The bridge shook and wobbled, and as I hauled Hadriel back, I saw Hannon hurrying toward me with terror screwing up his expression. He couldn’t go too fast, though, or the bridge would shake enough to dump me over.
“It’s okay,” I said, out of breath, as I dropped onto the safety of the bridge, bending to him. “It’s okay, folks. She seems to have narrowly avoided catastrophe.”
“What?” Hadriel asked, flailing against me.
Oh great, now everyone will know you’re crazy, my dragon thought. And I’ll be considered crazy by association.
“Nothing.” I punched Hadriel to get him to stop struggling and then just dragged him behind me. I didn’t trust myself to sling him over my shoulder again. “I’m okay.”
I wasn’t, of course. My vision wobbled, and the desperate urge to jump didn’t ease. But Nyfain kept his grip on me and I fell into it, clutching him through the bond and forcing my legs to keep moving.
On the other side, I let Hadriel go, wiped my nose and then cheeks, and started back across.
“Wait, Finley—” Tamara said, but I didn’t hang around to see what she’d say. We needed to hurry.
“Many hands make light work,” I muttered, over and over, reaching the other side and grabbing the next victim. No one wanted to go with me after seeing Hadriel’s near miss with the lava, but time was ticking, and they relented. I took the next, Hannon following me. Then we did it again. And again. We continued on that way until it was done. Each time I crossed, I wished I would die. I was having a hard time dealing with the agony, not of the body—I was used to that by now—but of the soul.
What seemed like hours later but hopefully wasn’t, I fell to my hands and knees on the stone on the safe side, sobbing.
“Carry her,” someone said. It sounded like Micah.
“I’m a little short on strength right now.” Hannon panted. “There was a lot of fight in those last couple of dragons.”
“I can’t force myself close, not with the power pumping into that alpha’s scent,” Vemar said, clearly frustrated.
“I’m fine,” I said as someone else said, “I can.”
I was so twisted up in my thoughts that it took me a moment to register it was Tamara. “I…don’t mind the smell,” she said, pulling me up and giving me a supportive smile.
I shook my head and put a hand to her shoulder. “I’m good. It’s fine.”
“We gotta get moving, Strange Lady,” Vemar said, and for once, he wasn’t smiling. “That took longer than it probably should’ve.”
“It’s okay. We started a little ahead of schedule.” Calia drifted closer and rubbed my back. “That took great bravery. She deserves a rest.”
“No shit it did,” Tamara said. “Micah, Vemar, and I all tried to cross to help, but we didn’t make it far enough to even congratulate ourselves on the effort. Without our dragons, we would’ve been more cargo for Hannon.”
“Tough as balls.” Vemar shook his fist as he grinned at Hannon and me. “Both of them.”
“Balls, my ass,” Lucille replied. “Balls are the most fragile things I’ve ever heard of. A small slap is the end of the world to you fuckers.”
“Yes, yes, we all wish we had the mighty vagina. Bully for you,” Hadriel cut in, rolling his eyes. He stepped closer to me. “Finley, darling, you yourself know that you cannot stay here and rest. Either walk or get carried. Those are your options.”
“I’m good.” I straightened up and wiped my nose with my sleeve for what was probably the millionth time. “It’s fine.” I cleared my hoarse throat. “My voice is a little worse for wear, though.”
“Well, yeah, you were screaming the entire time you crossed the bridge.” Hadriel grabbed my arm and moved me forward. “Okay, love, here we go. This is the part where we need to pay very close attention, or we’ll be lost in this accursed dungeon forever.”
TWENTY-THREE
FINLEY
Releasing my death grip on Nyfain’s essence through the bond, I pushed myself forward. Power still thrummed within me, but I felt utterly exhausted. I felt the way my brother looked.
The tunnel leading away from the Bridge of Doom didn’t take much navigating, so I let Hadriel set the pace, the two of us at the front. Like me, he’d paid attention to the path leading in, so the two of us would need to find the way out.
“We still need to figure out how to get a demon to pilot the boat,” I told him as I sucked in air and remembered that, once upon a time, I used to think this place stank so bad it layered my tongue. Now it just smelled like air.