"You have to wait for her to release the flames," Bala told him. "Look at her eyes. She has never become this creature before. She won't know you."
"That is myQueen," he uttered, and Bala had never heard such conviction in anyone's words before. "I promised I would get her out of that void or fall into it with her," he continued as he looked back to Nyssa. "I'm not losing her."
He stood and began to strip himself of his weapons and his boots.
"And the serpent?"
"I'll fight her too."
Nadir stepped forward. The serpent launched. He ducked just in time, but in the moment he moved—
Nyssa was on her feet.
She was in front of Nadir before they could blink.
And her hand was around his throat.
Bala and Lex bolted forward. The serpent dove between them, wrapping itself and circling Nadir and Nyssa.
Bala couldn't breathe. Nadir's hand was on Nyssa's cheek, his other around the wrist at his throat, and she could see his fingers beginning to burn. He was trying to speak to her. The pair cried out both their names. But there was no way to get to them.
A screech sounded over their heads. Forceful wind shuddered over them. Bala and Lex flinched. A shadow circled through the rising smoke.
Nyssa's eyes flickered. Her hair fell from the wind and onto her shoulders, and her hand loosened around Nadir's neck. His feet hit the sand again as the gaped cracks in Nyssa's skin began to fill.
With a final breath, she slumped against the serpent.
Nadir doubled over to catch his breath. A handprint was visible on his throat.
The serpent launched at the pair again—
Nyssa's eagle flew between them and the beast. The snake hissed, but as her eagle fluttered in front of it, the beast seemed to relax. It uncurled from around Nyssa and Nadir.
Bala and Lex ran.
Nadir was cradling Nyssa in his arms when they reached him. His hands were blistered and shaking. His words were hardly coherent. She laid limp in his arms, some of the black streaks still present on her flesh as markings, unmoving.
As though they'd stopped receding when she'd fallen.
Bala fell to her knees.
She didn't need to feel for a pulse to know that Nyssa didn't have one.
He shouted her name in her face, hand pressing to her cheek, but as the seconds grew longer, Bala watched him start to come apart.
“—come back to me," he was saying. "Every day, remember? We said every day. All the days after. Nyssa, come home—“
The words he said next were ones she didn't understand, in the old language, Bala realized.
But Nyssa still hadn't moved.
He kissed her and pulled back, his hand moving her hair out of her face.
"You didn't let me tell you last time, and I won't tell you now. Because I know you can hear me. I know what you see in that black. The mirrors around you. Showing you you are alone. You're not. You willneverbe alone."
He surrendered his head to her chest, and Bala could see him breaking further as the reality started to sweep in. Bala's insides curled. Seeing Nyssa so lifeless, those streaks on her body... Unwavering and still.
"Come on, Princess," Lex begged, her hand holding onto Nyssa's opposite Nadir. "Nyssari, don't do this.Nyssa!"
