45. Forty-Five

Forty-Five

The sky was covered in a blanket of stars that twinkled back at me through the open window. Relief crashed through me as my eyes opened to the darkened room.

I was still alive.

A huff of hot air flowed through the opening and I turned toward it.

Two large golden eyes watched as I adjusted in my bed.

She watched closely, with concern, but didn’t pierce into my mind. I must have imagined it. Imagined her voice in my head in my desperation to get us out. I gave her a tired smile as I pulled the blanket back over my arms.

Andrues should be back soon to redress my wound.

I shivered at the evening draft that drifted through the window and without hesitation she blew a spark into the hearth, lighting the shards of wood that still remained in the soot.

I would have liked to know her. To have had more time to learn her story; to understand why she had decided to help us.

A veil of silence washed over everything, drowning out the crackling fire, the rustling of the blankets before her head snapped to the side, studying, searching the night.

Then, like the world had been turned back on, she let out a deafening roar of fire and took off into the night.

Fire lit up the sky and I knew they were here—knew they had come for me.

I pushed myself out of bed, screaming at the pain as I stood. Staggering over to the corner, I pulled my leathers from my sack and shoved them on. Agony coursed through my body at the movements, but the adrenaline was kicking in, pushing me through the pain.

Blood spilled from my wound as I twisted my body to reach for the door.

Screaming, I clutched my side and grabbed hold of the handle.

It burst open, knocking me to the floor with blinding pain. I scurried backwards, reaching for anything that could be used as a weapon and blinking away the red and black fireworks that covered my vision.

Ardan’s voice crashed into the room. He swore at the sight of me crawling blindly on the floor.

“What’s happening? What’s going on?” I said, frantically trying to pull myself from the floor.

“We need to get you to your dragon.” His words were a command.

The command of the warrior he had spent his whole life becoming.

Grabbing me by the arm he hauled me from the floor before swinging my arm over his shoulders and kicking down the door. Splinters of wood crashed around us as he led me down a narrow hallway, and screams echoed through the streets, power snapping in the air.

We stepped into a small opening crowded by a piano that seemed too large for the tiny home we were in.

This was Landers’s home.

This was the piano he played to remember his mother.

The windows erupted inward, sending a million fragments of glass toward us, and shadows flowed from me instinctively, turning the shards to dust as they passed through.

My magic came at a price now.

I wasn’t strong enough to cling to my last threads of life and shield us. I could barely walk—could barely stand.

As I struggled to keep my head up Taft’s words echoed in my ears.

You are not strong enough.

Ardan pulled us through the back door of Landers’s childhood home, and as I took one last look back, it detonated.

My body hit the ground with such force I thought I had been slammed into a stone wall.

I blinked my eyes open. I couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from now.

“Ardan,” I coughed out, there was no answer. “Ardan,” I called for him again.

“Do not touch her,” the words growled out of Ardan like rushing water.

An insidious cackle responded to his words.

I rolled myself over, dragging my limbs toward the sound. I met his frenzied, wild eyes, simmering with fury. They were telling me to run.

A guard dressed in The Sillands’s war leathers held a sword to his throat, his other hand gripped his head up by his hair to expose his neck. A second soldier stepped from around them. He motioned his hand forward and ten more soldiers stepped onto the landing.

I would not let them kill me while I was already down.

I gathered all the strength I had and pushed myself from the grass. Fire burned the world around us as I spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I met the guards eyes. “If you touch him, there will be nothing left of you to send to the Gods.” I growled the promise at him and released my shadows.

A smile so vile broke across his face that the sky shattered. Bolts of lighting thrashed through the air, their echoing thunder screaming around us.

“You see, you’ve killed our High Priest,” the soldier said, taking a few steps toward me. “You owe us a debt.”

His small army lifted their bows, pointing them directly at my heart.

I took a desperate step toward Ardan.

“Do not move,” he hissed, flicking directions to the guard restraining Ardan. The sword tightened against his neck, drawing blood.

Panic began to take over. If I had to beg for his life, so be it. “Please, he’s done nothing. I’m the one you want.”

The fighting was growing closer to us now. From the corners of my eyes I could see children fleeing from their homes.

But I kept my focus on him.

I knelt down before them, and as my knees hit the ground a voice boomed through my head.

Get up child , she roared. You were born of the Gods. You kneel for no one.

My eyes went black, and when I opened them again I saw myself from above—saw myself through a dragon’s eyes as she landed behind me.

My friends tethered around me ready to fight by my side.

Ata’s screams knocked my vision back to my own and I turned my head.

Pri was holding her back; holding her from running to the man she never admitted to loving.

But we knew.

We all knew.

Landers’s hand slid under my shoulder, pulling me up as he whispered in my ear, “Listen to your dragon.”

Wren rushed to my side, and with the two of them flanking me, I pushed every ounce of life left in me, into my power. I took a step forward as the aura around me began to glow with a blinding white light. Then, I exploded.

Time slowed as I watched everyone around me fly backwards. Their hands covering their eyes as they free fell through time.

I ran.

It was an eternity before I got to him, and when I did, time snapped back into place.

The scream that left my lips could have shattered the realms.

Blood spewed from Ardan’s neck as I pressed my hands against the wound.

“Please!” I wailed down at him. “Please stay, please hold on.”

I hauled his head into my lap. My bloodied hands slipping as they tried to stop the bleeding. “You cannot leave me here! You cannot leave me here!” My tears fell onto his face.

He choked, coughing up blood as he looked up at me with desperate eyes. “Ata,” he whispered, clutching onto my hand.

I sobbed over him as I nodded.

Tears streamed from his eyes as he said her name. “Tell her—” He gagged.

“Anything, I will tell her anything,” I cried, caressing a blood stained hand across his cheeks.

“I don’t want to leave her,” he pleaded, struggling to keep his eyes open.

“I know, Ardan, I know. Please don’t leave.” I wept, begging him to hold on.

“It was always her. It will always be her.”

I pressed my forehead against his, pleading with the Gods not to take him.

Not him.

Not him.

He met my gaze with clear resolute eyes, and with a labored whisper, he said, “Love her enough for the both of us.”

He did not take another breath.

I did not see when Ata’s hands pulled his lifeless body from my arms.

I could not hear the screams that were coming from her gaping mouth.

I could only see them .

Those men finally crawling to their feet; finally reaching for their weapons.

I could only see that sword.

The sword that had sent my friend, my Ardan, back to the Gods too soon.

I rose to my feet.

I could not feel the poison in my system. It was sure to take me any second now, but I did not care.

I had made a promise.

Calm washed over me, settling into my bones as I took a step toward the wide-eyed soldiers. They cowered on broken, tattered limbs away from me; fleeing like cockroaches from a cat.

I let the quiet rage build in me as I stood over their leader and I said nothing as I looked down at him, his arm splintered and twisted at his side.

He smiled that foul smile up at me, and as he opened his mouth to speak, I turned them all to ash.