I ripped the camouflaging ring off my hand. “Vera!” I roared. Sprinting across the cave, my hands shifted into talons, ready to grab her and claw our way out from under the mountain.
Twenty seconds.
I tore through the tunnel opening, breaths ragged. Dragon fire radiated up my chest as smoke filled the air around me. Slowly, so slowly, she stopped walking and turned her head.
But she wasn’t looking at me.
I whipped around to peer down the opposite tunnel to find a menacing form staring back at me.
Scarven.
The cave rumbled. Rocks fell from the ceiling and clattered at my feet.
Arowyn had ignited the charm.
“Vera!” I shouted again. I took off down the long path toward her and away from Scarven, but out of nowhere, something yanked my arm. I stumbled backward as Arowyn appeared before my eyes.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” she hissed. “We have to go!”
Terror blazed through me, stealing the breath from my lungs. More rocks fell from the ceiling.
I tried to break out of Arowyn’s hold. “Arowyn, no!”
Looking back down the opposite side of the tunnel, I saw Scarven’s lips curving intoa smile.
A thunderousboomvibrated in my ears, and the cave disappeared.
We landed in the wet rocks of the mountain pass. I fell to my knees, my claws scraping the ground as I watched smoke envelop the night sky. A frenzy built in my chest.
Distantly, I heard a scream.
I thought it was my sister. An echo of her pain, my own mind crafting her gruesome death under the burning mountain. I bowed my head to the ground and gripped my hair in my talons.
Another shriek pierced the air.
“Nox!” Arowyn grabbed my shoulder. “It’s Devora!”
63
Devora
Iwas burning alive.
Flames erupted on the entire left side of my body. My leg, my arm, my neck. I could feel the skin bubbling, nerve endings igniting. My knees buckled as a scream tore from my throat, then choked on my own breath when ash filled my mouth.
This was death. I had to be dying.Nothingcould ever hurt this bad, like my flesh was peeling from bone, and fire was eating every inch of me. Pieces of my red hair fell in clumps to the ground, burning away until it was nothing but soot and smoke.
And then it stopped.
I was lying flat on my back, panting so hard, I could barely catch my breath. The rain hit my seared skin like acid. I couldn’t stop shaking. My teeth chattered, and my vision kept going in and out from the white-hot, blinding pain.
Hands instantly reached for me, but the second they touched my left arm, I let out another scream.
When the ringing in my ears finally dimmed, voices trickled in.
“What just happened?”
“Was sheburned?”
