Rhain nodded.
“We can’t go in there.” Thadd scowled, his sword resting up on his shoulder. “We have no idea what beasts are in there. It could be teeming with hexids and cupra.”
Mal spun. “I have to find Poppy. She’s alive and that asshole has her.”
“She’s a trap,” Thadd said.
“You stay here then.” Mal moved forward.
A flurry of curses echoed behind her, but the men and Carvia followed.
Mal’s sword glowed silver, giving enough light to navigate. Rhain’s swords gleamed red, Thadd’s was gold, and Trist and Carvia’s weapons were orange.
The rocky walls were black and jagged. Mal saw something in them and gasped. Old bones, fossils of long dead animals.
“Creatures that died in the Radiance,” Rhain said.
The tunnel opened into an enormous cavern. Their light didn’t penetrate far enough to see, but she felt a sense of enormous space.
“Do you feel anything?” she asked Rhain.
His brows drew together and he was tense. “No.”
She took another step into the darkness and heard a growl. She froze.
Suddenly, two lights blinked on in the black.
Her chest locked. Not lights.
Eyes.
Gleaming eyes, like a sheen over oil.
A hexid.
More of them flickered on.
Dozens of them.
Mal lifted her sword, her heart thumping in her ears.
There were too many of them. There was no way they could fight them all and no way they could escape. The hexids would chase them down.
Thadd cursed. “No one ever listens to me.”
Rhain’s face was what she was starting to recognize as his king mask—cool, inscrutable.
She wanted to find Poppy, but she didn’t want Rhain and his people to die here either. Energy began to pool around her. She called it to her. She had no idea how she was doing it, but it felt right.
Fueled by her emotions, the energy gathered around her, growing. She gasped. It felt so powerful. It made her feel powerful.
“We need to go,” Thadd said.
“As soon as we move, they’ll chase us,” Rhain said.
Suddenly, several hexids launched forward.
They loped in, powerful bodies sprinting fast.
“Charge,” Rhain yelled.
With a cry, Mal swung her sword. She sliced and stabbed, and saw other charged weapons glow brightly as the others fought. Rhain’s red kilwar swords were a thing of breathtaking beauty. Thadd’s sword looked like molten gold.
The first wave of hexids lay dead around them.
“Trist,” Carvia cried.
The trim man had a glowing orange dagger in one hand and the other hand pressed to his shoulder. Blood seeped through his fingers from a nasty gash.
He made an annoyed male sound. “It’s fine.”
Carvia met Mal’s gaze and rolled her eyes.
“Well done, Overlord.”
The voice had them all whipping around. The power in Mal hurt, still growing, but she wrestled it down. A man stood on a rock, two hexids crouched beside him like pets.
It wasn’t Krastin. Mal frowned, scanning the cave. No Poppy either. This tall, blond man was a stranger.
She heard Rhain suck in a sharp breath. He stared at the man, his jaw working.
“No matter how hard you fight, you will lose.” The man smiled and spread his hands. “Give in to the might of King Zavir. It will be so much easier for you.”
The man’s skin looked burned on one side of his face. He had some sort of Zhylaw implant embedded in his neck. It looked new, the skin still red and raw around it.
“Rhain?” she asked quietly.
“He’s Zhalton.” Dark sorrow in his voice. And rage. “He’s one of the dead from the Renkitis Outpost. We never found his body.”
Her stomach cramped into sharp points. Krastin had taken this Zhalton man and twisted him into a puppet.
“I will never stand at Zavir’s side.” Rhain’s voice echoed in the cavern. “And I will avenge you.”
The Zhalton man shrugged. “He has a lot more planned to persuade you and your brothers, Overlord.” He lifted a hand.
More hexids flooded out of the darkness. Hundreds of them. No, thousands.
They all howled, the sounds deafening.
Mal backed up, the others doing the same.
“There are too many,” Thadd yelled.
“We fight,” Rhain said grimly.
They’d all die. Mal watched Rhain lift his swords, his handsome face awash in red light.
Trist threw a dagger. It hit a hexid in the eye and the beast stumbled, tripping over several others.
The hexids would rip them to shreds. The thought of Rhain bloody and dying made her chest hollow out.
The energy in her swelled. She gasped. Oh, man, it hurt. She felt like she was on fire inside.
She shoved her sword back in its sheath and walked forward.
“Mal!” Rhain yelled.
She threw her palms up.
A giant wall of energy flared into existence between her and the hexids.
The creatures slammed into it, and it shimmered. But they couldn’t get through.
Ow, that really hurt. Every hit reverberated through her.
“Auroras above,” Thadd muttered.
On the other side of the energy wall, the altered Zhalton stared at her, wide-eyed.
“Mal?” Rhain moved in close behind her.
“Go.” She had no idea how long she could hold it. She could feel the power draining out of her.
Every ram of the hexids weakened the wall.
“I can’t… Hold it much longer. Go.”
He stepped closer and she met his silver gaze. She wished she’d kissed him again. Gotten to spend more time with him.
“Promise me you’ll find Poppy,” she said.
He nodded.
“Now go.”
His face twisted, and she felt his hand stroke down her back. She closed her eyes and absorbed the touch.
Then he stepped away.
Mal’s awareness faded, her vision blurred.
The throb of her heartbeat was like a drum in her head, and she felt fluid leaking from her ears. Probably blood.
She’d die here, alone. She was sorry she couldn’t save Poppy, but she thought Rhain would remember her. And at least he would live.
She threw her hands out once more, and there was a blast of energy as the wall gave way. Pain ripped through her, and she collapsed to the ground.
Then there was nothing.
Rhain came to face down on hard rock.
He stifled a groan, aches and pains flaring in his body. He was alive, and nothing seemed to be broken, nor was he bleeding profusely.
He sat up and touched his head. His vision wavered. His temple and cheekbone were tender.
What had—?
Mal.
Pulse racing, Rhain pushed to his feet, searching frantically.
There.
She was laying on her side nearby.
He ran and dropped down beside her. “Mal?”
She was unconscious and covered in hexid blood, but when he saw her chest moving, he blew out a breath. He dropped down to sit beside her and pulled her into his arms.
After she’d thrown up that energy wall, he sent Thadd, Trist and Carvia back into the tunnel.
Then, at the last second, he’d used his abilities to collapse the roof… Between him and the others.
The last thing he’d seen was Thadd’s furious face.
Yes, his captain of the guard would be very unhappy with Rhain.