It was the voices that woke me. At first I thought it was simply the air, begging me to get up, to move, to not die, but some of those voices had a timbre that reminded me of the earth. Perhaps the tunnel’s collapse had cleared the dead soil and uncovered the living earth in this area.

But even if I’d had the strength to move, I couldn’t have. There were several weights lying across my body, pinning me, and my legs were numb. As for dying… breathing was becoming a struggle and there was a part of me that was more than ready to give up the fight, to let go and find peace and an end to the pain.

No! the voices said. You will not die in this place. Fight, damn you.

I tried to open my eyes, but couldn’t. I shifted slightly, realized I had movement in my right arm, and raised a hand to gently probe my face. It was covered with sticky moisture, dirt, and freedom only knew what else, and it was that muck that had glued my eyes shut. I carefully rubbed it away, and then opened my eyes.

Three feet in front of me was a massive rock that was jammed hard against what remained of the nearby tunnel wall. It had stopped on an angle, in the midst of falling flat and, instead of crushing me, had protected me from the worst of the tunnel’s collapse. The air swirling around me was heated and thick with dust, suggesting I hadn’t actually been out for long. I twisted to the right, trying to see what, exactly, was pinning me, but the left half of my body wasn’t moving properly. I turned to see why, and saw the mess that was my left arm. Not only could I see bone, but blood—blood that already stained the earth and whose flow showed no signs of abating.

I was going to bleed to death before anyone could get here to help me.

We are close, the voices said.

Only it was one voice now, not many, and its tone was as rich as the earth itself and oh so familiar.

Trey.

But why was he here, in this place? Why wasn’t he mopping up the Irkallan with the rest of the outpost forces?

Hang on, he continued. We are little more than ten minutes away from you now.

“Everything hurts,” I said, though whether I gave that reply voice or it was merely said in my mind, I couldn’t say. Not that it really mattered—he’d hear me either way.

I know, he said. And we’ll fix that. Just hang on.

“I’m hanging,” I said, even as I wondered if that would be enough.

I shifted my good arm and slowly reached down into my pocket. Despite everything that had happened, the medikit was still tucked safely inside. I dragged it up toward my face, pried it open, and then freed the second canister of sealer. It wouldn’t do a whole lot for the mangled state of my arm, but maybe it would stop the worst of the bleeding. It might not, in the end, make much of a difference given I had no idea if there were worse wounds elsewhere, but I had to at least try. Whether it would give me ten more minutes or not was anyone’s guess.

I tore the cap off with my teeth then slowly but carefully eased my good hand over to my left and sprayed the sealer. It hurt so bad it tore a scream from my throat, and even though the sound came out as little more than a garbled cry, I thought I heard its echo in the near distance.

I kept spraying back and forth until the canister was empty, and then dropped onto the ground. Pain was a white-hot lance that continually stabbed into my brain, and it quickly consumed what little strength I had left. As unconsciousness began to claim me again, the earth around me shook.

Whether the earth remained unstable because of my bombs, or whether it was Trey and his people coming to get me, I couldn’t say.

All I knew was I didn’t have the strength to remain awake. I closed my eyes and let the blackness claim me.

The second time I awoke, it was to bright sunshine above me, and the softness of bedding underneath me. I remained completely still for several minutes, simply enjoying being able to breathe in and out without the flicker of pain. Then, remembering the numbness in my legs and mashed remnants of my left arm, I cautiously wiggled my toes and then my fingers. When they both responded, I felt like cheering. There was a decided tightness in my calf where the Irkallan’s claws had dug in, and a similar tightness along my arm that spoke of new skin and scarring, but I didn’t care.

I was alive, and I could move. Nothing else really mattered right now.

I opened my eyes. It was immediately obvious that I wasn’t in Winterborne—that I was, in fact, back in Trey’s quarters at Blacklake.

But the first face I saw was Ava’s, and while I was more than happy to see her, I couldn’t help the sliver of disappointment that ran through me.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Is that all the thanks I get for sitting by your bedside for weeks on end, waiting for your lazy self to decide you actually needed to wake up?”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Then I blinked as her words impacted. “Did you say weeks?”

“Yes.” She leaned forward and caught my hand in hers. Though a smile still played about her lips, her eyes were all seriousness. “You had us all really scared for a while, there.”

“Don’t tell me April’s here as well?”

Her smile grew. “Well, no, because he’s too busy bumping uglies with that pretty little nurse of his. But he’s been in regular contact for updates. I meant the docs, the healers, and of course, your commander.”

I scowled at her. “He’s not my anything.”

“Yeah, right.” She squeezed my fingers lightly and then leaned back in the chair. “So how are you actually feeling? Because let me tell you, the list of your injuries was pretty impressive.”

“I don’t think I really want to know that information.”

“You should, because by all rights, you should be dead. The healers are saying it’s only thanks to your Sifft heritage that you’re here at all, but April and me, we think it was something else.”

I knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t either the earth or air magic. I lightly slapped her knee. “Enough, woman. We barely even know each other.”

“Yeah, but it was the connection—the spark—between the two of you that not only saved you, but also pulled you through. I saw it, and so did the healers.”

I didn’t reply to that, asking instead, “How did you manage to get so much time off from the Nightwatch?” I knew for a fact she wouldn’t have that much leave left, as both of us had a tendency to use it as soon as a new allocation came in.

“The captain wouldn’t give me leave, so I did what any cot sister would do, and transferred my ass over to Blacklake. The commander was more than happy to have me, especially given the current state of the wall and the continuing attacks by the Adlin.” She paused. “Those bastards are seriously pissed off.”

I frowned. “How bad are the attacks?”

She shrugged. “They’re almost daily. Nothing we can’t cope with though.”

I smiled. “It sounds like you’re enjoying life here.”

“I am, surprisingly.” A wicked gleam appeared in her eyes. “And let’s just say the manpower in this outpost is mighty impressive.”

I chuckled softly and dragged myself up the bed. Ava immediately rose and adjusted the pillows to support my back. My left arm was decidedly weaker than my right, and there were thick, ugly scars crisscrossing its entire length. I was also missing the tip of my ring finger, but all in all, the healers had done an amazing job.

I thanked her, then glanced toward the bedroom door, my heart suddenly racing with anticipation. Trey was approaching.

The door opened and he stepped in. The grin that stretched his lips was warm and delighted, but there was little in the way of surprise. He would have known I was awake, just as I’d known he was approaching.

“Commander,” Ava said, immediately rising and offering him a salute. “Our girl has finally awoken.”

“So I see,” he said, his gaze not leaving mine as he strode toward the bed. “You’re relieved, Officer March. I’ll take over from here.”

“Yes, Commander.” Ava gave me a wink then quickly walked out of the room.

I didn’t even hear the door close. I was too busy getting lost in the gaze of the man who’d saved my life.

“Thank you,” I said eventually.

He raised an eyebrow as he sat down on the bed and twined his fingers through mine. “For what? Doing what any good commander would do?”

I half smiled. “I’m thinking you went a little beyond the call of duty to save me.”

“Perhaps just a little.”

My smile grew. “How did you know I was there? And why were you even there? I thought the outposts were attacking the known exits?”

“We did, but after the initial explosions in the mountains, the Irkallan went into retreat and the Adlin attacked instead.”

My breath caught. There was still one bracelet out there, one I’d forgotten about, on the wrist of that lavender Adlin.

“Not anymore it’s not,” Trey said. “We finally killed that bastard three nights ago.”

“And the bracelet?”

“The silver was melted and made into cutlery. The inner band of technology which we presume was what allowed both control and communication was smashed and spread far and wind by the four winds.”

Relief stirred through me. “That means every one of them has been dealt with.”

“Yes, and if they had been able to replicate them or find more, they would have done so by now.”

“Indeed.” I paused. “So why were you close enough to rescue me? As far as I’m aware, Drakkon’s Head is the only major entrance along that portion of the Blacksaw Mountains, and that’s not where you were supposed to be.”

He raised that eyebrow again. “Obviously you have no idea just how far into that mountain you traveled.”

“No.” I hesitated. “Did the bombs I set off do much damage? I asked for big booms, but the armory custodian didn’t really say how big that was going to be. It felt bad, but that could have been because I was so damn close to it.”

“Trust me, it was every inch as destructive as it must have felt. But let me show you.” He rose, slipped his hands underneath me, and then picked me up, sheet and all, cradling me close to his chest as he crossed to the window. Sunshine bathed the inner bailey and there were people everywhere, not just soldiers, but metalsmiths, stonemasons, and witches, both earth and air. Obviously, it wasn’t only Ava who had come to Blacklake to help them rebuild.

But that wasn’t what I was here to see. My gaze rose to the long dark stain that was the Blacksaw Mountains. The main entrance into the Irkallan apiary was still very much present; indeed, from this angle, the drakkon appeared to be roaring in fury, as smoke was still billowing from its maw. But the arching back of the drakkon was now broken; the mountain had caved in for a good mile or so before the jagged peaks reappeared to dominate the skyline again.

I’d done that.

And, amazingly, had survived.

“It was rather touch-and-go for a while there,” Trey said.

“So Ava said.” I reached up and ran my fingers down his cheek to his lips. “And you still haven’t given me an explanation as to why you were close enough to sense my presence underground.”

“Ah, yes.” He kissed my fingertips lightly then turned around and sat down on the sill, resting me on his lap but still cradling me gently. Under normal circumstances I might have protested that I wasn’t an invalid, but right now, being treated so tenderly felt rather nice.

“When the second lot of bombs went off and the mountain above the apiary began to collapse,” he continued, “the Irkallan soldiers went into retreat. I presume their intentions were to save as much as the hive as they could. We gave chase, of course, and it was in that process that I sensed you. But it was damned hard work getting through the dead earth.”

“Then how did you?”

A wry smile twisted his lips. “I didn’t. The air did. It contacted me via this link we seemed to have formed, and asked me if I was interested in saving you. Rather naturally, I said yes.”

“I would have come back and haunted you if you’d said no.”

He laughed softly. “We didn’t dig directly down—it was very apparent even from up top that the combination of the dead soil and the explosion had made the entire tunnel system unstable, so I created a new tunnel in the live earth and came in at you sideways. Once I hit the dead soil, the air took over and tunneled the rest of the distance.” An odd sort of bleakness briefly touched his face. “We almost didn’t make it. The tunnel you were in totally collapsed not five seconds after we’d dragged you out of it.”

I rested my head against his chest, listening to the steady beating of his heart. “Thank you.”

As words went, they were totally inadequate, but it was all I had.

“You’re welcome.” There was a smile in his voice. “Of course, now that you are recovered enough, there are a few decisions that need to be made.”

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Like your permanent transfer to Blacklake. I must warn you, I will vigorously oppose anything else.”

I tried to restrain my smile, but it nevertheless twitched the corners of my mouth. “A permanent transfer would totally depend on what’s being offered. I will vigorously oppose anything less than a full combat position equal to what I had in Winterborne.”

“I’d expect nothing else,” he said. “The next decision, of course, is the matter of accommodation.”

My smile grew. “Aren’t all soldiers quartered in the barracks?”

“Indeed, but it would hardly be seemly for you to be quartered there.”

“And why would that be, Commander?”

“Because we can hardly explore what lies between us under so many watchful eyes. The gossip alone would be horrendous.”

I laughed. “And that worries you?”

“Hell no.” He hesitated, and then added more seriously, “But I’m well aware you’ve already suffered more than your share of hurt and gossip thanks to a relationship with a senior officer that went sour, and I don’t wish to be the cause of such again if things don’t work out between us.”

“And that is, of course, a risk.”

“Indeed, but not so great a one, I’m thinking.”

“I’m tending to agree.”

“Good,” he said. “It’s settled then.”

I blinked. “What’s settled?”

“You and me. Living here in my quarters, away from the prying eyes and the gossips.”

I laughed. “As if that’s going to stop anyone. I’m classified as unlit and I’m stained, Trey. That’s going to raise more than a few eyebrows, and not just here in Blacklake.”

“And you think I care?”

“Well, no, but—”

He pressed a finger to my lips, cutting off my protest. “I don’t care whether or not you have magic. I don’t care what color your skin is or isn’t. I only care about the person inside that skin, and you, my lovely Neve, have proven yourself to be a strong, caring, and totally amazing woman, and I very much want to spend both my near and distant future with you.”

Tears stung my eyes and I blinked them away rapidly. “I’d very much like that myself, Commander.”

“Perfect,” he said, and kissed me.

And it was, indeed, perfect.