center of the column. One hand cradled the back of my head while the other pressed flat against my spine, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe, my right hand tucked up over my shoulder to keep from being pinned. His smoky wings wrapped around us both, cocooning us in shadow.
"You foolish, stubborn, impossible woman," he rasped against my hair. His whole body trembled. "I protected you. Why didn't you stay safe, little thorn?"
“Staying safe meant condemning you and leaving you here. LikeTanith. How could I do that?” I winced as the vines boundaround us both. The strange draining sensation pulsed through me, stinging and burning. I bit my lower lip.
Blood dripped down the back of my leg as the wound with the stitches opened. I gasped as my head dropped against his shoulder. “Vetle, listen. We have to get off this column. Aerithyn is trapped below us. This column is going right through her.”
Vetle's body went rigid against mine. His grip loosened just enough that he could pull back and look at me, his amber eyes searching my face as if trying to determine whether I'd lost my mind. "What?"
"The column," I gasped out. “These vines. They only go up on that side. And they’re not attacking. She’s trying to get out. She's trapped on her side. I saw?—”
My words cut off as the column lurched beneath us. Vetle's wings flared wider, his arms crushing me against him as we both stumbled. The vines tightened, and I cried out as the draining sensation intensified.
Vetle ducked his head. His chin pressed against the top of my head as he held me tighter. “My shadow magic will shield us for a while longer but not much. Maltric said that the inscription insisted that the release of magic and life force into the vines must be as steady and slow as possible, but I am nearly spent.”
I gasped for breath. “Osric is getting help. But everyone has to get off the palace side of the chasm. They’ve got to get over to the portal side. The chasm is expanding because she can’t get out. They’re all going to die if we don’t get them out of there. Ahhh!” The vines dragged more of my strength from me.
Vetle tightened as well against the vine’s pull. His eyes widened as he saw my hand. “Your hand? You broke your hand to get free?”
“At this rate, every bone in our bodies and every fiber of our souls will be shattered and everyone else as well,” I whispered. It hurt so much more now than before.
His throat bobbed, and his jaw set in a grim line. “Then we’ll reason this through. Every single option offered for ending this curse involves someone on this column. The vines only attack on that side. And this column goes through Aerithyn’s corporeal form.”
He tilted his head up to the sky, then dropped to the portal. “Liminal thresholds are fixed. Everything else will weaken as we near the midnight hour, except for that until the very end. You’re right That’s the safest place for our people.”
That made sense. I tensed as another wave of that draining sensation pulsed through me. The vines pulled tighter. They were dragging us down. My foot started to slip as the pressure intensified.
Another piercing wail rose from the chasm, so loud and anguished that it felt like it might tear the world apart. The sound clawed through me, vibrating through my bones and teeth. I pressed my face against Vetle's chest, trying to block it out, but it was everywhere—inside me, around me, drowning everything else.
Then came another wail from above. Deeper. Louder. More desperate.
I forced my head up, squinting against the wind that lashed my face. The clouds above churned violently, swirling in on themselves until they formed something recognizable—a massive hand reaching down toward the chasm. The fingers stretched, grasping, straining to reach the chasm's depths where Aerithyn struggled.
Chaori.
It evaporated before it reached even halfway, dissolving back into mist and shadow.
If it weren’t our lives hanging in the balance between these two ethereal giants, it would have been heartbreakingly romantic.
The vines squeezed again, and another draining pulse dragged from us both. I gasped, clenching my eyes shut. His arms cinched tighter around my waist.
“Something with the vines,” I said, my face pressed tight against his shoulder. “They’re significant.”
“In the tablet, they were all pointing toward the portal. They are draining life from us now. And there was a great gathering.” He scowled as he contemplated this, his jaw clenching tight. “Chaori can’t reach her or the vines for one reason or another. But?—”
