“I don’t care. Without you, I’m dead, anyway.” I realize now the truth of my statement. Without him, the other half of my soul, I’ll wither from within until I’m hollow, a vessel without purpose. Without him, the world means nothing to me.
Eclipsa rushes into the cage, jaw clenched against the iron seeping into the air. Her eyes flick over the landscape. “We need to hurry. Any minute they’ll notice we’re gone, and this is the first place they’ll check.”
Eclipsa and I reach for Valerian, but he growls, “I can walk.”
I suddenly understand how hard it must have been all those times he wanted to help me, but I resisted. Insisting on doing it myself. The desire to help my mate is an instinctual urge that’s as strong as my need for oxygen.
Fists clenched, I retreat along with Eclipsa. We watch Valerian struggle to his feet. Watch him take one painful step. Then another. Every muscle in his neck straining, his chest flaring as he drags in hungry, ragged gulps of air.
Once he’s free of the cage, every bit of his injured flesh is on display. A shuddering groan shatters his lips. The sound drags me forward, but I manage not to grab him. Instead, shadowing him as he carves a slow path toward shore.
The charcoal-gray pants hanging from his hips are in tatters, shadows trapping in his gaunt ribs and collarbone. A circlet of iron clenches around his left wrist.
I move to take it off, but Eclipsa stops me. “A magic-binder. Only Hellebore can remove it safely.”
That bastard. I grind my jaw to hide my frustration.
“This is a much better view than before,” Valerian whispers, his one good eye riveted to me, as if I’m the only thing holding him up. “Now come here, Princess.”
I’m in his arms before he can finish his command. I cling to his battered body. Delicately at first, until he whispers in my ear, “I won’t break.”
“Not to be the pessimist here,” Asher murmurs, slogging up to us. “But both Summer and Valerian are spelled against leaving the island, and no matter where they hide, the marks engraved into their arms will allow Hellebore to drag them back to him.”
“Then we fight.” Eclipsa surveys the cliffs above, those feline eyes glimmering with dark promise.
I pull away slightly from Valerian, afraid that if I stop touching him, he’ll disappear. “No.”
Eclipsa, Mack, and Asher glance over at me, and I realize with pride that they’re waiting for instruction.
“Go back to the party. Try to keep them distracted for as long as possible.”
Mack wrings out the hem of her dress, a frown tugging her lips. “Where will you go?”
“I have a place.” Asher’s eyebrows crawl up his forehead as I reach into my bra and pull out the second item I brought—a piece of the twig I snagged from the mysterious cabin.
The dark-blue berry is withered into a desiccated pit, the silver petals from its blossoms like old parchment that crumble beneath my fingers.
“When I was at my mother’s,” I say, “I had a lot of time. At some point, I decided to clean out Ruby’s pouch and found this.”
“Where did you find snowlace berries?” Eclipsa murmurs. “Those only grow deep in the Winter Court.”
“Remember the cabin I had you search for?”
She nods, wearing a puzzled look.
“I plucked this from the doorframe.”
Valerian’s muscles tense beneath my palm as he stares at the tiny flower. “You found my mother’s old on-campus house.”
“Yes, but I just realized whose cabin it was a few weeks ago, when I found the dried berries and looked them up. There must be wards that keep it hidden. Wards that only unlock for her magic—and yours. That’s why I was able to see it and Eclipsa wasn’t. It recognized your magic inside me.”
“You portal there,” Eclipsa asks softly, “and then what? You can’t escape. You have an hour, tops, before Hellebore realizes you’re gone and jerks you both back.”
“Then I do something I should have done a long time ago.” I look into my mate’s wounded face. Now that he’s away from the iron cage, his injuries are beginning to heal. “We’re going to consummate our bond. If it’s still alive somewhere inside us, our