Dark ichor dripped from their shadowy snouts. A low growl came from each of their throats as Ezer’s body went cold.
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear breathed.
His hand went to the dagger on his hip. It was all they had to defend themselves. All they had …
Besides Six.
‘Fly,’ Ezer whispered. ‘Six. You have to fly.’
She prayed the raphon would be faster than the wolves.
They closed in.
Six growled – Ezer felt it rumble through her body – and twitched her wings.
The wolves growled back and the scars on Ezer’s face seemed to squirm with memory, as those long black claws carved up the snow with each step.
Help,she thought to the wind.Send the ravens.
But nothing came.
‘Fly,’ Ezer hissed. ‘Six. Use your wings. You have tofly!’
The raphon shook her head, skittering and prancing backwards. A feeling of terror rose in Ezer’s gut, and she knew it came from Six.
She wasscaredof the wolves, an enemy that was once an ally.
It was an effort to stay on her back. Ezer dug her hands into her fur and feathers, as if she could make the raphon feel her own terror.Please. Fly!
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear said. ‘Get her airborne or we die.’
‘I can’t,’ Ezer breathed.
The trees were at their back now, too thick for the raphon to make it through. To their left...the distant edge of the cliff.
‘Six,’ Ezer said. ‘Fly.’
The raphon nearly stumbled over the gravestones as she backed away.
Please,she begged the wind.Help us, Avane.
She tried,desperately,to invocate.
But the wind did not answer.
So Ezer held onto Six as desperation moved through her. As she felt somethingshiftin her mind. An ember, come to life.
Six could send visions.
Perhaps she could too.
In her mind, she imagined herself dying. She imagined her body flayed open on crimson snow while the shadow wolves feasted upon her.
She imagined Kinlear, dead beside her, and Six …
Six standing alone in the snow.
Alone forever, without Ezer in this world.
