Rory Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 13 of 13

The chamber held its breath. Then Rory felt it — a warm line running from her sternum to Kael's, thin as thread, real as bone. Her feet left the floor. His did too. The grooves under them poured white light up their legs. She rose a foot, then two, then hung there with him in the middle of the round chamber, hair drifting like she was underwater. Kael's black eyes stayed on her face. His hand did not let go. Her walls fell. Not slow. All at once. Every guarded room she kept inside her head opened its doors to him, and his opened to her. She felt his tired court in his chest. He felt the burn she carried under her ribs. Nothing hurt. That was the strange part. She had built those walls for fifteen years. They came down like paper. Ada flickered back at the edge of the grooves, thinner than before, barely a shape. "Little bird. Listen quick." Her voice was small. "She will be at the top of the stairs. She will ask you what you did. You tell her nothing. You climb out and you climb out together." "Grandma —" "Something is collecting bright ones. She works for it or she is it. I don't know yet." Ada's mouth firmed. "When she reaches, use the knock. Three. Pause. Two. It turns her away for a breath. A breath is enough." "What about Luna?" Ada's face softened. "Tell her plain. She loves you plain. She'll hold." Ada thinned to nothing. The light in the grooves eased. Rory's boots touched stone. Kael steadied her by the elbow. The black cat wove once around her ankles, bright eyes lifted, then trotted toward the passage as if he already knew the clock. "Twelve minutes is gone," Kael said. "We have what's left of the shadow." "Then we go." They ran. The passage narrowed as his magic pulled it closed behind them. She felt him feel her fear and steady it. She felt her own steady his. One nervous system now, sharing the load. They came up under the chapel foundation. Rory climbed the last stones and pushed the slab aside. Headmistress Aphrodite stood at the top of the stairs. Beautiful. Still. Waiting. "Rory," she said. "What did you do down there." Rory did not answer. She raised her hand and knocked on the air. Three. Pause. Two. Aphrodite's head turned a quarter inch, as if she had heard someone call from another hall. Her eyes lost Rory for one full second. Rory and Kael walked past her, shoulders touching, the cat between their feet. At the end of the corridor, Luna stood in the doorway in her pink robe, arms crossed, jaw tight. "Tell me," Luna said. Rory did not slow down. "I'm merged with him. It's done." Luna's smile did not come. But she stepped aside and let them through.