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Ren nodded. “I don’t like to think about that.”
He’d looked so pale. So very on the verge of death.
“I think about it all the time. I wouldn’t be here without you, Ren.”
She waved it away. “It was nothing.”
“It was everything.”
He kissed the side of her head before rising. She watched him circle around the other side of the candle, and a sharpness filled the space in her chest. Was this truly what people spent their lives chasing? Why did love feel so much like a knife that had been sharpened and plunged in far too deep? She swallowed once before looking him in the eye.
“Promise.”
He frowned. “Promise what?”
“Promise you’re with me.”
He held her gaze. There was a great burst across their bond. It felt like a thousand ropes were lashing themselves to her, invisible hands tying each one. It felt unbreakable and vast. Theo whispered the words into that waiting power.
“I promise.”
The magic sealed his words. She knew he would not waver, no matter what. Ren felt like she might cry if she kept looking at him, so she fixed her eyes on the flickering flame instead. She drew on the image of that empty field again. Her breathing slowly calmed. It had always been Ren’s preference to snuff the candle herself. Her hand was steady as she reached out to pinch the waiting flame. Just before the spell activated, she heard a final whisper from Theo.
“I love you, Ren.”
Magic pulled her into darkness before she could answer. Ren shoved forward through space and time. Her chest tightened uncomfortably, unbearably. Then her feet set down. The world colored in around her. She was in the empty field. Ren stared at the trees and the flowers and the distant town that was just waking up. She had a feeling Theo had waited until that final moment to say the words so that she wouldn’t have to decide whether or not to say them back. Ren found it much easier to whisper the truth to the trees.
“I love you too.”
She patiently set out the next candle and followed the rituals, lighting it and picturing the next location. She’d need to travel through the waxways twice more to get back to Kathor. It would be the work of just a few hours, though, instead of a full-day carriage ride. Ren’s first priority back in the city would be to meet with Nevelyn Tin’Vori. Hopefully, the girl had made fine progress in Ren’s absence.
The second candle burned down quickly. Ren echoed the same process and appeared on the edges of an abandoned farm. Candle, light, repeat. It was only noon when the third and final candle burned down to nothing. Ren had intentionally picked the location for its elevation—which she felt was close enough to the Heights to work. With the balcony of Theo’s apartment centered in her mind, she made the final leap through time and space.
Pain.
Ren dropped to her knees. There was a pain in her neck so sharp and so piercing that she felt like screaming. Instead, she gritted her teeth, blinking down at the sun-brightened stones. Had something gone wrong with her jump? Was she in the wrong location? It took nearly a minute for the sharpness to fade. When Ren was finally able to raise her head, she saw the answer.
There was a full-sized stone gargoyle on the balcony. No more than a few paces away. He would have been several feet taller than Ren if he stood upright, but his posture was slumped so that his great stone fists knuckled down on the floor to keep him upright. The reason for Ren’s sudden pain was struggling beneath the creature’s left foot. Pinned to the ground.
“Vega!” Ren said. “Let her go!”
She reached for the horseshoe wand at her belt, but the gargoyle only offered a nasty grin. Ren saw the creature’s eyes flick up, looking beyond her, when something struck the back of her head with force. Darkness threaded the light, consumed it entirely, and the world faded.
24 DAHVID TIN’VORI
Dahvid’s training sessions had an audience now.
Every time his boots crunched down on the arena sand, Darling’s observers were already there. They would take meticulous notes as he stretched, as he moved through swings and stances. When he began the walk home, a new set of observers would trail him through Ravinia’s streets. Dahvid knew every breath he took from now until the day of the gauntlet would be counted, every gesture weighed. Darling was searching for weaknesses. Anything that could be exploited in the duels to come.
Cath eagerly worked to give him a new strength instead. She had been sketching day and night to perfect the next potential tattoo. Today’s session in the cleansing room might be their last chance. Out of superstition, Cath had not allowed Dahvid to see what she’d been working on. While he wouldn’t mind another weapon in his arsenal, he thought the session would be far better if they used it to smuggle her out of the city.
“We’ll have an hour, Cath. There are passages below the parlor. I can have you on a ship before Darling’s crew even knows what happened. I’ll fight better if I know you’re safe.”
In answer, Cath slammed down a set of brushes.
“And what about me? I get to sit in some foreign city, waiting to hear if the man I love is dead? No. I will not leave you. Quit asking.”
She returned to her sketching and refused to speak on the subject again. Dahvid came behind her, gave her shoulder a light squeeze, then began his ritual stretches. The two worked in mutual silence until it was time to leave. The cleansing room awaited them.
