Chapter 40

40

What was she doing? Where was she going? It felt like she had been walking in circles for an eternity. She kept going taking stairs up to the next level in hopes of finding her friends. Yet was ecstatic when they weren’t there. She feared that the very ones who had sent her after them were spying on her, and when she didn’t kill them, others would. Arya wandered aimlessly. Getting and going nowhere.

She passed countless doors. Once she paused beside one and listened. She had opened the small access that allowed her to peer inside. The sight of the three women broke what was left of her heart. She and the others had entered the fort to free them, but she didn’t open the door.

She didn’t open any of them.

What good would it do? She couldn’t get them out. It would give them false hope, only for them to be rounded up and shoved back into the rooms. That was beyond cruel. She closed the access and kept walking, but she didn’t look into any more rooms.

The plan to cause chaos and bring the Masters out had worked. Just not how they had hoped. The only thing that kept Arya going was knowing that Dain and the others were out there somewhere. Though she wished she knew if Jai was safe. Only one elf would go to such extremes to get him. But how had Priya separated them? Jai had been there, in her arms, and then he wasn’t.

Arya ascended another set of steps and turned the corner only to come to a halt at the sight of a Star Elf . He leaned casually against the wall, eating a piece of fruit. His silver hair was long with shiny silver bands around small braids that mixed with the rest of his hair. A black jacket accentuated his broad shoulders and fell to his knees. Beneath was a lavender shirt and black trousers. The fabric looked luxurious, and the cut spoke of expensive tailoring. Even his boots looked handmade.

Purple eyes met hers. He shot her a charming smile. He had a fine body and a handsome, appealing face. His relaxed stance, along with the wall torch cascading light upon him, proclaimed him as free. She was immediately wary.

“ You seem lost,” he said.

Arya crossed her arms over her chest, trying not to wince at the movement. “ Do I ?”

“ Shall I help?”

“ I’m not sure I’m willing to pay the price for such aid.”

He finished the last of the fruit, licking juices from his fingers. Then he grinned at her. “ You wound me.”

“ I doubt that.”

“ Don’t you want to know my name?”

“ I think it’d be better if we pretended this interaction never happened.” She dropped her arms and turned on her heel to retrace her steps.

But his words halted her. “ I assume you’re searching for Priya . Or would you rather locate Jai ?”

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as she turned to face him. Arya studied his features to see if they had encountered each other before, but she couldn’t place him. Yet , he obviously knew her. “ Who sent you?”

“ No one.” He faced her, keeping a shoulder against the wall. “ Though I know you don’t believe that.” He straightened. “ I’m here to help.”

“ Why ?”

“ Why not?”

She quirked a brow. “ Everyone has a motive.”

“ Ah . Very true.”

“ What’s yours?”

He chuckled, his lips splitting into a wide grin. “ That would take entirely too long to explain.”

“ Then condense it.”

“ Suffice it to say I see things differently than others.”

That could mean anything, and there was no point in debating the issue. The Star Elf wouldn’t tell her anything she could trust. He got her attention by mentioning Priya and Jai . She wanted to find Jai with all her heart. She also wanted to locate Priya , but for another purpose altogether.

“ Can you tell me where Jai is?”

He raised a brow. “ Just him? You sure you don’t want Priya , too?”

“ You would give me both?”

“ I didn’t say that.”

Arya rolled her eyes. “ Just as I figured. I don’t have time for this.”

“ Why ? Because you need to wander more halls? Time is wasting—time you don’t have.”

She narrowed her eyes on him. She was missing something about the Star Elf . “ What do you want?”

He stared at her for a long moment. “ You aren’t asking the right questions.”

“ I beg to differ. You want something.”

“ We all want something, Arya .”

She shrugged, recalling too late her injured arms. She didn’t stop her hiss of pain in time.

“ I can see to that,” he offered.

“ And what would that cost me? My soul?” she retorted irritably.

He held out his hands, palms up, and slowly walked to her. “ I want nothing in exchange. You have my word. Let me help.”

“ Nay .”

He halted and lowered his arms. “ You’re going to need full movement when you encounter Priya . You won’t have that unless you allow me to heal your injuries.”

“ What is a healer doing Below , anyway?”

“ It’s a long, boring story. Now , what’s your decision? Do you want to move freely or be in pain?”

She shot him a dark look when he stepped closer. “ Why do you think I’m going to encounter Priya ? Are you sending her my way? Is that what this is about? You intend to weaken me more than I already am so she can try to kill me again.”

“ If I wanted to put you at a disadvantage, I could’ve done it many, many times before now. I might be a healer, but I don’t offer my services often. Ever , actually. I’d suggest you take it now, for everyone’s sake.”

“ What does that mean?”

“ There is more going on than anyone knows. You need to connect everything.”

She blew out a breath. “ A tad difficult to do when I’m trapped in this wretched place.”

“ There’s always a way out.”

“ Of course, there is. Stop moving toward me,” she ordered when she saw he had managed to take a few more steps.

He grinned, the corners of his purple eyes crinkling. “ It’s that spirit that will see you through what’s coming.”

“ What’s coming?”

“ War .”

She took a step back when she realized he was close enough to touch. “ Don’t come any closer.”

“ Sorry , but you don’t leave me any choice.”

Before she could move, his hands wrapped around her upper arms, and he gently pushed her back against the wall. There was a brief, sharp pain and then healing magic moved from him through her, repairing the blood vessels and nerves. She tried to keep her eyes open, but they grew heavy.

“ Don’t fight it,” the Star Elf said.

Arya only had one other injury she had been awake for when she was healed, and she hadn’t gotten drowsy. Why was she now? What was he doing to her?

His voice, when it came again, was close to her ear. “ Listen carefully. You need to concentrate on finding Priya . She must be stopped.”

Arya tried to ask why, but it only came out as a grunt.

“ She’s at the back port fourteen levels up, but she isn’t alone. Watch your back.”

The moment his magic was gone, her eyes snapped open. Arya looked around the corridor, but the Star Elf was gone, as was his torch. She hesitantly moved first one shoulder, and then the other, finding he had indeed healed her. She considered his words. Could she believe him? It might be a trap, but it was a chance she had to take. Otherwise , she might be wandering the corridors forever. Or until the Masters grew tired and killed her.

Arya gathered the shadows around her. She had a destination now. But finding it proved challenging. It wasn’t as if she could ask for directions. For one, she wasn’t sure anyone would tell her, and two, she didn’t want to alert Priya to her intentions.

This thing between her and Priya needed to be dealt with once and for all. She refused to be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her days, wondering if the Dark would show up again. Though all of that hinged on Arya getting out of the fort. If she could believe the Star Elf , there was a way out. If only he had bothered to tell her how.

Perhaps he believed her clever enough to find it. How wrong he would be. She had believed herself intelligent and skillful, but that was before her emotions got mixed in. She didn’t know how Dain kept himself removed from everyone. Where she’d once thought him cold and detached, she now understood that he did it to competently do his job.

Arya had been too wrapped up in her love for Jai , her hatred of Priya , anger at those running the fort, and the agony of those captured. Maybe if she hadn’t let her heart get caught up in everything, she might have had a clearer head when Priya surprised her that first time. But she wouldn’t get another chance at Arya like that again.

“ He’s not waking up,” Yasmin said.

Jai and Ravi carried Dain as far from the chamber as they could before they stopped and laid him on the floor.

Yasmin gently tapped his face. “ Dain ?” She tapped a second time. “ Dain , please.”

Ravi knelt on the other side of the Dark and slapped him. Dain’s eyes popped open. “ You had us worried,” Ravi told him.

Dain said nothing. He lifted his left hand to look at a cut on his index finger.

“ How do you feel?” Yasmin asked.

Dain grunted. “ Like someone slapped me.”

“ Had to be done. You’re heavy.” Ravi climbed to his feet and held out his hand for Dain .

Jai watched the Dark carefully. Mamta seemed to think the book had done something to Dain . Jai didn’t see any outward signs, but that didn’t mean the book hadn’t left more than a mark on Dain’s finger. Ravi pulled Dain to his feet, but he seemed more interested in his injury.

Yasmin stood. “ How do you feel?”

“ I’m fine,” Dain answered.

“ Did the book do anything?” Jai asked.

Dain’s yellow gaze lifted to his. “ It came at my head.”

“ It made you bleed.”

“ So it did.”

Jai glanced at Ravi and Yasmin , who were watching the exchange with interest. He then said, “ Mamta seemed to believe the book got some kind of revenge on you.”

“ It knocked me out. And did this,” Dain said, lifting his hand for them to see the deep cut. “ It got its revenge. Why did you tell us not to touch it?”

“ Looking at it made me ill. And ,”— Jai paused, but they needed to know—“there were whispers.”

Yasmin’s eyes widened. “ You heard voices?”

“ I couldn’t understand them,” Jai explained. “ Not at first.”

Ravi glanced down the dimly lit hallway. “ She said you would eventually. What did you hear?”

“ Just a word or two, nothing that made sense. Then they said Arya’s name.”

That got Dain to lower his hand. “ What about her?”

“ They offered to save her,” Jai said.

“ And you didn’t accept?”

The anger came off Dain in great gusts. Jai held his ground when Dain came at him, only dodging to the right at the last minute. The crunch of stone filled the area. Jai followed Dain’s arm to the fist that had busted through the rock, and the black magic undulating around him.

“ Dain !” Ravi barked.

The Dark yanked his fist free and looked uncertainly at it. “ What just happened?”

“ We were hoping you could explain,” Yasmin said as she rubbed the stones to calm them.

Dain dropped his arm and looked at Jai . “ I don’t know why I got angry.”

But Jai suspected he knew—the book. “ We need to find Arya . Now .”

“ We need to talk about what just happened,” Ravi said.

Dain wrapped his hand around the fist that had punched the wall. “ We’ll talk later. We need to get moving.”

“ I don’t like this. Any of it,” Yasmin muttered.

Jai watched Dain twist away and look at the wound on his finger.

“ Just find her,” Dain ordered.

Jai exchanged a look with Yasmin and Ravi , each of them acutely aware that something wasn’t right with their friend.

“ Let us see to that wound,” Ravi said.

Dain slowly rotated to face them. Jai jerked at the eerie glow in his yellow eyes.

“ Uh … Ravi ,” Yasmin whispered.

Ravi’s lips flattened. “ Well , shite.”

Dain’s lips curved into something resembling a smile, but it was the violence and rage coming off him that warned Jai that things were about to get dodgy. While Dain’s attention was locked on Ravi as he moved forward, Jai delivered a right hook that snapped the Dark’s head back.

Ravi immediately shoved both hands into Dain’s chest, adding a volley of magic that sent the Dark careening backward into the wall. The three of them jumped on Dain to bring him to the floor. Yasmin got his legs while Jai put a knee on his chest and used all his weight to keep his right hand down. Ravi focused on the left arm, particularly the injured finger.

The moment Ravi’s yellow magic touched the wound, Dain began to scream and tried to buck them off. Jai covered Dain’s mouth in an attempt to silence him. The sound was unnatural and sinister, but the dark mist leaving the wound troubled Jai more.

Dain nearly got free several times. They struggled to hold him down. Yasmin got kicked in the face. Jai’s finger nearly got bitten when Dain rolled his head. Ravi took the brunt of everything, but he didn’t let up until Dain went limp and still.