Jack’s mortality shivered through him. He felt a vibration in his teeth. The wind from Bane’s wings blew, holding the sting of an axe, seeking to divide him and Adaira. Her hair tangled across her face when she looked at him again, and he saw she was also frozen. Her teeth were bared, her eyes wide.

“I have let you play once, mortal bard, but do not test my mercy. Do not dare to play again,” Bane said as he pointed his lance at Jack, the lightning dancing from it. Even then, Jack didn’t let go of Adaira.

The northern king shot a bolt of white heat at Jack’s harp. The light met his chest like the lash of a whip, hurling him up and away. He slammed into the mountain beside the cave’s mouth and slumped to the ground. The pain echoed through his veins as he struggled to breathe, to see. He could hear his harp’s last metallic note as it died, scorched and ruined.

“Jack!”

Adaira sounded far away, but he felt her hands touch him, desperate to rouse him.

“Adaira,” he whispered in a broken voice. “Stay with me.”

Speaking took the last of his strength. He remembered her cold fingers, lacing with his burning ones, holding him close.

Then he slipped away, deep into the darkness where not even the wind could reach.

Chapter 23

Jack woke to the sound of rain pattering on rock. He opened his eyes and slowly gained his bearings: he was lying on the hard floor of a cave, and the air was cold and dusky with the tang of lightning. Beyond the shelter, a storm raged. He shivered until he felt warmth radiate at his side.

“Jack.”

He turned his face to behold Adaira lying next to him. His sight was blurred around the edges, and it took everything within him to find and raise his hand, to rub the throb in his temples.

“Where are we?” he asked. “Are we in the west?”

“The west? No, we’re still in the cave on the mountain ledge of Tilting Thom. You’ve been passed out for hours.”

He swallowed. It felt like a splinter was lodged in his throat.

“Hours?” He looked at her again. “Why didn’t you leave me?”

“Don’t you remember the last thing you said to me? You asked me to remain with you.”

The memories gathered in his mind with an ache as he remembered all that had passed earlier on the mountain. But in the darkness that had followed, there had been dreams. Vivid, stark dreams. He blinked and saw a lingering trace of them, as if Bane had pressed his thumbs against Jack’s eyes, making the colors swarm.

“Do you feel strong enough to sit forward?” Adaira asked him gently, and when Jack floundered, she laced her fingers with his and eased him up.