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For a perfect, suspended moment, we exist as a single entity, bound by blood and stone and a connection too dangerous to name.
As our breathing slows, Elionn eases me down, my legs trembling as they take my weight. He doesn’t release me, keeping our bodies pressed together as if afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
His warm breath caresses my face. “I thought I was alone here. Trapped forever.” His thumb traces my cheekbone. “Then you came.”
His wonder shakes me more than his touch. “I didn’t come for you because I wanted to. I came because I was paid to.”
“Liar,” he says in gentle rebuke. “The bond tells me otherwise.”
The stone dims to a faint glow between us, still humming with residual energy. I should pull away. Break this closeness. Remember why I’m here.
Instead, I stay wrapped in his arms, clinging to him as reality settles back around us.
“In all your searching, did you ever find an answer?” I ask, fingers tracing the contours of his brow and cheekbones. “About the crystal blight?”
His mouth tightens. “I thought I had a lead in the Dark Sithe. But I ended up trapped here instead.”
“And now I’m trapped, too.”
“Not forever.” His silver eyes burn with determination. “I won’t leave you here, Amalia. I swear it.”
“Could we escape through a mirror?” The question tumbles from my lips as we stand entwined, my mind racing ahead even as my body craves to remain in this moment.
He kisses the pulse point on my neck. “There are no mirrors here.”
“There are. I’ve seen them.” My pulse quickens with excitement. “If I bring you to one, could you use it to return to the Dark Sithe?”
Elionn pulls back as the post-passion haze dissipates. “Yes, if we can find one intact, I can spell it.” He pauses, brow furrowing. “But you’re bound to the court now. I’m not certain you can leave.”
The reality of my situation crashes back in, and I brace a hand against the crystal wall. In response to my touch, the court’s icy presence flows through me, the surface rippling outward in concentric circles.
“We’ll find out when we get there.” I straighten my tattered dress, salvaging what dignity I can. “If I can command it to release you, perhaps I can command it to release me as well.”
His palms slide down my arms to capture my hands. “And if not?”
“Then at least one of us escapes.” I refuse to flinch from the truth. “Better that than both of us trapped here forever.”
He opens his mouth to argue, but the wall behind him liquefies, reforming into a doorway.
Kelaros steps through, the tattered edges of his coat fluttering around his legs, crystal dust clinging to the fabric.
His eyes flick between us, cataloging our disheveled state with a raised eyebrow. “There’s no food to be found. The fragments have all gone to dust. Though it appears you satiated yourself in other ways.”
“We need to leave.” I push away from the wall. “Elionn believes he can spell a mirror to escape.”
Kelaros considers this news. “The chamber of mirrors lies on the far side of the Great Hall. We’d need to pass the hollow stag’s territory again.”
“Can you form another path?” Elionn asks me, tipping his head toward the pulsing walls.
I reach for the nearest surface, closing my eyes as my awareness spreads through the vast network of the Opal veins. The pathways stretch in every direction, some stable, others shifting with the court’s breathing. I can sense the mirror chamber, distant but present, like a phantom limb.
“Yes.” My lashes lift, and I find both men watching me.
Elionn squares his shoulders, the prince reasserting himself beneath the exhausted captive. “Lead the way.”
I concentrate on reshaping the court around us, forcing corridors to form where none existed before. The crystal resists, groaning as it bends to my will. Sweat beads on my forehead with the effort, but a path emerges, straight and clear.
“This way.” I step through the archway, the men following close behind.
