I kept my hand on the hilt of the sword at all times, preparing to turn the corner and see a guard. Rysdan did the same, except he kept ordering me to step lighter.

We'd been walking for two hours, no guards in sight still. I was getting impatient, and I was in need of action.

The boring beige halls, accented with the lit torches and faint runes of ancient Thaeleckean dialects. I understood some words faintly, but others looked completely unfamiliar since this wasn't the dialect I had learned in classes. It was the dialect the commoners had spoken during the Kandosian-Thaeleckean War.

"Cadice wasn't even Thaeleckean," I told Rysdan. "He was born on an island far from Thaeleck, but he'd been captured as a slave to work in the mines."

I looked at Rysdan, who shrugged. "It's just history. I have no interest in what Cadice did. He clearly failed miserably if we're living through the consequences of his actions eons later."

"Do you think the Wall could break?" I questioned.

"Who knows, and who cares? If the Wall falls, King Lorcan will be charged with it."

"But everyone will be threatened by Kandose. You know what they say about that place." I placed the torch under my chin and floated my fingers in the air. "'Demon land'."

Rysdan kept walking forward, but right as we were about to turn, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me back. "Guards," he breathed into my ear. There were five, their backs toward us.

How heavenly. I was just talking about demons, and there they were. The world did have a funny sense of humor. Damn it.

"Get ready." Rysdan held tightly to my wrist.

Then he pushed me into the corridor. I flung my sword out and slashed one guard's leg. The others spun around quickly and met Rysdan's dagger. A guard threw me against the wall and tried to pin me against it, but I lifted my leg and kicked his chest, causing the guard to stumble back into Rysdan. Rysdan slit that final guard's throat and watched as he fell to the ground.

I remembered when I had killed two guards last year. I'd caught one of the guards try to punch Ilias, but I quickly stabbed him. The other guard tried to run away, but I also stabbed his back. That entire night I spent crying and vomiting, wishing I didn't resort to killing. That was probably why I hadn't flinched when I killed Lesmond, or even these guards.

"Put their armor on," Rysdan ordered as he began to strip. I quickly followed suit, attaching the silver plates of iron to myself.

We started running down the corridors now. Rysdan pulled me by my arm, keeping me against his side. "Stay close. Watch out for ash arrows."

We turned into the next corridor, not expecting to see so many guards. I took a quick count of how many there were. Thirty five.

"Shit," Rysdan cursed, pulling me tighter against him.

Guards charged toward us, their swords raised. I braved my sword, and I saw Rysdan do the same. "Don't try to fight them. Just try to run past. I'll handle it from there."

I nodded. A guard's sword came down near me head, but I dove down and yanked the guard's legs from under. I wasted no time and slashed the guard's legs, rendering him useless.

Rysdan was standing at the far end of the corridor in front of me. I was wasting time, I realized. Sprinting, I pushed past the guards and caught up to Rysdan, who was cursing.

We ran for too long. My legs started to burn and ache, and Rysdan caught me slowing down. "We just need to be a bit more ahead. Just keep running."

"I'm trying!" I rasped back rather aggressively.

Rysdan grabbed arm and swung me ahead of him, constantly pushing my back and yelling at me to go faster. The world started turning black, the faint yells of guards echoing behind us.

"Keep going!" Rysdan yelled, pushing me again. I stumbled on the ground, trying to force myself to go faster.

Then Rysdan grabbed a torch and grabbed my hand, stopping me from running. The guards were at most a hundred feet behind us. Rysdan threw down a bottle and threw the torch on the liquid that came out. The corridor bursted into flames and blocked us off from the guards chasing us.

"Is this a normal Saturday for you?" I muttered to Rysdan.

"This is usually a Wednesday thing."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"Yes," he quipped, grabbing my hand and launching me forward into the corridor, "now run before the fire dies out."

We ran again. I occasionally stopped to catch my breath, but Rysdan yelled at me and I forced myself to keep going. Minutes went by, and I felt like we were never going to arrive under the damned library.

That was until Rysdan yelled at me to stop and told me we arrive under the library. I wanted to go down to my knees and kiss the ground.

Rysdan started setting up the contraption under the library so he could blow a hole in. "Watch for guards," he ordered me.

I wiped away the sweat and held my sword up. The unfortunate fool who dared mess with a tired woman would going to get a nice accessory in their throat.

My confidence washed away when the thirty five guards came around the corner and made eye contact with my pathetic ass.

I sprinted to Rysdan and tapped his shoulder. "Umm... we have a situation."

"What is it—" He scrambled up from the ground and gritted his teeth. "Shit."

Our sides stuck together like resin as we watched the guards charge toward us. "Just so you're aware, I warned you."

"Typical of you to pass the blame to me," Rysdan said.

"Do you have another fire thing?"

"Only one," Rysdan muttered. "It won't last us long enough."

"Rutting hell, I'll take my chance." I grabbed the bottle from the inside of his cloak. I'd need to kill as many as I could with this one bottle if I wanted any chance of surviving.

I'd kill them all.

I threw the bottle in the middle of the group of guards and threw a torch in after it. They went up in flames, their screams resonating.

Thirty five dead.

"Good job." Rysdan patted my shoulder. "Now, let's get back to—"

An ash arrow just barely missed my head. We spun around and saw ten guards standing with arrows pointing at us.

We slowly backed toward the flames behind us, watching the guards corner us.

"Damn this," I cursed. "Don't shoot!"

"You are under arrest! Lift your arms up and drop any items in your hand." The guards' arrows titled upward toward our faces. "Surrender and die!"

"Don't you mean surrender or die!" I yelled.

Think, Valarya. What could I do?

I looked toward the torch in the flames behind me on the ground.

I dove down and stuck my hand into the flames, grabbing the torch I had thrown to ignite the liquid. The flames drove into my skin like a thousand daggers, all at once.

Quickly, Valarya. Quickly.

I hurled the torch at the ten guards and watched as nine of the burned. One had leapt out of the way and tackled Rysdan to the ground, a dagger in his hand at Rysdan's throat.

My hand burned. I looked down and saw my skin scarlet and wrinkled with bubbles from the burn.

The guard's dagger was close to Rysdan's throat, but Rysdan had his hand blocking the dagger from spitting his throat. His hand bursted in blood.

It all happened fast.

I took the dagger out of my cloak and drove it into the guard's head, then pulled it out and drove it into his back, his shoulder—everywhere.

"Stop!" Rysdan pulled me off the guard's back and took the dagger out of my hand. "He's dead. Enough."

I glanced down at his bloody hands. "You're bleeding."

"I know," he responded, ripping a piece of cloth and tying it around his palms.

I stared at Rysdan, at his hands, at his eyes. Everything. "You could've died," I whispered.

Rysdan nodded, swallowing as he looked away toward the dead bodies. "I know." He sighed and slid against the wall, sitting down. "I know," he repeated.

"Rysdan... you know you could've died." I sat down next to him and placed my hand on his knee, leaning back against the wall.

"Thank you. For helping me, I mean."

When I looked up at Rysdan, he wasn't looking at me. "Look at me."

Slowly, he glanced at me. "What?"

"I wouldn't have let anything happen to you," I told him.

"You took awfully long deciding whether or not to help me. You just... You just stared at me." Rysdan blinked and looked away.

"I stuck my hand in a fire. Forgive me for not being the quickest." I gripped his chin and forced him to look at me. "You an idiot if you think I'd let you die on me."

"Then I must be an idiot." Rysdan yanked my hand off his chin. "You would've left me—"

"Stop talking, idiot."

I grabbed his face and pulled him toward me, melding our lips together. Sparks of flames bounced off what felt like was my heart. My head spun, but I didn't care. Gently, I ran a hand threw his hand and pulled his lips even closer against my lips, and I could've sworn the world erupted in scolding magma.

Rysdan pulled me off the floor, not once breaking the kiss. His hands encased my face, his thumb running down my cheeks. When we pulled away, all I could see was his eyes.

"Watch what you assume about me," I said.

He stared at me. Without another words, our lips met again, but this time differently. Rysdan grabbed my arms and pushed me into the wall, breaking the kiss. "I'll assume what I want to assume."

"I don't think—"

His lips didn't let me finish, and he slammed my arms above my head. I flinched at the pain of my burned hand, but it dissolved as I focused back on Rysdan.

"You two just won't stop," a woman chorused from behind Rysdan.

Rysdan shot away from me and whipped his head back.

And there they were standing. Avaloryn, Nylas, and Ashe, who was leaning against the wall picking his knife covered in blood.