CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Even Selena’s amazing healing magic can’t rehydrate her or produce calories from thin air. Worry eats at me as her movements return to their mechanical cadence—she crouches and stands in a never-ending cycle.
“Is she okay?” Dash asks, stepping up to my side.
I grunt.
Instead of letting it drop, he pokes my side with his horn. “How long can she keep it up? How much magic does she have?”
I grunt again. Frustrated with his questions, because I have no answers.
“People gifted magic by one of the special standing stones are supposed to have an unlimited supply,” Bellavesaria says. “I read all about it. They’re not using their own magic. They’re channeling magic from Alarria.”
“From the realm ?” Dash sounds skeptical.
“Yes.”
“How does that work? None of the stories say that’s how the Faerie realms work.”
“That’s because our home realms didn’t work like this.” The dragon’s wings rustle in a shrug. “Alarria’s special, but no one understands its mechanisms.”
“Not the point,” I grit out. “It’s still a great deal of magic going through her. What information is there on the side effects of using large amounts of magic for a prolonged time?”
“Dragons can do it, but dragons—”
“—are superior beings,” Dash cuts in, his tone sarcastic.
My fists ball, tension pulling my shoulders tight as I grit out, “None of this is helping Selena.”
“I don’t know.” Bellavesaria’s crest droops. “There’s not a lot of information on humans, and what we do have is centuries old and much of it’s secondhand.”
Selena moves as quickly as ever, but there’s no spark to it. Her face is carefully expressionless, as if she hides pain. Where is her laughter, her enthusiasm, her joy?
Where’s my sunny Selena?
I hate it. I hate watching her do this to herself. Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what, and I don’t know how to fix it .
Dash pokes my side again, and when I glare at him, he says, “You were growling. It was annoying.”
“ So annoying,” the dragon says, and they share a look.
Goddess, that’s all I need—these two ganging up on me instead of sniping at each other.
The gnomes blast magic into the tunnel again and again.
My hand grips my sword hilt. There’s got to be something I can—
“The sluagh!” A gnome tumbles down the tunnel behind us, following the path we took only an hour before. Her high voice wails, “The sluagh is right behind me!”
I whirl, my sword springing free of its sheath with a ring of metal singing in the air. Now this is something I can do.
“If we can trap it, I can kill it,” I say, rage burning through me. This thing will not get its vile hands on my Selena!
“But deathsleep,” Dash says right as a small brown object soars from around the curve of the tunnel.
Fuck! Trapped in this tunnel, the gas will be impossible to escape.
Instinctively, I swing, whacking the gourd with the flat of my blade and sending it winging back whence it came.
A skeletal hand emerges from around the bend to snatch it from the air.
“Come out, soul stealer,” I roar. “Stop hiding behind your cowardly tricks!”
Instead of heeding my words, the sluagh sends the gourd sailing toward us again, because of course it does. Coward.
I snarl and brace, sword held ready.
Bellavesaria shoulders past me. Her jaw unhinges, and a blast of fire engulfs the projectile, leaving nothing but a dark trickle of falling ash. Then she casts me a superior look. “Oh, sorry. Did you want to play catch some more?”
Dash laughs his whinnying laugh.
I snarl at the two of them and stride forward, calling out to the sluagh, “It’s no use, coward. We have a healer who can cure deathsleep.” It’s not a lie, but it feels like one. After everything Selena’s doing to cure the gnomes, will she be able to wake any of us from a deathsleep coma in time?
I round the curve, the tunnel straightening to stretch before me, the end swallowed by darkness.
And no sluagh.
My head cocks as I strain, trying to hear anything to indicate it waits just out of sight—the flutter of a cloak, the rustle of wings. There’s nothing.
With a grunt, I back away, sword still at the ready. When I reach the others, I point at the gnome sentry. “It retreated. Follow it and make sure it’s actually leaving.”
She gives a nod and whirls back along the tunnel.
I sheath my sword and push past the dragon and unicorn right as the gnomes throw one last pulse of magic down the new tunnel, then collapse onto the floor with delirious cries of triumph.
Selena stands, hand reaching for a tiny shoulder that’s no longer where she expected it to be. Then she too falls.
No!
My heart leaps into my throat as I race forward, diving to catch her before she can hit the ground.
“Selena!”
Her eyes open, and she offers me a soft smile. “We did it. ”
I glance at the new tunnel, the end no longer dark. A red glow gleams, promising the magic that awaits us. I’ll be able to get the crystals and complete my quest, but the victory feels hollow with her hurt.
“Are you all right?” I ask.
“A little tired,” she whispers. “I think I used too much magic.”
A growl rumbles through me.
“No regrets.” She cups my cheek, her hand cooler than normal. “Just nobody get hurt for the next day or two, okay?”
Bellavesaria peers over my shoulder. “What does using too much magic feel like?”
“Like… I burned out my nerves or something.”
“What?” A jolt of worry goes through me as I squeeze her tighter.
“Not my regular nerves. I can still feel.” Her brow pinches. “It’s like… I burned my magical nerves.”
“Interesting,” the dragon says.
“You know what’s really interesting?” Dash brandishes his horn toward the new tunnel. “Whatever’s down there. Let’s go , already.”
Selena’s sweet weight fills my arms, her cheek pressed trustingly to my shoulder. I brush my lips across her head, breathing in the lovely scent of her.
This quest is the thing I’m supposed to care about more than anything else.
But I don’t.
Goddess help me, I don’t.