“Logan?” she called out. Her voice echoed endlessly in the tunnels. A sharp, cold fear cut into her heart. “Logan, are you all right?”
“I’m here. I’m coming.”
It probably only took him a second to answer, but she felt like that microscopic silence aged her by a couple of years. She didn’t really start breathing again until he came into view. He headed straight for her and touched her cheek; she was so overheated that his hand felt pleasantly cool.
“Areyouokay?”
“Just tired.” She inhaled. “Did Sebastian—”
“He got away,” Logan said shortly. He pressed his lips together. “I’m so sorry, Iz.”
He shouldn’t be the one who was sorry.Shewas the one who had collapsed and who hadn’t been able to offer him backup.
She tried to focus on the positive: “We’ll get another chance, Logan.”
She didn’t know why she was sayingwe. The odds were good that she wouldn’t have anything to do with it and Logan wouldn’t have anything to do with her. He was already taking his hand off her cheek, like touching her had been some horrible accident.
“For right now,” she continued, “let’s just follow his lead and get out of here.”
You’re tired and worn out and it’s making you depressed, she told herself firmly.You’re in the middle of an adrenaline crash. It might not be as bad as you’re thinking.
But itfeltas bad as she was thinking.
Logan nodded stiffly. “We’re not too far from the exit. I could see it from—from where I lost him.”
Iz counted the steps to the mouth of the cave. Her heartbeat worked like a metronome, helping her pace herself. She could hear the blood pounding in her ears. The pressure was building up inside her, and she was starting to feel sick and woozy again. If she fainted before she got to actually see the sky again, she was never going to forgive herself. She just focused on keeping her feet moving. Yes, they were dragging, with the soles of her shoes scraping against the floor of the cave, but dragging still counted as moving.
Then, as Iz was staring at her feet, the ground beneath them changed. She was no longer looking at black, dragonfire-forged rock scattered with dust and pebbles.
She was looking at grass.
She was outside.
Out in the aboveground world, the evening air was fresh and clean. It smelled like rain and cedar trees and rich soil.
One breath told you that this place was alive and thriving in a way that Sebastian’s sterile tomb of a cave could never be. It was almost surreal to look up and see nothing above her but stars and a canopy of leaves.
The experience was so heady Iz felt like she could get drunk on it.
But ....
But there was a distinct chill in the damp air. It had been summer when Iz had gone underground, with just the tiniest cool breeze at night. She had been a little warm in her hoodie.
Now it was autumn, maybe even late autumn.
God, she had lost so much time. She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for Logan.
The cold sank down into her, all the way to her bones. The only spot of warmth came from the air-snake curled around her wrist, settled in place like an aquamarine bracelet. It was only as warm as the air around it, but it was alive and friendly, and that made it matter.
“Here.” Logan stripped his jacket off and draped it over her shoulders.
It was still strange to hear Logan with her actualears, and it shocked her with a wave of loneliness.
She was free, but she’d lost the voice in her head. She didn’t have a friend anymore, she had a mate she had no idea how to deal with.
She wanted to tug his jacket tight around her and draw comfort from how it was still warm from him. Itsmelledlike him, a gorgeous, intoxicating scent like sandalwood and citrus and soap, and she couldn’t believe she’d gone this long without knowing what he smelled like. She wanted to breathe him in. Never mind fresh air. She wantedLogan.
Like she’d wanted to be a marshal. And she hadn’t known how to do it, and she didn’t know how to do this, either.