20.

  Ash

  It couldn’t be.

  I turned, slow as stone cracking under pressure, and there he stood. Draped in his eternal finery; the dark blue robe with its climbing roses of black. Shadows clung to him as though the light feared his presence. His eyes, endless pools of obsidian, glittered with cunning as they swept over us like a blade.

  “How… how are you here?” Faelwen’s voice faltered, thin as a reed in the wind.

  The Fiend’s grin split his face, cruel and knowing.

  “My presence is no longer bound to the Marshes, my dear.”

  His gaze lingered on her in a way that set fire to my blood.

  Hunger. Possession.

  That look had no right to exist. I stepped between them, steel in my voice.

  “You will regret setting foot here.”

  He chuckled, low and amused, like he was playing with a child’s threat.

  “Will I? The look on your faces alone was worth the journey.”

  Spook came up at my side, blades glinting like fangs. “Go back to the pit you crawled from, devil.” His voice was iron. I had to admire him for that. Not a single sign of dread in his eyes, even though I could imagine the panic rising inside of him.

  The Fiend tilted his head, studying Spook as though he were a new specimen.

  “How adorable. The stray has teeth. I wonder, little urchin, how you’ll fare when I take the only family you’ve found.”

  Spook tensed, shoulders coiled, and I felt his fury thrumming like a bowstring about to snap.

  “Don’t,” I hissed under my breath. “He’s baiting you.”

  Behind me, Faelwen found her voice. “What do you want, Fiend?”

  He looked at her then, the black depths of his gaze narrowing. “Why do you think I’m here?”

  “You can’t have me,” she hissed in return.

  “Do you imagine the world revolves around your soul, little elfling?” he leaned forward slightly, that smile widening. “I abandoned that chase long ago. You’ll come to me in the end, regardless. Bound to your father’s bargain. Bound…” his eyes flicked to me, and my stomach turned to stone. “…to him.”

  No. The word rang inside my skull. She wouldn’t. Not while the Returner lived. Not while I drew breath. He wouldn’t allow her soul to fall in the Fiend’s hands and I would see it defended.

  “Then stop circling like a vulture and speak your intent,” I growled.

  He clucked his tongue at me, mock sympathy in his tone. “So angry. Very well. I’ve come for the runestones you’re hunting.”

  “You’ll never have them!” Elora’s voice cut sharp from behind me.

  The Fiend’s grin widened, a predator savouring the moment. “A deal, then. All of the runestones you hold, given freely, in exchange for your lives… and the breaking of Ash’s contract.”

  The silence that followed was louder than thunder. My breath caught. My contract… broken?

  Chains severed, the weight lifted. My freedom dangled before me like a ripe fruit. But at what cost? The Mid Realm itself? To hand over the stones was to hand him the world. We would lose the war, wouldn’t we?

  He would stretch his claws over every shadow, and we would live beneath his tyranny until the end of days.

  He vanished into the dark with a laugh that rattled the bones in my chest, leaving us in the heavy air of his offer.

  The argument flared instantly.

  “You can’t give him the runestones. We will lose the war!” Spook’s voice was fire.

  “And if we refuse, we die here and he takes them anyway!” Faelwen snapped back, her composure cracking.

  “We don’t need to kill him,” Elora countered, sharp as her blade. “We only need to escape him.”

  Faelwen’s eyes narrowed.

  “You say like it’s that easy. But trust me it’s not.”

  “We’re not going to give the runestones up. I know what you’re thinking Faelwen. You’d say we have to surrender them, wouldn’t you? Save your lover and let the rest of us burn?” Elora threw back.

  Their voices clashed like steel, but I drifted from the noise. My thoughts roared louder. Would I sacrifice everything, condemn an entire realm, to save myself? Could I?

  No.

  The truth struck cold and clear. If I chose the Fiend’s path and surrendered the runestones, I would not be free. I would be his, and so would they. I chose my end a long time ago. I knew what I would get myself into.

  I looked at them; Spook, Elora, Artemis, Faelwen. My companions. My… friends.

  We are pack. Artemis’s voice stirred in my mind, steady as bedrock. She will always try to safe you. Even if it meant giving up all else.

  Faelwen. My gaze sought her. I reached for that tether between us, the golden thread binding our souls. I gave it a tug, fragile but certain. She answered with a pull of her own, her eyes locking with mine, heavy with storms and fire.

  The easy road is not always the true one, Artemis whispered again. You know what must be done to keep her safe.

  “I know what to do,” I said aloud, breaking into the chaos of their voices. They fell silent, their eyes on me.

  “I can’t share my plan. If I speak it, he’ll know. He’s here somewhere still. So you must trust me. When I say move, you move. When I say jump, you jump. No questions. Do you understand?”

  Confusion flickered over their faces, doubt too, but one by one they nodded. Elora first, Spook with his jaw set, Faelwen’s eyes searching mine before she inclined her head. Artemis lingered last, his gaze proud, a shadow of power in his lupine mind that reminded me… he was no ordinary wolf.

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  And I wondered, as the silence pressed in around us, whether Faelwen truly knew what walked beside her.

  I signalled for Spook to crawl beneath the dragon’s skeletal remains and pry loose the runestone hidden there. His footsteps featherlight in the stillness. My fingers found the worn leather of my notebook, pages whispering as I turned until the spell I’d once stolen from brittle parchment revealed itself. A fragile secret, half-forbidden, but very useful for my current plan.

  I exhaled, steading my hands, and beckoned the mist. Just a thin veil, nothing more. Just enough to obscure the entirety of the ground. A ghostly shroud that curled low along the cave’s floor, cloaking my movements and anything I would edge onto the ground. From my pocket I drew a shard of charcoal, its edges black into my skin, and began tracing runes into the earth. Each symbol flared faintly as I linked them with deliberate strokes, the threads of ink and intent weaving into a great circle around me.

  By the time Spook returned, clutching the stone as if it might disappear anytime. I gestured for him to step into the ring’s heart. “Faelwen,” I murmured, pointing toward him. Hesitation flickered across her features, but she obeyed, slipping into place beside him. Good. I had a feeling I would need her persuasive personality with what was to come.

  The air pressed heavy with unseen eyes. If the Fiend had glimpsed what I was inscribing, the game would already be lost.

  But the mist was my ally, curling close enough to hide the runes from all but my own memory.

  “Elora,” I called, “stand with Artemis by the exit.” She nodded once, retreating to her mark. My lungs drew in a slow breath, the kind one takes before diving beneath black, ice cold water. This had to work.

  “Come out of the shadows, Fiend,” I called, my voice echoing like steel on stone. “I know you linger still.”

  A chuckle unfurled from the dark, low and guttural, vibrating the marrow in my bones. Light drained from the cavern as though swallowed by some unseen maw. Faelwen and Spook stiffened in front of me, their shoulders rigid beneath the growing gloom.

  Then… his voice. Hot breath at my ear, though his words were frost. “What game are we playing, boy?”

  Cold hands clamped onto my shoulders, seeping through my flesh and into my soul, as if death itself had laid claim. My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. Trying to steady it.

  “We’ve considered your offer,” I said. “It reeks of unfairness. If we yield the runestones, the war is lost. You would reign over the Mid Realms and the Underworld both. And there would be no escape from your shadow.”

  He circled me like a wolf.

  “Unfair?” His tone softened, coaxing. “Oh, but I would be a benevolent ruler, Ash. You’d be rid of my whims. Free. You could live the life you want… with her.” His eyes flicked toward Faelwen, cold as ice.

  My chest clenched.

  “And what life would that be, with you as master of all?”

  He smiled, walking past Faelwen, fingers brushing her cheek as if she were already his. She flinched closer to Spook, and rage burned hot in my blood. It took every shred of control not to sever his hand then and there.

  “You already know your answer,” he purred, turning back to me. “So… get on with it.”

  I breathed the spell into my bones one final time, then gave the command.

  “Spook. Give him the runestones.”

  Spook’s eyes snapped to me, blazing with betrayal.

  “No,” he whispered, defiance trembling in his voice.

  “Trust me,” I told him, locking his gaze with mine. No time for more. He needed to trust me.

  He started to protest, but Faelwen’s hand found his arm. Her silent plea sealed the decision. Jaw tight, Spook reached into his pack, dragging the bundle with runestones forward. He held it out to the Fiend, hatred smouldering in his eyes.

  The Fiend’s grin split wide, greed and triumph painted across his face.

  “Wise choice,” he crooned, extending his pale hand.

  But as his fingers reached, I loosed the words I had been holding back, chanting power into the circle. The runes blazed to life, brilliant lines, searing through mist and shadow alike. The Fiend’s smirk curdled into fury. His body locked, muscles seizing as the spell’s light clawed around him.

  “RUN!” I shouted, voice breaking between syllables of the incantation. I could not hold him for long. The Fiend strained against my bindings, every guttural sound he made rattling the spell inside my chest. Spook, Elora and Artemis bolted, their footsteps vanishing into the mist. Faelwen lingered, her gaze clung to me, burning with something that twisted my heart, but my hard stare forced her to break away and follow the others.

  Sweat streamed down my temple, the words of the incantation searing my throat raw. The circle shuddered as the Fiend’s presence pressed against its edges. When the final syllable left my lips, I did not wait to see if it held. Normally this spell would hold a person for forty-eight hours or longer, but with the Fiend I would be happy if it held him for ten seconds.

  I turned and sprinted for the cave’s mouth, lungs heaving fire. The spell would not cage him for long, seconds if we were lucky, but seconds could mean survival.

  At the threshold I whirled, summoning what fragments of magic still clung to me. They burned like sparks in ash, barely enough to command, but I gave them willingly. Scarlet tendrils burst from my fingertips, writhing toward the dragon’s remains. They wrapped the colossal skeleton in a veil of bloodied mist. Bones groaned, wings stretching with a scream of bone against bone. When the skull tilted back and red flames ignited in the hollow sockets, the roar that followed nearly shattered my ear drums. The earth itself reeled from its fury.

  I staggered, vision swimming, then fled into the tunnels where the others had gone. My boots slapped stone, echoes chasing me until I caught up with them.

  “What of the Fiend?” Elora gasped at my side.

  “Distracted,” I panted, voice ragged. The word barely left me before a thunderous roar tore through the cavern system, louder than any storm. Dust choked the air, stalagmites cracked and plummeted and the walls trembled with wrath not meant for mortal ears.

  “You… you brought it back to life?” Spook’s voice cracked with disbelief.

  “Yes,” I coughed, spitting grit from my mouth. We careened into a t-section, the path splitting. My heart clawed at my ribs. “Which way?”

  The answer came as stone thundered from above, sealing one passage beneath a rain of rubble. Faelwen squinted through the haze and I flung an arm over her head. “Right,” she muttered, already sprinting from underneath my protection. I followed, pulse hammering, every step pounding dust into my lungs.

  The corridor twisted, unfamiliar yet suffocatingly alike the one before. It seemed to drag us deeper into this underground maze. Still the rumbling grew, each tremor promising the roof above us would collapse.

  “Is this even the way out?” I shouted above the noise.

  “I do not recognize it!” Elora’s voice cracked through the dust. “But we cannot turn back!”

  “Follow Artemis!” Faelwen rasped, clutching her cloak to her mouth. The wolf lifted his muzzle, sniffing the choking air, then howled and bolted. We stumbled after him, driven only by faith in his instincts.

  The explosion came without warning. A thunderclap of force hurled us to the ground, ripping the air from my chest. I felt it then… my tenuous connection to the dragon snapped like a cord cut clean. The Fiend had destroyed it. He would come for us next.

  Fear carved icy fingers into my heart, but I forced air into my lungs. We still had a chance.

  We had to. I staggered upright, seized Fealwen’s hand, and pulled her to her feet. Together we ran, Spook and Artemis at our heels, Elora trailing with ragged coughs. Fear lent me strength my weary body should not have held after casting such powerful spells. But I would not let him take her. Not her.

  The tunnels shook harder now, dust cascading in sheets, stone splitting with groans of surrender.

  “It’s trying to bring the tunnels down on us!” Elora coughed. We turned a sharp bend and there… faint and sweet, came the smell of fresh air.

  Freedom.

  “We’re nearly there!” I rasped, the words torn from me like a prayer.

  But hope crumpled with the ceiling. The tunnel collapsed on top of us in a roaring avalanche of stone and dust. Elora screamed. Spook cursed. I felt Faelwen’s grip slip from mine as the world crashed down around us and then… darkness.

  When dust finally began to fall in thin, drifting sheets, I stirred to the sound of groans echoing through the rubble. A wet nose pressed against my cheek, Artemis, whining, insistent. His tongue rasped against my skin until my eyes fluttered open. I scratched him behind his dusty ears to let him know I was awake.

  Agony lanced through my skull. I reached for my temple and hissed when my fingers came away wet. Blood traced a hot line down the side of my face, sticky against the grit. That wound would scar; I knew it the moment I touched it.

  Shapes swam into focus. To my right, Faelwen crouched on hands and knees, her hair tangled with dust and stone, her fingers bleeding as she clawed at the rocks. Her desperation bled into the air like smoke. Beneath the rubble, Spook’s legs were pinned, his face contorted with pain as he writhed helplessly. He shouted over and over, voice raw with panic, calling for Elora. Faelwen finally pulled Spook out from underneath the rubble. His legs intact, but scratched badly.

  I forced myself upright, head spinning, searching the ruins. The tunnel was a chaos of fallen stone and fractured echoes. I could see no sign of her… only endless grey debris, jagged as teeth. My chest tightened, dread sinking like a blade between my ribs.

  Then… faint, muffled, but unmistakable:

  “I’m alive… sort of.”

  Elora’s voice.

  Relief hit like a tide, but a tiny spark of doubt gnawed at my mind. She was trapped on the other side of the collapsed tunnel. The side that led back to where they came from.