Declan let out a soft laugh, wishing Ruhn were here to see the male’s shocked expression.
The Autumn King’s face tightened and he growled at Declan, “I would not be so smug, boy.”
Declan tensed. “Why?”
The Autumn King hissed, “Because that girl may have used the Gates’ power to Drop to unforeseen levels, but she will not be able to make the Ascent.”
Declan’s fingers stilled on the keys of his laptop.
The Autumn King laughed mirthlessly. Not from malice, Declan realized—but something like pain. He’d never known the prick could feel such a thing.
Bryce slumped to the stones beside the Gate. Declan didn’t need medical monitors to know her heart had flatlined.
Her mortal body had died.
A clock on the computer showing the Eleusian system began counting down from a six-minute marker. The indicator of how long she had to make the Search and the Ascent, to let her mortal, aging body die, to face what lay within her soul, and race back up to life, into her full power. And emerge an immortal.
If she made the Ascent, the Eleusian system would register it, track it.
The Autumn King said hoarsely, “She made the Drop alone. Danika Fendyr is dead—she is not a true Anchor. Bryce has no way back to life.”
93
This was the cradle of all life, this place.
There was a physical ground beneath her, and she had the sense of an entire world above her, full of distant, twinkling lights. But this was the bottom of the sea. The dark trench that cut through the skin of the earth.
It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered at all. Not with Danika standing before her. Holding her.
Bryce peeled away far enough to look at her beautiful, angular face. The corn-silk hair. It was the same, right down to the amethyst, sapphire, and rose streaks. She’d somehow forgotten the exact features of Danika’s face, but … there they were.
Bryce said, “You came.”
Danika’s smile was soft. “You asked for help.”
“Are you … are you alive? Over there, I mean.”
“No.” Danika shook her head. “No, Bryce. This, what you see …” She gestured to herself. The familiar jeans and old band T-shirt. “This is just the spark that’s left. What was resting over there.”
“But it’s you. This is you.”
“Yes.” Danika peered at the churning darkness above them, the entire ocean above. “And you don’t have much time to make the Ascent, Bryce.”
Bryce snorted. “I’m not making the Ascent.”
Danika blinked. “What do you mean?”
Bryce stepped back. “I’m not making it.” Because this was where her homeless soul would stay, if she failed. Her body would die in the world above, and her soul that she’d traded away to the Under-King would be left to wander this place. With Danika.
Danika crossed her arms. “Why?”
Bryce blinked furiously. “Because it got too hard. Without you. It is too hard without you.”
“That’s bullshit,” Danika snarled. “So you’ll just give up on everything? Bryce, I am dead. I am gone. And you’ll trade your entire life for this tiny piece of me that’s left?” Disappointment shuttered her caramel eyes. “The friend I knew wouldn’t have done that.”
Bryce’s voice broke as she said, “We were supposed to do this together. We were supposed to live out our lives together.”
Danika’s face softened. “I know, B.” She took her hand. “But that’s not how it turned out.”
Bryce bowed her head, thinking she’d crack apart. “I miss you. Every moment of every day.”
“I know,” Danika said again, and put a hand over her heart. “And I’ve felt it. I’ve seen it.”
“Why did you lie—about the Horn?”
“I didn’t lie,” Danika said simply. “I just didn’t tell you.”
“You lied about the tattoo,” Bryce countered.
“To keep you safe,” Danika said. “To keep the Horn safe, yeah, but mostly to keep you safe in case the worst happened to me.”
“Well, the worst did happen to you,” Bryce said, instantly regretting it when Danika flinched.
But then Danika said, “You traded your place in the Bone Quarter for me.”
Bryce began crying. “It was the least I could do.”
Tears formed in Danika’s eyes. “You didn’t think I’d make it?” She threw her a sharp, pained grin. “Asshole.”