Samar’s voice boomed, “Move!”
A dull pain struck Magnus in the leg. He grunted, whipping around to see Arvid gripping a bone-shiv that was planted deep in his leg.
Samar slammed a boot down on Arvid’s chest, flattening him against the ground. Nadine threw herself upon Magnus’s leg, immediately applying pressure. The shiv was gone, still clutched in Arvid’s flailing arm. Before Magnus could react, Samar chopped the hand off with a swing of his axe.
Arvid screamed.
Magnus wanted to scream with him. A flurry of instincts hit him: attack Samar, cover Arvid’s arm, put Arvid out of his misery.
“Finish what you started, savage,” Samar spat, looking like he was an inch from taking Arvid’s head off then and there.
Ignoring his leg, Magnus threw himself forward. He regripped the knife and shoved his arm up under Arvid’s chin. Magnus exhaled slowly, letting his weight carry the blade down. The silver-white light slowly drained from his friend’s eyes, replaced by endless, sky blue. Arvid’s eyes.
Magnus collapsed upon his friend’s chest. The pain was everywhere. There was no escape.
“Magnus?” Nadine’s voice was calling to him. “Magnus?”
Awareness came rushing back. Nadine. His bride. He shoved himself up. A sear of hot pain tore through his body from the leg up.
“Magnus, you’re hurt.”
“Shuraa ket,” Samar muttered, still hovering above. He was off Arvid now. He paced the area with the axe near his chest, eyes darting up and down the tunnel.
Magnus swallowed and blinked. He rolled off Arvid’s torn-up body and landed on his rear in the gravel. The pain in his leg intensified until it was all he could feel.
“Can you move your foot?” Her voice was calm. Too calm.
Magnus already knew, without trying, that he couldn’t. He tried to flex his ankle and had to brace himself to keep from fainting.
“He tore a tendon.” She stood and stripped off one of her belts.
Magnus watched. None of this seemed real. One would never suspect by her face that she’d just watched him kill his best friend. One might never suspect by watching him that he’d done it. What should he be doing? Weeping? He certainly shouldn’t be speaking. But then, he wasn’t speaking. Was he?
He forced himself to be still as she tied the leather of her belt around his leg. He was still reeling, could barely collect his thoughts when Samar came up beside them.
“We have to leave him,” Samar said to Nadine.
Nadine didn’t respond, only continued to work at his leg and mumble that the blood was flowing too quickly. Samar bent down and put a hand to her shoulder. She instantly flinched. The look she shot him was poisonous.
Samar frowned at her. “He can’t get out with only one leg. We have to go.”
“Help me move him, or I’ll kill you.” Her voice was deadly serious.
Samar scoffed at her and straightened as though he couldn’t believe her. “We can’t. He’s too big. We have to move fast or we’ll all die.”
“Then let us die,” she snapped back at him.
Her words brought Magnus fully back into the present. “No.” Samar and Nadine looked at him. “Go with him, kandiri.”
Nadine sneered. “You’re in shock.” She went back to tying up his leg.
Magnus leaned forward and caught her wrists. “You have to get to the surface. You have to warn my brothers about the Soul Thieves. There’s no time.”
“What about the Soul Thieves?” Samar asked.
Magnus forced himself to spare the man a look. “They’re digging paths to the rest of the underworld. If they get there before we kill them—”
“—They’ll get to us from anywhere.” Samar’s eyes widened and his lips parted.
Magnus refocused on Nadine. “Take the weapons, kandiri. Get out of here. I’ll find my own way out.”
The last was an utter lie, but he’d say whatever he must.
Samar bent to draw Nadine away. The moment his hand touched her, she tore out of Magnus’s grip and threw herself at a surprised Samar. She shoved him hard, and he stumbled back, half falling into the dirt before scrambling to his feet. She faced him, shoulders back, fists at her sides. “Leave now, vermin. Before I give you justice.”
Samar stared at her with incredulity, then disgust. He snapped up one of the fallen torches. “Fine.”
He walked over to the corpse of the light-haired Dokiri and removed a skin of water. When he reached the back wall, he glanced back at Nadine. “You deserve each other.”
Nadine said not a word as he escaped up the wall and through the tunnel.
When Nadine turned, she looked every bit the Ebronian captain, satisfied at having her orders obeyed. There was no fear on her face. No hesitation for what she’d just done. She knelt before Magnus and went back to his leg.
Magnus stared at her. “Why?”
But Nadine didn’t answer. She finished tying off his leg, then stood.
“Get up, barbarian. I’m not finished with you yet.”
29
The Last Piece
What Samar had accomplished in moments took Nadine and Magnus the better part of an hour to do. They’d used the hilt of the axe to splint his leg. Nadine had shimmied up the side of the tunnel, and used the axe-head to dig divots for her feet at the top. Then she’d helped by giving Magnus her arms to hold onto while she clung to the divots and he crawled his way up the ledge after her. It was a good damned thing the man was so damn tall already, otherwise she’d never have been able to get him over the ledge.
They made it an hour before he was grunting with every step. They made it one more before he reached his limit. Nadine had known they were never going to make it out. Still, she’d pressed him onward, desperate to find somewhere, anywhere, to hide.
Her wish had been granted in the form of a crack in the tunnel wall that dropped into a shallow pit. To her everlasting gratitude, a trickle of water ran down one corner of the tiny hole. Nadine wasted no time sucking down mouthful after mouthful of the dusty stuff. Safe or not, she didn’t care. Quenching her thirst was her only instinct. And anyway, it wasn’t likely she had a long life ahead of her.
She helped Magnus to the far end of the wall. He pressed his face against the stone and drank. Her flares had been taken along with her weapons. The torch was going to burn out soon. The last thing she’d see before it did was the too-pale face of her barbarian as he fought to hold on to life.
If she could get him to the surface, Nadine knew he’d survive. But he’d lost so much blood, and she couldn’t get the wound to dry without proper bandages. She’d considered cauterizing his wounds, but lacked the right tools. It would give him pain with little result. And it wouldn’t help him walk.
Magnus pushed back from the trickle, panting. He wiped away the dribble with the back of his arm and leaned his head against the wall to catch his breath. “You should have gone with him, kandiri.”
Nadine rolled her eyes. “Not this again.”
“If you go now, you might still catch him.”
“I made my choice.” She settled herself next to him. She settled the torch in a small crack in the ground next to her. The light was hardly more than a candle at this point. When it went out, she wanted to be touching him. She wanted to feel him. Mount him. Just be with him.