Part 22

It was cold and dark when her eyes finally cracked open. Her cheek was pressed against something warm and soft. She tried to pull herself up, but even the smallest of movements made the unbearable pain in her ankle that much more excruciating. She laid her head back down, blinking back tears.

"I've stopped the bleeding, and reset it as best I could. It's all I could do," a soft, feminine voice said next to her. She didn't need to move to know the voice belonged to Annika. Who else would it be?

"Where are we?" Zara's voice sounded as if she swallowed stones, and felt even worse.

"The cellar. Our temporary prison." This time, it was Ronan who answered. His voice came from directly above her. It took her a moment to register that her head was in his lap, her cape bundled into a makeshift pillow.

Zara gritted her teeth, pressing one hand against the floor as she struggled to sit up. Ronan helped her, one arm around her shoulders. A cry of pain escaped her as she stretched out her injured leg, letting her back rest against the cool wall behind them. The room resembled a wide cavern, with low ceilings and several pillars in the center. On the opposite wall, small, crescent shaped windows near the ceiling let in just enough light to see. It was already day time.

Her eyes sought out Annika first, the girl's knees pulled into her chest and arms wound tightly around them. She looked less frightened than she had the night before, but the dark circles beneath her eyes spoke of what must have been yet another sleepless night for her.

"Thank you," Zara told her, eyes flickering toward her leg that looked like it had pieces of the girl's white nightgown wound around it. If she didn't move, the pain was enough to bare. She tried not to think about what would happen when she actually had to move. A break like that wouldn't heal properly without a doctor. Of course, she was supposed to be killed soon anyways. She couldn't forget the look on Ardon's face as he snapped her ankle. She knew, without a doubt, he would have killed her then and there if he hadn't needed her so badly.

Annika shrugged off her thanks and offered her a wan smile. "I just started studying to become a healer...though I'm hardly comparable to the real thing."

"You will be one day." Ronan murmured, taking his sister's hand and squeezing it. Zara noticed the rope that had once bound his hands together was no long there, though it had left a deep red ring around both wrists.

Annika's lips pressed together tightly and Zara almost missed the slight quiver in her chin. She knew what the girl was thinking without even having to ask...they would first have to do the impossible and escape if there was going to be a 'one day'.

Zara closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. Well, at least they had accomplished part of their quest. Ronan was reunited with his sister, though most likely far from the way he had intended. She couldn't help but think about all he had done trying to get to her. Including lying to Zara. Yet now that she saw them together, could she really fault him for that? She didn't know what it was like to have someone you loved that much. Someone you'd go to any lengths for. It was a special sort of bond that she would never know, having lost her whole family before the age of seven.

She couldn't be angry with a man who loved that much. Deep down, he had been right anyways. As much as Zara would have liked to say differently, the truth wouldn't have gotten her into the forest. She had needed something in return, and for her, that had been gaining back her place among the Red Capes. A reward, she realized, that was both naive and selfish.

How was that redeeming? How was that honoring Gray's memory?

And yet Gray's fate, and the eventually fate of herself and the two people next to her, all led back to the same beginning.

Ardon.

Zara felt a familiar flare of anger beginning in the center of her chest. Her eyes opened and combed the cavernous room in front of them, with its slate gray walls and pillars. Maybe she deserved to be here, but Ronan and Annika did not.

She felt a familiar pair of eyes on her and glanced over to see Ronan watching her. "I know that look now. What are you thinking?"

"That we find a way out." she answered, wincing as she shifted her weight to her left side and slid her hand into her pocket.

"How? Those stairs are the only way in and out. Trust me, I checked." he argued.

Zara's pulse skipped a beat as she felt the familiar cool, round object still in her pocket. She didn't answer him right away, instead pulling out an ornate compact mirror and holding it out to him in her palm. Ronan's eyes went wide, hope replacing the defeat she had seen on his face moments before.

"We use this."

Zara couldn't believe she had almost forgotten about the mirror. It was some kind of miracle that Ardon had never figured out what she had inadvertently been hiding the entire time. Even now, it still wasn't much to look at. She knew the magic was there, though. If it hadn't been, she never would've been able to use it to call Silas.

"What is that?" Annika asked, moving around Ronan so she was kneeling next to Zara's battered leg.

"The Finder's Glass," Ronan answered.

She held out her hands for it and Zara pressed it into her waiting palms. "Your father wrote about it in his journals."

Annika nodded, though her eyes were glued on the magical trinket. "I remember. I can't believe you found it. How does it work?"

Ronan glanced at Zara before looking back toward his sister. "We were going to use it find you, but never had the chance. Supposedly you just hold it in your hands, imagine the place you wish to be, and it shows you the way."

"This is an old house," Zara began, lowering her voice. She knew they were alone in the cellar, but wasn't taking any chances on being overheard. "There could be servants' passages hidden somewhere, or even a bunker. During the first and second wars, people often had escape tunnels built into their homes. I don't believe there is only one way out. Maybe it can show us."

Ronan's pushed himself away from the wall. "Here, Ann. Let me see it."

His sister handed it over, though her curious eyes never left the mirror's reflective surface.

Zara momentarily forgot about the sharp pain radiating up and down her leg as she turned her focus on the Huntsman. "Think about a safe way out." She suggested in a hushed voice.

Ronan nodded, taking in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He closed his eyes and became very still. Zara forced her gaze away from his face and toward the mirror. Her entire body was on edge with anticipation. If this didn't work, she didn't know what they would do.

A minute passed, maybe more, and still nothing.

Maybe you needed to ask it out loud, Zara thought to herself. Maybe the mirror needed to hear you say the words. She opened her mouth the suggest this, when suddenly, a soft,white light immersed the mirror. The reflective surface vanished and was replaced with a whiteness. Ronan's eyes opened, staring at the Finder's Glass in wonder.

"It's working. I feel it...pulling me. Like a magnet," He whispered, leaning closer. "What now?"

"Follow it." Annika encouraged, pushing herself to her feet. Ronan followed her lead, leaving Zara feeling helpless on the ground. She tried to shift her leg just a little and excruciating pain shot through her. He glanced down at her and Zara shook her head, wanting to forget the sympathy in his expression.

"I'm fine, see where it goes." She said, teeth gritted against the pain.

He hesitated a moment before following after his sister. Zara watched as they disappeared behind one of the closest pillars, their footsteps echoing off the smooth walls. She hadn't missed that the mirror hadn't led them toward the staircase. It knew something that they did not.

There was nothing for her to do but sit and wait and hope. She had never felt so useless, not since she was first let go from the guard and had spent days wandering the kingdom trying to figure out what to do next. This was a different kind of uselessness, though. She was physically unable to help, to even stand. If they did find a way out, Ronan would need convincing to go without her. Annika would be the key to making him leave. If it had been just the two of them, Zara wasn't sure she could break his stubbornness, but with his sister's life on the line, he would have no choice.

When Annika emerged back into her view, the mirror now clutched in her hands, Zara knew they had found their way out. There was no denying to sudden light in Annika's eyes, the way her entire being seemed to be trembling with this new hope. Zara couldn't put a name to the way that she was feeling. Ronan and Annika would live, but she would most likely never see them again.

"You were right, Zara! There was a tunnel...it wouldn't open at first, but I held the mirror over it and the floor just slid open. Like a trapdoor."

"Protected by magic then maybe? It would explain why no one else in Ardon's pack has been able to find it."

Ronan appeared a few minutes after his sister, a new determination in his step. He crouched next to Zara, casting his eyes toward the staircase for a moment as if to make sure they were still alone in their prison. "There's no way of knowing where it goes, and it's dark as hell down there. But it's a way out."

Zara grabbed his hand and squeezed it between both her own. "Then you have to take Annika and go. Now, before it's too late to get away."

Ronan's eyebrows furrowed together. "You're coming too...Zara, you're insane if you think I'm just going to leave you here."

Zara forced a dry laugh and motioned to her mangled ankle. "How? I can't even stand."

"I'll carry you." He answered quickly. "You won't need to walk."

She shook her head, although his resistance made her heart ache a little. It was a reminder that there was someone out there now who cared about what happened to her. "We both know you can't do that. I'd only be slowing you down. Besides, who knows what that tunnel is like. You might not even be able to carry me." She pleaded with him with her eyes. "You and Annika need to go. I'll be fine, Ronan."

Of course both of them knew that wasn't true. She would most likely be dead before the next sunrise if Ardon had his way. With Ronan and Annika disappeared, though, perhaps the witches wouldn't go through with the blood sacrifice. Either way, Zara doubted Ardon would keep her alive long. She would fight if she could, though she wasn't much use with her broken leg.

"Zara," Ronan was shaking his head, and she reached out, brushing his dark hair back from his forehead. She let her hand slide down his face, feeling the stubble beneath her fingertips before finally letting the hand fall back into her lap.There was anguish in his eyes, and she could see that he was being torn in two. The part of him that wanted to save his sister, and the part that didn't want to leave Zara alone there. "I don't like this."

At some point, Annika had turned and walked to the other side of the cellar, giving them a moment alone.

Her throat felt tight as she shook her head. "I don't either. But it's the only way. You know that."

Their eyes lingered on one another for a long moment, almost as if they were having a silent conversation. Zara was trying to memorize his face, though she wasn't sure any memory could do the boyish smile justice, his dark curls, or the greenness of his eyes. It felt like there was much she still needed to say to him...that she was grateful he had showed up in that awful, dingy inn, and that he had been such a persistent pain in the neck. That she forgave him for putting his sister first, and for making her see the truth behind her own guilt. For giving her a way now to make amends with what she had done.

His calloused hands cupped her face and he leaned in, his nose skimming her cheek before his lips captured hers in a slow, lingering kiss. When he finally pulled away, the pained expression on his face was a perfect match to how she was currently feeling.

"I'll come back for you, I swear it," he whispered urgently. "I'll get help and I'll come back."

Though he may have meant each word, the promises were empty. Zara clung to them for comfort all the same. She nodded. "I know."

Ronan's eyes swept across her face, letting out an anxious breath. His fingers cupped the back of her neck as he pulled her toward him and brushing his lips across her forehead one final time. Each touch felt like the twist of a knife in her gut, reminding herself it would be the last time. "I'll come back." He said again.

He stood abruptly then, broad shoulders tense as he motioned to Annika on the other side of the room. She hurried toward them, clinging to the mirror. Zara watched as he clasped his sister's hand in one of his own, looking over his shoulder at her one last time.

Then they were gone, like wisps of smoke. The only traces left behind were the thin pieces of nightgown wound around her ankle, and the lingering feeling of Ronan's fingertips against her skin.