Her fingers begin to spasm, wrists bending in every possible direction. My hands slide down her arms, trying to lace my fingers with hers to get them to stop. They don’t, and all I get is the feeling of crunching and cracking beneath my palms. But I hold them there because I don’t want anyone to see. And yet, right now, it feels like the entire world is staring at us.
“I don’t want it to hurt anymore,” she whispers.
“It won’t, I promise.” I will promise her the world if that’s what it takes.
“Make it stop, please.”
“I will do anything, everything in my power to make sure itstops hurting. So stay with me.Please.”
She opens her mouth to speak again, but the only thing that escapes is a low, gurgling noise.
“Isola, step back.” Lucan’s voice is severe. “Now.”
I don’t have time to object. Saipha’s arms violently spasm outward, shaking off my grasp. She lets out a scream. Then she convulses, body thrashing against me with such force, I tumble backward. Lucan catches me and pulls me back against his chest, wraps his arms around my shoulders to hold me still.
“Let me go,” I beg.
“You can’t help her now; she’s already dead.” The words are so cruel, even though he says them gently. They’re underscored by the toll of bells above. Never have I heard an alarm for a dragon attack from the inside.
Time has run out.
Saipha staggers backward, grabbing her head. Screaming in a way that rakes my bones. Commotion rises in the stands. The other supplicants get as far away as they can. Lucan and I are pushed backward by a flood of what my senses tell me is undeniably Etherlight that spirals from her in a cold tornado. It manifests into a haze of frost.
As if pulled by invisible strings, her arms fly out to either side, as rigid as boards. Her fingers condense into fists and then shoot outward. Where there were once nails are now long claws that look as if they’re carved from solid ice. Her hands are already larger, turning blue. Her skin begins to split and jut out, forming the arcs of tiny scales.
“Clear the arena!” inquisitors shout.
“All spectators to the back.”
“Supplicants through the door!”
The doors that are set into the wall swing open. The other supplicants waste no time sprinting through them to the safety of the city beyond. Doors that Saipha was so close to goingthrough.You were so close to being free. The thought lodges as a sob in my throat. But I still can’t move.
“We need to go.” Lucan tugs on me.
“I’m not leaving her.” My voice shakes, tears streaming down my cheeks, but I will not leave her. Even though I know what this means…what will happen next. I raise my voice. “Saipha, I’m not leaving you! I promised you. I’m sorry. You were right, and I was wrong. So please, come back to me.”
The surge of Etherlight continues to grow. It singes the ground beneath Saipha white as permafrost crackles out from her toes, and she rises several inches into the air.
The rest follows faster than you would think. The disembodied voice of the vicar finishes. And it does.
Bones snap and crack. Saipha no longer screams in agony. She doesn’t make any noise at all. Her mouth is agape as her jaw unnaturally unhinges and begins to lengthen. Too many teeth fill the space, each the same glittering cut crystal as her talons, each as jagged as the last.
Another scream fills the air, but not from her. It’s one of pain—of hurt so deep and raw that there can be no recovering from it. A figure races down the stands, leaping to the stadium floor. The moment the light hits him, I recognize Saipha’s father.
Marius stumbles, having landed hard, his expression utterly shattered in its devastation.
I want to save her. Tell me how to save her, I wish I could say, looking from him to her.
What good are you if you can’t help us?Why are you even here?Cindel’s voice is my reply, echoing within my mind.You should’ve saved her.
Save her. But I don’t know how. All this power, all these answers, and all I have is more questions. I’m as worthless as I was when I entered the monastery.
As my friend disappears, replaced scale by scale by a mindlesskilling machine, my heart feels like it’s being split in two, a piece of me forever ripped away. It feels like I’m the one that’s being shattered from the inside out. Twisted. I want to scream. To cry. To dosomething.
But I can’t. I’m helpless.
So the least I can do is not leave her side until the very end.
