Kaelith… please.
I reached for her the moment my body stopped aching enough to think. Dirt scraped my knees, the blood on my palms tacky as I pressed them into the stone. My chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. I could barely move. My magic wasgone.
Emptied. Spent. Hollow.
The wind carried the sound of Coldrath’s wings circling back overhead. I didn’t need to look up to know what came next. Perin would land. He would come for me. And without Kaelith, withoutanything?—
He would rip me apart.
Please,I whispered again into the bond.I need you.
She stirred.
Not the soft warmth I used to feel, not even the simmering indifference she’d shown these past days. This was ice. Pointed and judging.
You struck a dragon.
Her voice cracked across my mind like thunder. Heavy. Angry. Disappointed.
Perin was trying to kill me, I answered, dragging myself to my feet.You felt what he did. He could’ve snapped my tendons from the sky.
And you would’ve recovered, she snapped.But what you did to Coldrath could have killed him. He should not die because his magic paired with an unconscionable rider. That was not power, Ashe. That was weakness.
I didn’t mean to!My mind screamed the words.I wasn’t trying to hit him! The power?—
You let it loose, she said, low and lethal.You lost control. Again. What if it had been me?
My breath caught.I would never?—
Wouldn’t you? Prove it.
Tears burned behind my eyes. My body still trembled.I didn’t want this.
Then why do you keep feeding it?
I clutched my ribs, pain lancing with each breath. The dueling circle loomed, and Perin’s dragon was lowering now. The red Swift coiled like a serpent above the Ascension Grounds.
You left me, I whispered, barely able to stand.You won’t anchor me. You won’t help me. What am I supposed to do? Just die for honor?
Silence.
Then—If you die, it will not be for honor. It will be because you chose power over me.
My knees buckled. I collapsed to the ground again, heart breaking in my chest.
Kaelith, I’m sorry,I whispered the words meant for her, but they slipped across the bond like a phantom breath.
I’m sorry,I heard again.
But it wasn’t from me.
Kaelith’s voice, barely audible now, was speaking not to me, but to Coldrath.
I’m sorry you have to see this.
And then she was gone. Again.
Leaving me with nothing.
