Page 272 of Alchemised
“You are not replaceable,” he said, his hands trembling against her shoulders. “You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people. The reason I’m here—the reason I’m doing any of this—is to keep you alive. To keep you safe. That was the deal.” He searched her face. “They didn’t tell you.”
She shook her head, giving a broken sob and—before she let herself think—she kissed him.
CHAPTER 51
Aprilis 1787
KAINE CRADLED HER FACE IN HIS HANDS as he returned her kiss, pulling her closer, his arms wrapping around her.
She was half crying as she kissed him, tracing her fingers along his face and under the curve of his jaw, trying to memorise every detail: his pulse under her fingertips, his lips pressed against hers. The taste of him.
Her eyes fluttered shut, trying to savour it all. This one moment. She could have this.
She’d earned it.
Then, all too soon, she forced herself to step back, pulling away. “I have to take care of the others.”
He didn’t try to stop her again, but the rest of the team wasn’t outside the door as she’d expected; Kaine’s necrothralls had moved them deeper.
Her fingers trembled as she checked for pulses. They were still alive, although Luc’s skin almost burned to touch.
“How do we get out?” she asked as she started checking for injuries, trying to work out how hurt everyone was, how much work it would take to get them conscious and moving.
“Down this tunnel. Go right, then right again, and then straight. There’s an upper floodgate in the far north.”
“Where they released the chimaera?” She remembered the place.
“You’ll have to break it down, but it’ll get you out.”
She nodded. “You have to go before I wake them.”
“I know,” he said, but he didn’t leave, lingering until she looked up. His eyes shone in the dark, as if there were moonlight underground.
He touched her cheek, tilting her face up and kissing her. “Use the ring, call me, if you ever need anything.”
She wanted to say she would, but she couldn’t bring herself to.
He was a spy that they depended on. And she was—
Not his handler. No, that role belonged to Crowther.
She was—
A prison.
“Go,” she said instead. He disappeared down one of the tunnels, his necrothralls following him, as silent as wraiths.
She woke Sebastian first, hoping that he’d be calm and easier to manage. He’d also know what to do. She searched what supplies they had. She’d lost both her daggers, and everything in her satchel was contaminated with floodwater. Only one of the electric torches still worked, providing dim light in the darkness.
When he woke, Sebastian just sat silently staring at Luc’s still face while she gingerly fixed his dislocated shoulder and several shallow wounds that had already stopped bleeding on their own. Finally, he looked at her.
“What happened?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Everything went black. When I woke, you were all unconscious. I was afraid more of the Undying would show up, so I brought everyone here.”
His eyes swept pointedly over her. “Helena, I know you used necromancy. There’s no chance you moved us all here on your own.”
She started to shake her head in denial.
