As the world grew dark, one thing stayed in focus.

  Velidan.

  It hung, a hard slash of unyielding black amidst the dim green and flickering flames.

  It grew. Stretched. Spread through smoke, slicing the very fabric of the air. One end cut down to the floor. The other slashed upwards.

  And from beyond it I glimpsed a vivid black sky, one bedecked with endless silver…

  He was there. Standing in the gap. Eyes wide, mouth ajar, for once looking not regal or amused or arrogant but utterly shocked. He whirled in a circle, taking in the rank cave he had been- pulled? called? what had I done?- brought to.

  He stared down. At me. At the hulking figure atop me.

  I had seen displeasure on that perfect face. I had seen annoyance and anger.

  Now I saw rage.

  Baltha’s head rose, scorched skin bright with tears. Gaped at the hole as it melted away into nothing. Hissed at the figure now standing over us. Bared yellow teeth.

  And was torn away. Earth trembled beneath me as her huge bulk hit the wall. She shrieked and my ears rang. I choked in hot, foul air as he descended upon the hag. Her claws swiped upwards and flesh tore.

  She’s bigger. Strong. Not safe. Get up.

  Smoke filled my lungs as roars and snarls filled the room. My heart pounded unevenly. My very blood felt sluggish. Darkness swallowed the edges of my vision. My eyelids, impossibly heavy, slid closed.

  No. No. Stay awake. Teela. Renner. They need me. Stay awake.

  The hag bellowed. Stones broke. Something ripped. He growled, and the sound was thick with pain.

  Renner groaned.

  I rolled myself towards the noise. Blinked through the stagnant haze. Pressed my palms into the warm dirt. Pushed.

  He lay against the cave wall. His eyes were glazed. Unfocused. One bloody hand was dragging against the stone. Trying to pull himself upright. Failing. Crimson trickled down both sides of his neck and from his open mouth.

  There was blood on the stones around him. Some black, some red.

  Too much red.

  I got to my knees. Crawled.

  Not like this. We are not dying like this.

  Renner’s eyes slowly focused on me. Then they lifted, sharpening with the clarity of fear, at whatever hideous sight lay in the shadows behind me.

  Don’t turn around. Don’t look. Get to them. Help them.

  Stay awake.

  Something snapped with a crack that rattled my teeth. Baltha screamed.

  I made it to Renner. Touched his jaw, turned it with trembling fingers. The back of his hair was matted and dark. My blood went cold.

  Bad. Really bad. Clerics. He needs help.

  “H-have to go,” I rasped. My throat felt raw. “I n-need you to stand up. Okay?”

  “Wha…” his words slurred. “What’d you… do…”

  I wrapped my hands around one arm. Taught muscle and sweat-slicked skin quivered beneath my touch. I tried to pull him up, but my own arms were shaking and his weight was too much. “Renner, I can’t… I need you to stand.” My voice cracked. “Please. Please get up.”

  He tried. His torn palms braced against the earth. He pushed himself into a sitting position, then slumped back down with a groan.

  He can’t. Too hurt. Okay. Okay. Teela. Get Teela. We can help him together.

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  Panic at the sight of his wounds lent strength to my limbs. I stumbled back into the smoke. The earth-shaking thuds and snarls had fallen ominously quiet. I could see the two Fae circling each other at the far end of the cave. Baltha was stooped, and I could hear her teeth gnashing together. He was silent.

  Teela lay face-up on the slab. Her skin was milk-white and her chest rose in an uneven rhythm. Embers smoldered around us as I wiped the rancid plants from her face.

  “Teela? Teela! Wake up, come on, wake up…” I shook her. Nothing. Saints. What did Baltha do to her? I choked on terror as my gaze swept down. There was a jagged gash along her pale forearm, as if great, flat teeth had bitten into her flesh. The foul-smelling wound leaked a slow trickle of blood into the stone basin. Crimson had mixed with strips of torn, familiar silver bark.

  Baltha screeched. The ground shook. Another snap.

  “Teela, come on, come on!” Nothing.

  There was a heavy thud from behind, followed by a dreadful, chilling quiet.

  Then the sound of weeping.

  “Mercy!” the hag wailed. “Mercy, please, please… Baltha begs…”

  My heart nearly stopped. I closed my eyes and sank against the slab, breath rushing out in relief. He won. He did it.

  “Mercy?” He sounded breathless. Ragged. Furious. “How long have you been here? You’d put us all in danger. And for what, crone?”

  “Mercy,” she sobbed again. Her nails scraped against stones. “Baltha only wanted… Mercy, please, please don’t hurt her.”

  Silence.

  Then, in a voice like death, “Hurt… who?”

  I looked up as Baltha’s shining eyes fell on me. His gaze followed.

  My gorge rose at the sight. The hag knelt in the dirt, the ground around her slick and gleaming. Her green skin was a tapestry of black blood and exposed red flesh. Both of her enormous arms dangled, their palm facing the wrong directions. One eye was a swollen, shining mass.

  He stood nearby, panting. His clothes and chest were torn, a mess of ripped cloth and spattered, visceral black. Baltha’s blood covered his hands and arms.

  “Mercy,” she moaned, oily black dribbling from her torn lips. She slumped forwards. “Mercy for the mortal.”

  He turned from her to me, looking utterly mystified. “Mercy for… Why?”

  The hag sobbed into the dirt. “Baltha heard them. Remembered. So long. So long since Baltha heard them. Don’t hurt her.”

  The confusion hardened into something dangerous. His voice lowered. “Why would you care about a human’s life?”

  She trembled and wept, and gave no further answer.

  “I don’t have the strength to drag you back with me, crone. Not now. I doubt you have it, either.”

  Baltha’s blistered, black face tilted up. She gnashed her teeth, head shaking back and forth

  He moved to stand just in front of her. Pale, blood-slicked hands flexed. “So if you’re not going to answer…”

  She snarled, jerking upright and swinging a twisted arm upwards. One of his hands fisted in her burnt hair, the other grabbed a knotted shoulder. She screamed and my ears rang and hair ripped and thick flesh tore-

  I staggered away from the grisly scene, vision spinning. The scream cut off into cold silence. Something hit the ground with a thud.

  My palms hit the cave wall. I panted. Choked down bile.

  Air rustled behind me. I turned, slumping against earth-dusted stone, as he stopped a breath away. His face was spattered with blood.

  “Explain this. Now.”

  “Explain-?”

  “You just ripped me across… How? Answer!”

  “H-how?” My heart pounded. Blood-covered hands pressed into the stones on either side of me, trapping me against the wall. “I… I d-don’t know. I used a r-rune. It was just there. I… I thought of it. I saw it, so I… I… and then y-you… you came.

  “A rune. From where? Who gave it to you?”

  I swallowed. Felt blood drain from my face. “I… I just… it was just there. I thought of it. I d-didn’t know what… and you’re here. You… you saved us.” My voice hitched. I could hardly believe the words. “You saved us.”

  He searched my face, breathing raggedly. The anger melted away as something dark and hungry rose in his eyes. “I… saved you.” The words came out slowly. Thoughtfully, as if he was tasting each one. “Mm. I suppose I did. You.”

  He tilted his head, glancing over one shoulder. When he turned back, his mouth had curled up at the corners. “But I don’t think your friends have much time left.”

  “W-we tried to fight her.” Warm tears slid down my cheeks. “Please, please, can you help Renner? His head… she threw h-him. There’s a lot of blood. A-and Teela, I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but I can’t wake her up-”

  “It’s a spell. A broken mind’s attempt to keep her complacent.” He chuckled. Warm breath washed across my face. “Hags crave Fae blood, and so rarely are they strong enough to take any. One of their many ironies.”

  “Can you undo it? And Renner? Can you heal him?”

  “Oh, Brin.” His voice was velvet and smoke. Soft, curling around me. “Of course I can.”

  “Thank you,” I gasped, close to weeping. “Hurry, please-” I tried to step past, towards my fallen friends.

  Blood-slicked arms kept me caged. He didn't move.

  The smile widened.

  I froze. Listened to the echo of his words. Met his eyes with dawning horror.

  “No…” I whispered. “No, you… you said you were… y-you said…”

  He chuckled.

  “I thought… I thought…” What? That he was good? That that he cared? The words were so shamefully foolish that they died on my tongue. My legs crumpled. I buried my face in my hands, swallowing a scream.

  ”Poor thing.”

  No, no! He saved us, he can’t… I’m supposed to take it north. She said it was important.

  Silk rustled. Then a slick hand cupped my chin. He knelt and tilted my face up.

  “Don’t fret, Brin. We’ve done this before. It’s easy.”

  I cringed back, my mind blank with horror. The hand holding me had, just moments ago, ripped apart muscle and bone.

  He gave a little grunt, and something heavy thunked to the dirt behind him. He turned a glare over one shoulder and scoffed. “Stay down, worm.”

  I peered past him, and immediately wished I hadn’t. Renner was propped against the wall, panting and still half-dazed. One bloody palm was clutching for a fist-sized rock. And in his eyes was the look I’d been dreading. Revulsion. Hatred.

  “Please,” I whispered. “I don’t want him to die. Please.”

  He turned back to me. One thumb slid up, tracing my lower lip. “Then you should save him.”

  The touch made me shudder. It was wrong. Cruel. Invasive. I tried to pull away. Futile. “W-what do you want?”

  “Don’t be coy, Brin.” His grip tightened.

  “I… I d-don’t have it with me.”

  “Then you’ll bring it next time you sleep.”

  My heart raced. Blood roared in my ears. Some distant part of my mind screamed out in denial, railed for me to turn away and refuse.

  But I didn’t know how to help Teela. Renner couldn’t stand, much less make it back to the surface.

  And I didn’t have it in me to leave them here, bloody and broken, and crawl out alone.

  “Okay,” I whispered, closing my eyes in defeat.

  “Say the words, Brin.”

  “If you… if you save them, I’ll… I’ll give you the shard the next time I sleep.”

  I kept my eyes closed. I was too ashamed to open them and see the cruel, victorious face in front of me. But I heard the rustle of silk as he leaned in, felt the warm air on my lips as he murmured from just a breath away, “We have a deal.”