Am I going to die like this?
A royal blue blur sliced through the air, and for a moment, I was free-falling. Then a pair of strong arms grabbed me, just a hundred feet before I hit the ground. My stomach lurched.
“I’ve got you,” Kass growled, his voice strained from pain.
“What - ”
Below, Zenon’s body hit the ground. A sickeningcrunchfilled the air as his neck broke. His body continued to burn.
I realized what happened. Kass had sliced through Zenon’s burning wrist. I groaned in disgust and kicked it off. “Gross!”
“Are you okay?” Kass asked. “Can you fly?”
“Yes - sorry.”
I wriggled out of his grip and flew on my own. As I did, Kass let out a shaky breath - he was struggling just to keep himself in the air.
“Kass,” I began, worried, but he cut me off.
“Come on. Let’s make sure he’s really dead this time.”
We lowered ourselves to where Zenon’s body burned. A hideous smell rose from the flames. Unable to take it, I finally summoned the rains from the dark, swollen storm clouds. Rain descended upon us. It put out the fire and dissipated the smoke.
We shifted to human form. Rain dripped down Kass’s face, washing the blood from his closed eye. I don’t know how long we stood there and stared, but eventually the foxes joined us in the valley below the mountain. They shifted, too, but none of them spoke for a while.
“Is he dead?” James finally asked.
I did the honors of approaching the body. Zenon’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle. Holes ripped in his wings where he hit the rocky ground. He didn’t move.
“Yes,” I declared.
“Well… That’s it, then,” the fox Halo murmured.
James suddenly groaned. “Not quite.”
We looked up and saw a dark shape approach - a wyvern. Silas gasped and dropped the dead prey to the ground before he scrambled to the ground.
“What happened?” he cried. “Master!”
“He’s dead,” Kass said bluntly. “And you will be, too, if you don’t get out of my sight.”
Silas raised his head. Genuine tears rolled down his face. But to my surprise, he didn’t attack. His shoulders slumped, like all the fight just vanished from his body.
“Well?” Kass prompted.
“No,” Silas said, shaking his head. “I’m… tired. I don’t want to live in a world without him.”
I winced at his words. Despite hating him, I understood some of his feelings. I wouldn’t want to live without Kass, either.
But I didn’t expect what Silas did next. He picked up his sword - the one he’d used to torment me with in the past - and before anyone could stop him, he plunged it through his own chest.
We watched in horrified silence as he let out a choked cry, then slumped against Zenon’s body. Both of them were dead.
Kass turned to the foxes. His face was neutral, except for the wince of pain from his eye. “Where is Luce?”
My heart clenched in fear.
“He’s alive, but hurt,” James said, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Kass nodded. “I’ll get him. Then we’re going to return home. Is that clear?”
Kass’s assumption of leadership stirred us from our daze. He shifted and quickly returned to the cave to collect an unconscious Luce, and then all of us began the journey back to Cinderhollow.
