Page 86 of Vasmora

The noxious gasses.

Water splashed up into my face with the quick movement, but I managed to suck in one more breath, covering my mouth as the current carried me through the tunnel. The urge to breathe scratched at my throat, but I refused, peering overhead at the blanket of glowing fungi that lined the ceiling and walls of the cave. Beautiful and peaceful, in a way.

Ahead of me, the guard who’d clung to me earlier lay unmoving, the water smashing him against rock. If he wasn’t already dead, the noxious fumes would probably kill him.

Zevander was nowhere in sight.

The current pushed me through the long and winding passage, my lungs once again pounding at my ribs for one sip of air. Until, at last, the green gave way to cold gray as I slipped through to the other side, and I breathed deeply, closing my eyes to calm my hammering heart.

When I opened them again, I caught sight of a cave opening and the dark sky beyond it.

“Oh, gods!” I screamed, as my body spilled from the mouth of the cave, my stomach rising to my throat while I fell through the air for what must’ve been a ten-meter drop. Water crashed into my tailbone, and I shot below the surface. Soft sand bumped a breath out of me, and I thrashed my arms for the surface. As a firm grip of my wrist yanked me upward, I breached the water on a gasp of air.

Zevander pulled me into his body and swam for the water’s edge.

Deep, heaving breaths failed to fill my lungs, despite him keeping my head above water, and I closed my eyes, forcing myself to calm. Slow. Once at the bank, Zevander took hold of an upturned tree root and dragged the two of us onto the sand, where he collapsed beside me.

We lay there for a moment, breathing hard, the stars above us twinkling. The rest of the world peaceful and calm, while my mind fought to lock away the horrors I’d just fled.

“Well, that was fun,” Zevander said and coughed, turning to his side. He pushed to his feet and reached out for me. “We need to keep moving. I saw him just up the bank.”

Part of me didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay there in that moment a bit longer. To absorb that he was there and I was safe again.

Instead, I nodded and let him pull me to my feet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ZEVANDER

Zevander carried Maevyth, wrapped in his cloak, through the adjacent woods, her body failing her with each passing minute. There was no sign of the bloodbinder anywhere, and in the darkness, the likelihood of finding him was growing slimmer. Cold night air struck like a whip across their damp clothes, as it swept through the trees while long, crooked branches clawed at their skin.

“You need to eat something,” he said, already having pointed out golden light over the treetops ahead that indicated the city of Gildspire was close. A place where they’d need to move cautiously, avoiding the guardsmen posted about the city.

“We have to … find him,” she said weakly, her face angled away, undoubtedly trying to hide the gash.

As if he could think her anything less than perfect.

“And we will. But I don’t need you to faint on me. There’s an alehouse just outside the city. Should be relatively quiet.”

Despite the heat he’d cast over her, she shivered against him, hadn’t stopped since he’d pulled her out of that dank cell. “Is there any other means of breaking the curse?”

“If he dies, I suppose. Though some curses persist after death, so it’s not the safest bet.”

“Death is all?”

“There’s dragon venom. The method that was used on me.” He frowned at the memory of his chest and veins burning, as if some potent acid had been set loose inside of him.

“And what does that entail?”

“Drinking the blood of a dragon. Few things are as painful as swallowing dragon’s blood.”

“Brilliant.”

Zevander held her tighter, and gods, the relief of having her in his arms again. The way her fingers clutched his neck, her face buried in the curve of his throat. He felt whole again. “We’ll find him,” he said, though part of him didn’t give a damn about anything else right then. He’d found her alive. That was all that mattered.

A look of concern on her face seemed to darken, the longer she remained silent.

“Is something else troubling you?”