And then Yarik lunged. The silver flash of his blade cut toward Jude’s chest. Jude leapt out of its path.

“Hector, now!” Jude cried, trusting that Hector would know what to do.

Gathering his Grace, Jude whipped his sword from its sheath, unleashing his Grace with it. Yarik threw himself out of the way—but Jude hadn’t been aiming for him.

His Grace clapped through him like thunder, surging through his sword as it struck the rockface. The impact was a shock wave through the cave.

For the length of a heartbeat, the cavern was still and silent. And then the rock began to crack, and a moment later, it exploded inward.

Jude flung himself up toward the rock shelf as water burst through the cave wall. It blasted toward the other Paladin, flooding the cavern and sweeping them from their feet. Jude grabbed hold of the first handhold he could find, scrambling for purchase on the rock shelf. But using his Grace for that single blow had sapped him, and he lacked the strength to pull himself to safety. He dangled from his precarious handhold, arms aching, as the water rapidly rose beneath him.

A warm hand gripped his arm and started to haul him up. Jude looked up, his gaze connecting with Hector’s, and he felt a deep relief gust through him. With Hector’s help, he climbed onto the rock shelf.

“Are you out of your mind?” Hector raged as soon as Jude was safely on his feet. “You could have killed us both! How did you even—how is that—Behezda’s mercy, Jude, what was that?”

Jude sucked in a gasping breath, his eyes not on Hector, but on the rapidly flooding cavern below. Water continued to surge out of the gaping hole Jude had punched into the cavern wall. The more the water blasted against the wall, the bigger the hole became and the faster the cavern filled up. The Paladin thrashed and struggled as the deluge dragged them down and dashed them against the walls of the cave. Flashes of dark blue cloaks, gasping faces, and kicking feet appeared and disappeared in the rush of water. Jude caught a glimpse of what might have been Yarik’s dark hair.

He had to look away.

“We have to get out of here, now,” he said to Hector. The cave rumbled as more water forced its way through the wall. “I think this entire cavern is going to collapse. We need to get to higher ground before that happens.”

Hector gaped at him for a long moment and then shook his head. “Fine. But you’re going to teach me that trick later.”

Hector led the way to the narrow shaft, back the way they’d come, as the cavern below began to collapse.

“Jude, hurry!”

They ran through the dark caves until Jude’s energy left him completely and he collapsed against the rock wall.