Sedgewick cringed as Feyla removed the needle from his neck. "What the gates was that for?!"

"Lowering your heart rate. Do you have any idea how much adrenaline I had to use to wake you up?" she scolded, avoiding his gaze while she put away her equipment.

Typically, he would have shot back with a sarcastic apology for the "inconvenience". But the memories of the spell slammed into him and his response withered as he started shaking. Tears stung the backs of his eyes. He closed them, forcing them back down as he drew a deep breath. He'd tried so hard to--but they never truly left him. The frantic pounding of his heart slowed to a stable rate as whatever Feyla gave him took effect.

That last dream...

Feyla grabbed his face, her mouth hardening into a thin line as she noticed the dried blood on his head and ears. Her hands alighted with a pink glow and he had to stop himself from flinching when she ran them across his head. Her eyes slipped closed, a sign that she was probing for internal injuries. The back of his head tingled as she began undoing the damage Bilara caused.

Sedgewick's gaze softened now that she was no longer looking at him. Recollections of Beryn's party arose unbidden and his eyes flickered down to her soft lips. Which then brought to mind the last part of the spell. For a moment in that dream, he'd felt...happy.

He blinked and scowled. Bloody spell. Dredging up stuff so far removed from reality. Where would it have even gotten something like that?

It was made by Bilara. Of course, it doesn't make sense.

Bilara...

Gates.

Sedgewick jerked against his chain, causing Feyla to flinch. "Get me down."

"Not until I finish--"

"If we don't leave now, you're going to have to patch up a lot more than a bump on the head," he shot back, his patience nonexistent as his eyes flickered to the two exits in the large room.

Feyla glared at him and put her hands on her hips. "Do you know where the key is or something?"

Sedgewick opened his mouth to answer only to shut it and glance away while muttering. "No..."

Feyla sighed and cracked her knuckles. "Hold still."

"Why do I need to--"

The weight on his wrists doubled as Feyla jumped onto him. He muffled a cry as she scrambled up onto his shoulders so she could reach the lock above his head. Seconds later, a clicking sound clanged in his ears.

"Are you--Since when do you know how to pick a lock?"

"I have a life outside of you!"

"But why would you even--"

"Just shut up, okay? I'm trying to concentrate."

They both fell silent; the clink of Feyla's lock picking the only sound between them. Finally, one last click rang out and Sedgewick fell to the hard floor. He rubbed his back and scowled at Feyla, who was hanging off the chains to avoid his fall.

"Thanks for the warning," he spat out.

She let go and landed smoothly beside him. "You're welcome," she answered, her voice fill with a bitter irritation so unlike the woman he knew.

He stumbled to his feet and Feyla grasped his arm to help him. Their eyes met and although they were right beside each other, it felt as if an immeasurable chasm stretched between them.

They separated. Feyla fiddled with her equipment while Sedgewick rubbed his aching wrists.

"I wasn't expecting you to come," he said.

Sedgewick glanced back up at her and stopped. There was...hurt reflected in her eyes.

"So after all this time you expected me to just abandon you? To sit back and wait for someone to tell me you died? Is that what you think of me?"

Sedgewick stilled as he realized how she had interpreted his comment. He hadn't meant it like that. It's just...

"I--I thought you never wanted to see me again," he whispered. His eyes swept over her. Still whole and alive and beautiful even if she did look like she was resisting the urge to slap him.

Sedgewick stepped closer. Feyla put a hand up as if to ward him away but he grabbed it in one of his own. His eyes landed on the cut on her cheek and he brushed his thumb across the skin just under it.

Feyla inhaled sharply. She jerked her hand away and stumbled back. "Stop it!"

"Stop what?" he shouted, gesturing to the empty space in between them.

"Toying with me! Stop holding my hand and touching my cheek and looking at me as if, as if you care. Not after you've made it perfectly clear how little I mean to you." Tears were forming in her eyes but she wiped them away and replaced them with a scowl. "Why do you do things like this?"

Sedgewick's hand lingered in the air before he let it drop to his side. His stomach twisted at the sight of the pain scrawled across Feyla's face as she wrapped her arms around herself. This was his fault. There were dozens of things he could have told her to discourage her from...loving him. But no, he had to fly into a panic and make one of the few people he cared for hate him. Why had he panicked?

Because she scares you. She has for years.

Feyla kept staring at him, obviously looking for an answer.

He glanced away and stared at the ground. "You terrify me," he spoke softly. Her brow crinkled in confusion. She opened her mouth to answered but was cut off by a blood-curdling scream.

"ALLVERRDYNNE!!!"

Sedgewick's eyebrows raised. "Time to run."

He jerked the chains off their hook and raced to the door he had entered through hours earlier. "Get the lock!"

He slammed into the closed door and wrapped the chains around the handles. Feyla slid up beside him and locked them shut, barring the door.

"What did you do?" he shouted as he grabbed her hand and ran towards the door on the upper level.

"How do you know I did something?" she asked as they pounded up the stairs.

"Because I know that scream and I didn't do anything to warrant it on the way in!" They reached the balcony only for Sedgewick to hiss and turn around.

"What are you doing?" Feyla cried after him.

"I forgot something!"

Sedgewick raced back down the stairs and across the room. He snatched his staff off a nearby table and slung it on his back. He tossed papers and books aside in a frantic frenzy.

A blast hit the locked door, rattling the chains.

"SEDGEWICK! I'm going to kill you and your little helper! Then I'm going to feed your corpses to a Blood Witch! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"We have to go!" Feyla shouted.

Where is it?

Another blast hit the door. Wood cracked.

He yanked one more chart off the table.

There you are.

Snatching up the book, he bolted back up the stair, waving his arm frantically at Feyla. "Go!"

They ran out the balcony door as another blast sounded behind them.

"You risked your life for a book?"

"It's my bloody book!"

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her around a corner. "What did you do on the way in?"

Feyla jerked her hand away and kept running. "You know those magic rune disc or spell disc--"

"Different name, same thing."

"Yeah well, I found a really big one in this library--"

"You found the library?"

"Yep. Anyways, this woman spotted me and I broke it as a distraction. It set off this big explosion--"

"You exploded her library?!"

"I needed a distraction!"

Sedgewick grabbed her arm and they skidded to a stop at a fork in the tunnels. He glanced down each one before dragging her left.

"Stop grabbing my arm!"

"We're in a rush!"

She growled at him but kept running. "We need to watch out for that other sorceress. She's still in here somewhere."

"Well, her body is."

"What?"

He glanced back at her. "Bilara killed her after she failed to catch you."

Feyla stopped. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened.

She bolted back down the tunnel.

"WHAT THE GATES ARE YOU DOING?"

"I have to save Vin!"

Sedgewick groaned and took off after her. "Who the gates in Vin? I thought you came here to save me!"

She huffed and rolled her eyes as she kept running.

"What was that for?" he snapped as he ran up beside her.

"You're jealous over a rescue."

"I am not jealous! And who is Vin?"

"He's the wizard I knocked out on my way in."

Sedgewick stopped and stared at her incredulously. "You're rescuing a wizard?"

Feyla paused in front of him. "If I leave him here, she'll kill him."

"He. Is. A. Wizard," Sedgewick shot back as if the answer was obvious.

Feyla's face darkened and her fists clenched. "Well, you're a heartbreaking jerk and I still saved you, didn't I? Now either help me get him or go be alone. It's what you're good at, after all."

Feyla's words pierced into him. She was one of the rare people who believed he was more than a pile of rude, sarcastic remarks. Or at least she had been... Maybe if he-- No. What she was attempting was madness. They were cutting it close enough as it is.

"Are you coming or not?"

Sedgewick took her in from her dust cover boots to the white hood she'd sworn she'd never wear again. But she had. For him.

He grabbed her hand. "You're bloody crazy, Miss Everbloom."

For the first time since she'd woken him, Feyla smiled. It hit him just how much he'd missed it.

Feyla's grip tightened around his hand as she pulled him further along the tunnel. Another yell from Bilara sounded in the distance.

Sedgewick looked down at their entwined hands. Gates, he hoped they didn't die today.

Bloody wizards.

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Author's Note: Hello everyone! Sorry this was posted so late in the day. My birthday was this week and we had company over. Fun, but busy. Let me know what you think!