CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

KYRION

I ran to the right, trying to sprint into the next chamber where Vesper was fighting Esmina. Pollux's blows hadn't shattered the floor here, but the cavern tunnel had collapsed.

"You're not getting through that," Zane said, stopping beside me, a worried note in his voice.

I growled, snapped up my hand, and reached for my telekinesis. I'd fling every bloody rock in this place aside to reach Vesper—

"Hey!" a voice called out. "Up here!"

My head lifted. Asterin was still on the second level, clutching a blaster. "This level is still intact! We can get to the other chamber this way!"

I glanced around. So did Zane. But if any stairs or ramps had been in this section, they'd crumbled away during Pollux's attacks. So I ran over to the largest pile of rubble and started climbing. Zane also started climbing. Together we scrambled up to Asterin's level, which was littered with dead mercenaries.

"Come on!" she said. "This way!"

Zane and I ran after her. The three of us rounded a curve and made it into the next chamber. No mercenaries were alive in here, so no blaster fire zinged through the air.

My gaze zoomed over to Vesper, who was standing on a permaglass bridge close to the waterfall. She was bleeding from several deep cuts, and her face was pale and sweaty. The instant I saw her, the pain of her wounds surged through the bond, and stinging lines zipped across my own skin from my arms to my stomach to my legs. Esmina had cut her to pieces.

"How do I get down there?" I asked.

Asterin's head snapped back and forth. "Zane, help me find some stairs!"

The two of them moved deeper into the chamber, but I stayed where I was, staring down at Vesper. Helplessness surged through me, but all I could do was watch.

Vesper backed all the way over to the far end of the bridge, which arced out into a balcony. She blinked, and magic exploded in her eyes, making them burn more silver than blue.

Through the bond, I could feel the power surging through her, first white-hot, although it abruptly shifted to ice-cold, as though Vesper had flipped some psionic switch deep inside her. The velvety ribbon of her stilled, and satisfaction rumbled through the bond.

"Do you know what your problem is?" Vesper called out.

"What?" Esmina yelled back.

Vesper's eyes burned a little brighter, and a knowing grin curved her lips. "Even with all your magic, you can't fly any more than I can."

I frowned. What did she mean by that?

Esmina must have figured it out, because she lunged forward and lashed out with her dagger, but Vesper ducked the blow, dropped down, and slid back across the bridge.

Vesper rose onto her knees, lifting her sword high overhead. Then she slammed the lunarium blade into the bridge.

BOOM!

A wave of pure, raw psion power surged off Vesper, zipped down into her sword, and exploded out of the lunarium like a star being born. A bright light flared, so intense I had to look away. But in the next instant, the light winked out, and the bridge shattered, taking Vesper and Esmina along with it.

"Vesper!" I screamed.

I leaned over the railing and stretched my hand out, along with my telekinesis, but there was nothing I could do. Vesper was falling, falling, falling, and I couldn't catch her . . .

Smack!

Vesper landed on a long ledge jutting out from the side of the waterfall. Pain spiked through the bond, but before it could reverberate through me and bounce back to Vesper, I threw up a psionic shield, pulling as much of her hot, pulsing pain into my body as I could.

Esmina also landed on the ledge, which was about ten feet below where the bridge had been. She shook off the hard fall and got back up onto her feet, her dagger still in her hand, but Vesper didn't move. Esmina slowly turned around, her gaze locking onto Vesper.

Come on , I thought. Get up, Vesper.

No response. Vesper didn't move. Esmina took a wobbly step in her direction, then another one, then another one . . .

I ignored the other seer and focused on Vesper. I was too far away to help her, and she had to get up—or she was dead.

Vesper! I roared in my mind. Get up! Get up now!

Vesper's body jerked, as though my words had shocked her back to life like a defibrillator in a medtable, and she pushed herself up onto her elbow. It took her a few more seconds, but she staggered onto her feet. Somehow she'd managed to hang on to her stormsword, although the lunarium blade was barely glowing.

I hissed out a breath. As long as Vesper was awake, she still had a chance to kill Esmina.

"Kyrion!" Asterin yelled. "Over here!"

She waved at me, then hurried down a set of stairs I hadn't noticed before. Zane followed her, and I also sprinted in that direction.

I just hoped we weren't already too late to help Vesper.