We resumed our descent after a few hours, leaving behind us the cavern I'd already grown strangely attached to.
The vines and protruding rocks stretched endlessly below, and the jungle mist clung to our clothes.
Alexia, fully recovered from her long nap, insisted on being thoroughly updated.
Which meant that for the last half hour, we'd been stuck recounting everything that had transpired while she was unconscious.
"So let me get this straight," she said, one hand trailing along the cliff wall as Kang guided her by the elbow. "After I was knocked out cold by that overgrown salad—"
"The Tree King," Lily corrected gently.
"The overgrown salad," Alexia repeated, unbothered, "you three—" she gestured toward me, Michael, and Lily, "—played the heroic rescue party?"
"More or less," Michael shrugged.
"Lord Samael," Alexia drawled, her blind eyes narrowing in my general direction, "were you the leader of this rescue?"
"I was the strategist, Lady Alexia," I said smoothly.
