Through love, all is possible. Even getting free of death-masks.
Nesta didn’t speak, staying close beside Azriel. Or maybe he was the one staying close to her. The male didn’t seem to want her farther away than he could grab.
Eventually, Bryce could stand it no longer. “I’m sorry,” she said.
At their silence, she twisted to look back at them. They wore twin expressions of ice.
“I’m … I’m really fucking sorry,” Bryce said, heart thundering.
“You’re proving,” Nesta said tightly, “to be more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Then why not just kill me?” Bryce snapped.
“Because whatever you think you’ll find at the end of these tunnels,” Azriel said with lethal quiet, “whatever warrants the effort of trying to kill us … that has to be something worth seeing.”
“You could leave me here and go ahead yourselves.” She probably shouldn’t have suggested that. Too late now.
“That star on your chest suggests otherwise,” Nesta said, and left Azriel’s side at last to head into the dark. “We’ve put this much effort into seeing what you’ll do. Might as well see it through.”
“Effort?” But even as she spoke, Bryce understood. “You knew I’d go through the grate.”
“Rhysand guessed, yes—and you made him smug as hell when you winnowed. Granted, he was surprised that you could winnow at all, but … the bastard sent us after you.” Nesta spoke without turning around, striding with that unfaltering confidence into the gloom. “He had us make sure there was only one path forward. Make sure you believed there was only one path forward, too. So you’d show your hand—show us what you truly wanted here.”
“You caused the cave-in.”
Nesta shrugged. “Azriel caused it. But yes.”
“Why—why do any of this? Why do you care?”
Nesta was quiet for a beat. Azriel didn’t say a word, a wall of silent menace at her back. Then Nesta said, “Because I’ve seen that star on your chest before.”
“Yeah, you said that,” Bryce said. “Your tattoo—”
“Not my tattoo.”
“Then where?” Bryce breathed. If she could get answers—
But Nesta strode ahead again into the darkness. “No place good.”
* * *
After another fitful rest, Azriel and Nesta were both still clearly pissed at Bryce. Rightly so, but wasn’t she allowed to be pissed, too? They’d manipulated her every step of the way, watching her like some animal in a zoo, making her think she’d caused that cave-in when they’d engineered it themselves …
She shot Azriel a sidelong glare as they walked through the tunnel. He gave her a cool look in return.
Behind him, the carvings continued, showing Fae frolicking over hills and thriving in ancient-looking walled cities. A scene of growth and change. But Azriel’s eyes slid ahead—and he nodded at where Nesta had stopped.
“We have a problem,” Nesta murmured as they stepped up to her side.
A chasm stretched before them, Bryce’s starlight glowing in a single ray straight across it. Bryce swallowed.
Yeah, they really fucking did.
* * *
Ruhn managed to keep his food down, and that was about all he could say for himself as he lay on the filthy, reeking floor and slept.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t managed to truly sleep in days. Maybe it was because Athalar had asked him to do it, and he knew, deep down, that he needed to grow the fuck up. But here he was. On a familiar-looking mental bridge. Staring at a burning female figure.
Ruhn? Lidia’s voice caught. What happened?
“I need to pass along intel.” Each word was cold and clipped.
The flame around Lidia banked until it was nothing but her flowing golden hair, and it killed him. She was so fucking beautiful. It wouldn’t have mattered to him, hadn’t mattered to him during those weeks they’d gotten to know each other, but …
She kept ten feet away. He hadn’t bothered with his stars and night. He didn’t care.
“Bryce … was trying to go to Hel to ask for help. She didn’t make it there.”
Lidia’s face was impassive. “How can you possibly know this?”
“The Prince of the Pit paid Hunt a visit. He confirmed that Bryce isn’t with him—or his brothers.”
To her credit, Lidia didn’t balk at the mention of Apollion—she didn’t even question why Hunt was in contact with him. “Where did she go?”