Beside me, Kaelen and Darian are struggling with the guards. One staggers away, gripping his head as a scream makes its way from his throat. Another drops, convulsing.
“Stop.”
Instant obedience, as easily as if she’d clicked her fingers. “Let them through.”
Her eyes are open. Barely, her breathing broken and strained.
“Lyra,” I breathe. I shove the Lightbringer’s hands out of the way, assessing the damage. “We’re here, love.”
“It was a luminth spear. It went through her back.” The Lightbringer sounds calm, although her hands are shaking. “Our healers cannot help her. Can you?”
Darian helps me roll her over. Kaelen grips my shoulder as I stare down at her blood, soaking the ground. “Eres.”
I can’t fix this.I hold out my palm, but my erevas gutters, the well of Erevan’s power drained beyond my reach. I almost crumple, but my hands move to her face.
My voice breaks. “I waited for you.”
Unfocused eyes narrow in on my face. There’s no fire in her eyes. Her irises are black. “Vaelion is dead. Tell… Kaelen.”
“I know,” he rasps. His hand finds hers. “Breathe, Lyra.”
“Reena,” she whispers. “Talk to her.”
Reena, her sister. My eyes sweep over the Lightbringer again, and back to Lyra. And then back again. “Reena.”
At the sharpness in my voice, she stills. “I’m Reena Vaelion.”
Lyra’ssister. I straighten. “Do you have highborn blood? Gold blood?”
Glowingblood. Blood that glints with power, Aedryn’s gift running through them with such strength that they can repair wounds far beyond mortal reach.
Her brow furrows. “I don’t see what that has to do with—”
“You can save her.” My hand snaps out for her wrist. “I saw Lyra heal a mortal wound far beyond any healer’s capability. Shehealed something similar tothiswith her luminth. You can do the same.”
Darian inhales sharply behind me. “Sera. She healed Sera.”
But Reena looks between us. Her eyes are wet. “That’s impossible. I don’t knowhow—I’ve never healed before.”
“Neither had she, but she did it.” Lyra coughs, a choking, rattling noise that grinds against my bones. “Try.”
Reena leans forward, her hands wavering as I pull back to give her space. “I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
“Stop the bleeding,” I say hoarsely. “That’s the most important thing. We can… we can take her back, work on her. I have scrolls that show the body’s structure. You’d need to replicate them.”
“Be quiet,” she snaps at me. We watch as she takes a breath, her palms beginning to glow. “Nobody speak.”
We sit there for what feels like hours. My fingers stay against Lyra’s pulse, counting each sluggish beat. It echoes the movement in my own chest.
Stay with us.
She should be dead. She should have been dead in the Veilspire. But she keeps breathing as her sister leans over her, her hands glowing—
I see it.The slow, creeping movement of luminth, spreading over the wound in her chest. It sinks down, below the wound, and I chance a look away from her.
Reena wavers. “I don’t think—”
“It’s working. Don’t stop.”
