Chapter 103

RELIEF SHOULDN'T be coming this hard. In fact, Wil shouldn't have even woken yet. He should have stayed under the sway of that heavy sleep until Dallin lifted it away, but it was as though Wil was becoming immune to those small things Dallin could offer by way of respite. Or, perhaps, this place was just too much--too much, too big, Wil had said--and anything Dallin could do would always come up just short of enough. Guardian or no, chosen or not, this sort of thing was just not what Dallin was good at. Give him a gun, a sword, a bow, or even just his fists, and he'd stand against anything and take his chances, but this....

It was enough to make him doubt his own snarled assertions to the Old Ones just an hour ago. Well, would have been, if he wasn't so unwaveringly sure this was how it had to go.

"Wil, you have to listen to me, all right? I can't do it if you won't let me."

"I *am* letting you. I just... I can't... you're making it worse."