Ani glanced down at the hand he offered her. Unable to comprehend the abrupt change in his demeanor, she shuttered her eyes in suspicion and flicked her gaze back at his masked face.
“Just like that?”
When he seemed confused, she continued. “Is that a habit of yours? Aggressively pinning women to walls, demanding their name, and then asking for their help like everything is good?”
He sucked in his cheeks, whether to hold back a scathing retort or a smile, she didn’t know. That damned mask over his eyes made him harder to read.
“Well, normally, when I have women pinned to walls, they’re calling out my name,” he deadpanned.
Oh, dear God, she thought to herself, physically feeling the ache in her eyeballs as it tried to roll to the back of her head. But, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction, so, instead, she let his remark marinate in silence.
Crossing his arms, he tilted his head. “Everything is good because I know you’re harmless now. I came in here ready to tackle a deranged believer, but you’re just as clueless as I am. Maybe even more so.”
“Am I supposed to know what that means?”
“You come here looking for magic, yet you don’t know the first thing about it,” he scrutinized.
She opened her mouth, ready to retaliate, but he wasn’t wrong. What did she know about magic? From the current status of her endeavor, she couldn’t even confirm if what she was looking for existed. “Please, do enlighten me then.”
“You gave me your name.”
She frowned. “So did you.”
“A gamble that paid off,” he smirked. “Practitioners and Dreamers never give their names. Names have power, Ani.”
“And what makes you think I gave you my real one?” she deflected, trying to subdue her regret. He did have her true name — at least, the one she was born with. How foolish was she?
“Real or not, it’s a part of you. You’re lucky I’m not a Dreamer.”
Ani clenched her jaw. “Your proposition,” she moved on, not wanting to dwell on the topic of her name anymore. “What is it?”
Clasping his hands behind his back, he settled down. “Let me ask you something first.”
She raised a brow.
“How far are you willing to go?”
To save her mother? She would go to whatever end. Death or demise, it didn’t matter. But she contemplated her answer for him. She had to seem desperate enough, yet independent from needing him. “All you need to know is that I will claim what I seek. With or without your help.”
“Good.” He reached his hand out again. “Help me catch the Dreamers, and I’ll help you find your healer.”
Her pulse spiked at his words. “I need more. You said I brought magic back. What does that mean?”
He stepped closer, still holding his hand out. “A Dreamer said it, not me. He claims you’re the beginning of the end.”
“I don’t know what that means,” she uttered, her heartbeats accelerating.
“I know,” Rafe murmured. “That’s why we’re going to find out.”
Once more, she looked down at his extended hand. A forbidding sense of deja vu passed over her. Where had she seen this scene before? “Are you taking me to them?”
“No,” he stopped before her. “You’re not stepping foot near those maniacs. We’re going hunting for the ones in hiding. And, I believe you’ll find your healer there.”
“One with magic?”
Rafe gestured for her hand. “If what they say is true, then yes. Magic has returned.”
This was the first show of promise since she had arrived at the empire. It was clear he was still hiding something from her, but this was all she had.
“I still don’t understand how I play a part in this.”
“They will come for you,” Rafe admitted in a dark voice. “They believe you are to deliver them from this world and into another.”
She shook her head. “That’s…nonsense.”
“Perhaps,” he muttered. “Either way, we can work together to get what we each require. You need your healer. I need the Dreamers. Do we have a deal?”
Under her mask, she bit her lips. Could she trust this strange, masked man? There was a sense of affinity between them — one she couldn’t explain. Reaching her gloved hand out, she decided to take a risk. As the tips of her fingers touched his palm, she felt —
“GET DOWN!”
Rafe surged into her, knocking the breath from her body as he tackled her to the ground. Shielding her with his frame, he pressed into her.
Ani couldn’t breathe, the impact of their fall pressuring her chest until it felt as if it would explode. She couldn’t see a thing. Everywhere she looked was black.
Am I back in the abyss? she thought in panic, but as she felt Rafe’s heartbeats thudding against her body, she knew he was covering her from something.
What’s going on? She opened her mouth to speak the words, but no sound escaped.
All around, something shattered onto the ground, and what she had thought were the trembles from her body, it was the earth that was shaking.
Rafe, she tried speaking again, but her voice was stolen away from the onslaught of terror.
Light burst through as Rafe shifted to look down at her. “Ani,” he shouted into her. “You need to breathe. Breathe, Ani!”
She felt her shoulders shaking while her lungs burned, but all she could see were the falling stalagmites from the cavern ceiling raining down on them as it exploded into shards on the ground. Rafe whipped his head around, searching for a path to escape from the falling crystals that were a breath away from piercing their flesh.
Ani turned her head, gasping in staccato beats to get enough air into her screaming body. Squinting her eyes, she saw shadows emerge from the glowing waterfall. Seizing his collar in panic, she took her first real breath. “Rafe. The waterfall,” she cried.
He glanced down. “Ani, you’re —”
“The waterfall!” she bellowed, scrambling to get up.
Rafe followed her horrified gaze.
Coming through the torrent of water, masked Dreamers in identical gray hoods glided towards them, holding sharp spears and chanting the same words over and over again. Give her to us. Give her to us. Give her to us.
Freeing a string of vivid curses, Rafe bared his teeth. “They found you,” he snarled, blindly grabbing for her hand.
Together, they sprinted through the falling stalagmites, praying one didn’t find its way into their skull. As the trembles in the cave grew stronger, Ani and Rafe swiftly ran through the threshold and climbed the steps frantically. Without looking back, she knew the Dreamers followed.
When their voices grew nearer, she glanced behind her to find one running toward them with his spear raised high. She grasped her dagger, just as Rafe unveiled a knife of his own.
Kicking his foot into the chest of the Dreamer, a pained grunt escaped from the man as he stumbled dangerously off the steps, but it didn’t phase him. Rafe swung his blade to slash against the Dreamer’s face, but the clash of the spear deflected it. The Dreamer chuckled. “Give her to us,” he repeated.
“Over my dead body,” Rafe growled, storming into the taunting man with his knife blurring through the air.
“GO,” Rafe shouted to her.
Ignoring his plea, Ani reached for the sconce on the wall. Looking around, she searched for a rock to flint against her dagger. There were more Dreamers coming for them, and Rafe’s skill with a knife wouldn’t do a damn thing. As she bent towards the ground, a second Dreamer burst through the threshold and lunged for her.
Slashing her dagger instinctively, she drew blood from the Dreamer's leg. She shot through the gap in his legs and maneuvered his body until he was swept onto the ground with a crack. She looked up in satisfaction until the approaching crowd of Dreamers entered her vision.
Rafe’s cry of pain snapped her head to the side. The Dreamer stabbed into his gut with the spear, and moved to plunge it deeper into his ribs.
Help us, she prayed. Someone help us, she pleaded as she jumped towards Rafe, ready to swipe her dagger across the Dreamer’s throat.
All at once, every sconce in the stairwell blazed to life, illuminating the bloody scene with a heat of clarity. And, like a phantom force, an aberrant surge of energy pulsed through the space until the Dreamers were knocked down. And, not just the two that had found their way into the threshold. Every single Dreamer that had come through the waterfall fell back from this phantom savior.
Her chest stung as if something had burned her, and as she reached up to find the source, Rafe yanked her away, his hand holding hers in a death grip. Running up the steps in a whirl, Rafe and Ani emerged out of the dwelling and into the quiet, moon-lit street. Pulling her away, he found a dark alley to stop in.
“You need to go,” Rafe whispered, turning to her with a grimace.
Ani reached for the wound already bleeding through his black tunic. He snatched her hand, and pulled her into him. “I’ll be fine,” he breathed, but she didn’t believe him. Not from the way his breaths heaved out unevenly and the sweat plastering his hair to his paling complexion.
“You’re not,” she argued, trying to escape out of his hold, but he only gripped tighter.
“Someone’s coming for me,” he snapped. “Listen to me for once, and go. You’re the one they want.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he beat her to it. “Meet me again tomorrow night. Not here, but in the city. There’s a tavern known as The Hollow. I’ll be waiting for you there, but for now, please go.”
Ani glanced down at his injury, hesitant to leave him like that, but Rafe shook his head, urging her with a displeased sound.
“Fine,” she conceded. “Tomorrow night. The Hollow.”
“Yes,” he rushed out in relief.
Nodding, she moved to leave, but before she left him behind, she looked back at him again. “Staunch the blood flow with a clean cloth and get it cauterized. You don’t want that to get infected.”
He mustered an amused smile. “As you wish.”
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