He was gone.
26
FELL
ISOARED FREE, REVELING IN THE STROKE OF WIND ON MYbody, the sweet vibrations of my wings on the air, the glorious stretch and bend of my muscles. Muscles too long cramped and inert.
I was no longer trapped in darkness, lost in a void. No longer surrounded by the mist that filled my head and ate at me, consuming me with devouring jaws.
I cut through clouds, tossing the weight of my head left and right, delighting in the freedom. Even if my thoughts still felt loose and foggy, my emotions were keen, my instincts sharp as the talons jutting from my claws.
Mist cooled the battle fever from my skin.
Finally, my mist had somewhere to go. It flowedoutof me instead ofintome.
My stomach clawed with hunger, and I studied the landscape below, scanning for movement, for potential food. Among other things.
I had many needs. Dizzying, overwhelming urges that filled me with a delicious ache.
I hunted even as I felt hunted myself.
I glanced after me, an uneasy sensation clinging, as though I had left something behind. The nagging feeling followed me, a constant breath at my neck, filling me with a restless energy. Fire-gold eyes flashed across my mind, and I shook my head, tossing off the image as though it was no more than a bit of cobweb sticking stubbornly to the skin.
Beating my wings, I flew harder, faster, letting the wind tear the gossamer web away.
27
TAMSYN
HE WAS LOST. AND YET NOT LOST.
Not lost like before, with hope a dead, rotting thing inside me.
Fell was alive and loose in the Crags, as wild as any untamed creature that roamed this wilderness. Except he wasn’t justanyuntamed creature. He was Fell.Mine.Even though he’d rejected me. Flown away without a backward glance, as though I was nothing.
The sting of this went deep, a shard of ice through the molten core of me. Except …
He didn’t kill me.
That was no small thing. If I was nothing, he could have killed me in that moment when we stood face-to-face. He’d killed everyone else in sight in a feral rage. And yet he’d let me live. I took that as a positive sign. Some part of him must know me, remember me still. It was enough to give me hope.
I watched him fly away, his pearl-silver wings flapping on the air.
Lost but not dead. Not unreachable. An important distinction and one I clung to desperately.
“Well.” Kerstin sighed beside me, pulling her hood back down into place over her head and covering her wild mane of hair. “That did not go the way I thoughtat all.” She sliced a hand through the air for dramatic effect. She angled her head thoughtfully. “Do you think the witch knew he was going to come out of that hole fierce as a battle boar?” She yanked her thumb in the direction Sylvi had departed. “Because she made a quick exit.”
“I don’t know. Maybe,” I said, even as I shook my head, still looking to the sky, the air tremoring past my lips. What did it matter?
“Damned witches,” she grumbled. “Didn’t even think to give us a warning that your mate was going to come out a bloodthirsty killer.”
I bristled, feeling defensive over Fell and his actions. “He didn’t do anything to those soldiers we weren’t planning to do ourselves.”
Her gaze swept around us. “Uh, yes, except he did itreallywell and in under a minute. And he hasn’t even had any training from the pride.” Her eyes went wide in part horror, part wonder.
“He’s been training his whole life,” I returned.
“Not as a dragon.”
