His body shook as he pulled himself back into his mind, toward the mental doorway that connected him to Nor. If he could just send her a message...if he could just get one word through the gap, then perhaps she would see. Perhaps he could warn her about Darai, about the truth of the Exonians that Nor didn’t know.

But when he reached the doorway, he found, with horror, that it was covered with thick obsidinite bars.

No! Valen screamed, pounding mental fists against the bars. Nor! I’m still here! Please, Nor, you have to hear me!

The bars turned to a swirling darkness, thick black smoke that burned to the touch. Valen screamed as the smoke wrapped around his wrists, yanking him away from the locked door.

A valiant effort, Darai’s voice hissed in Valen’s mind. But a futile one.

Then Valen was thrown from his own mind, hurled back into the world where he sat with Nor still holding his hands.

She was right there, right in front of him, but she couldn’t hear him scream.

He was a prisoner to Darai.

CHAPTER 33

NOR

“Please, Nor,” Valen said. “You said you wanted to forgive me for what happened with Zahn. If that’s true, then allow me to do this. It’s my dying wish.”

Tears rolled down Nor’s cheeks as her brother spoke. She looked to her uncle, eyes pleading. “Is there truly no other way?”

This couldn’t be the only answer.

She’d already forgiven him, had forgiven him the moment he’d collapsed in her office, when she’d feared they would lose him. He was all she had left, and he was asking her to let him go. Like a soldier, ready to walk onto the front lines of a war he knew he wouldn’t come back from.

“There is not,” Darai said gently. “The boy knows it, too. And he is brave for still wishing to do it.”

Nor looked back at Valen.

He sat before her, so weak, yet so sure.

Still, something didn’t feel right. Nor sank into her mind, reaching for the mental doorway between them, and found it shut tight. She’d closed it herself, locked it up during their argument after the attack in the city...but she’d opened it again, back in the hospital wing. Perhaps he’d closed it once more, wanting them to have some space before they spoke so intimately again?

Nor was about to knock on the door, to try to open it, when Valen spoke, more insistently this time. He gripped her hand tighter, with a strength he hadn’t shown moments before.