Yarina and Sigrid stood frozen in shock, their weapons limp at their sides.
I stumbled toward my friend. My brother.
“No,” I rasped, cupping my hands around his wound. “No. We made it. We fucking made it, Mazkull. Everyone did. Just like you said. Don’t do this to me.Please.”
Kiera shook as she clutched him. As if she could keep his soul in his body if she just held on hard enough.
I continued to mumble to him. Trying to staunch the blood. Too much blood.
Another crash rocked the ship, and Skelly shouted something. But I couldn’t look away from Maz’s closed eyes and still face. I pressed my trembling fingers to his neck.
A faint pulse fluttered against my touch. He moaned something.
“Wake up, Mazkull,” I commanded him. “Open your eyes.”
His eyes slowly opened. “Brother . . . I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarled. “This isn’t goodbye, remember?”
“And it... never will be.” His eyes slid shut.
“No. No!” I threw my head back and roared in agony, shredding my throat.
Fucking Four, the pain. I’d never felt such pain. So deep no one could heal it, even if they tore me open.
His sisters dropped to their knees, sobbing. Kiera stared at him, glassy-eyed, like her horror had carried her away from her body entirely.
Another gods-damned barrel hit the railing near us, showering fire over the deck. I threw my body over Kiera’s and Maz’s. I barely felt the sizzle of my skin.
I rose to my feet, staring at our ship, frantically rowing toward the canyon. And then theirs. We would never make it out of here with that warship on our heels.
Limbs shaking with grief and rage, I stalked toward Nikella, whose spear dangled in her limp grasp. Tears laced her scar as she stared at Maz.
“Give me the last bomb,” I growled.
One of the bombs in the cavern had lost its fuse, so Nikella had grabbed it in case we needed it.
She looked at my bloody hand, then at the warship chasing us. “You can’t blow it up, Aiden.”
“I can and I will. Give it to me.”
“You’ll die.”
“I don’t care, gods damn it!” I shouted. “I will not stand by while wealldie!”
Emotions warred in her eyes until nothing but resignation remained. She cupped my cheek in her hand. “A leader mustalways make sacrifices. A good leader knows which sacrifice to make.”
I frowned, her words not making sense. Grief and fear clouded my thoughts. “Iammaking the right sacrifice.”
For Kiera. For Maz. For his family that I’d sworn to protect. For the prisoners we’d saved and the warriors who’d fought for them.
I would do this for them all.
Another barrel crashed into the ship, which groaned and pitched. Cries sounded from below.
“Give it to me,” I said through clenched teeth.
Nikella straightened, her eyes sadder than I’d ever seen them. “Aiden Falcryn, may you be a man like your father and as strong as your mother. May you be a king, the greatest among your ancestors. May you have love, as they did. Love that no knife, no arrow, not even a gods-damned war can break.” She glanced at Kiera, who stared at us with eyes swimming in pain.
