A Court of Three Stars

25: Salvation

Silene's Tunnels, Night Court, Prythian

Rhysand

"Bryce!"

Hunt Athalar did not even look twice at the Wyrm, didn't even care that his wing was pouring blood, that the entire cave had shaken from how hard he'd been thrown into the wall.

All he could look at, all he could see was the water below him and the fact that Bryce had disappeared into it.

"Put me down." Nesta commanded, "I can kill it."

"Cassian will kill me." I growled, trying to hang onto her as I banked hard to turn around.

"Ask me if I give a shit." Her hand lingered over Adoraxia, "Put me down."

"No."

"This is why I didn't want to come down here!" I snarled, reaching out my power to winnow Hunt to the entrance of the caves and putting a shield up to block his scent.

"You knew that thing was down here?" Nesta's voice came out a growl.

"Yelling isn't going to fix this!"

There was a moment's pause, rippling silence where I should have felt the iron bars to her mind. She was blocking me, I realized, freezing up in just the slightest.

And then she spoke, voice just loud enough that I could hear her over the rushing wind and the cracking boom of the cave around us, "I'm going to level with you, Rhysand."

The sheer honesty and vulnerability in her tone was enough to give me pause, enough that I stopped flying and hid us in a cove in the ceiling to hide for a moment. She glanced up at me in the stillness, her face so different and familiar all at once, gave me pause.

"Someone needs to pull Bryce out." She panted, "Before she drowns, and I can't do it."

The Cauldron, the rushing water...

Her voice grew hard, "But I can kill the wyrm. Put me down, and get Bryce out."

"If Cass-"

All of that honesty and middle ground faded away in a second, and she was right back to her usual self, "If you say some bullshit about Cassian again, I swear to the Mother- I will snap your neck right here."

I believed her.

I let out a breath, "Heard."

I contemplated the decision, but there wasn't one to be made. I wasn't going to force her in that water, and the wyrm wasn't going anywhere. Someone needed to take it out.

I had to get Bryce, and she had to at minimum, distract the wyrm long enough to get back. But if something happened to Nesta, I wasn't sure if Cassian, Feyre, or Leur would kill me first.

Or perhaps Azriel, I would never see him coming.

But Nesta had been trained by Leur and Cassian themselves, the two greatest warriors I knew. She was a goddamn Carynthian warrior for fuck's sake, had held the line at the Pass of Enalius all by herself, killed Briallyn with half a thought.

The Middengard Wyrm didn't stand a chance.

"You're sure?" I checked one last time.

"Yes, I'm sure!" She growled, "Bryce is drowning as we speak."

She was probably miles away by now, and all at once, the panic of the reality of her being in that water hit me. Bryce wasn't fully fae, she was still half human. And that current, the rushing swirl of white water, the magnitude of threats that could be hidden within it...