He worked his hands up the front of his body and shoved his clasped hands out above his head. A wave surged up offthe ocean, cresting higher, until it froze, hanging in midair. Again. He strained harder, his body quivering with effort against me. Pulling more of the ocean’s natural waves up into the air, freezing them, creating crystalized stair steps.
Dörr crashed through the tallest frozen wave, sending chunks of ice flying. Pelting us both. But it did slow his descent. The next wave shattered too, and a deep groan echoed upward. I felt pain in his bond. Speared by ice. Desperate to protect her from broken shards, he managed to fling one wing up, tipping himself over on his back.
Helayna gleamed against the inky darkness of his hide.
He saw us both close. Close enough. I saw the flicker in his eyes. Acceptance.
:No!:
Too late, he flung her upward toward us.
:Release me!:Lokken bellowed.
I let go of him and he sank away, carefully twisting aside so he didn’t impede our queen’s rise, straight into my waiting arms. She didn’t move. I smelled blood, of course, but I wasn’t sure if she was injured or just stunned by the concussion wave released by her blood circle. I opened my wings, slowing our descent, but I could only watch now as the other two Blood crashed through another frozen wave.
Lokken pulled in more waves, short, thin ones that couldn’t hold either of their weight. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. He twisted around, spiraling more frozen waves upward. One of his feet hit the frozen step—and it held beneath him. Allowing him to focus better on slowing Dörr’s fall.
Faster, smaller waves rose beneath him. Shattering. Giving way to the next lower one. But it was working. A pile of broken ice accumulated beneath Dörr’s back, cushioning him. Though he still crashed onto the beach with a sickening thud. Blackessence pooled around him, darkening the ice. But I was sure our queen could heal him.
As long as she wasn’t too injured herself.
Something swept past us in a blur. Gunnarr dropped with a shrill whoop to the beach and Myrk swept back up into the sky, circling around toward us. He dripped essence from his eyes and ears but otherwise seemed uninjured.
I landed as gently as possible. Myrk too, facing me, reached for us both. Holding her between us. Clutching her desperately for just a moment.
We had come entirely too close to losing her.
Ice steps exploded one by one, ringing in the night like shattered crystal, as Lokken descended to the shore. We rushed toward them. Dörr wasn’t moving. His wings were torn and cracked like kindling. A piece of ice as thick as my wrist stabbed up out of his chest. He didn’t have a heart in this form, and we could heal just about anything. As long as we didn’t lose too much essence.
Dropping to my knees beside him, I shifted my focus to her. Using her bond, I scanned through her body, searching for any broken bones or damage. Anything that felt out of place. Her eyelids fluttered, her face deathly pale. The bites on her wrist barely oozed blood.
I pulled her up higher in my arms, tipping her face against my throat. “Feed, my queen. Regain your strength.”
Her fangs pierced my hide, and I finally allowed myself to close my eyes. Emotions welled within me, cresting higher like the frozen waves Lokken had pulled from the ocean. Though these were warm, ebbing, swelling to an uncomfortable level within me. Relief. If she could feed, she could heal herself and Dörr. Hope. It wouldn’t be too late.
Guilt. Shame.
Her bond firmed within me, spreading like pure water through the oily darkness I carried.:Why?—:
A terrible sound came out of her throat. A cry I never wanted to hear again. She wrenched around in my arms toward him, so I gently set her on top of his lower body.
“Darkest. Oh goddess.” She tore her wrist back open and reached up to press her blood to his lips. “Drink, my love.”
“I’m sorry, my queen.” Lokken wrapped his blue hands around the thick spear of ice. “I was trying to slow his fall. Are you ready for me to remove it?”
Nodding, she tore open her other wrist and allowed her blood to drip over the gaping hole as he pulled the ice free of Dörr’s chest. “I don’t know what happened. Everything was so beautiful. The vision from Yggdrasil made sense. I saw the new tree, how much it’d already grown, and then boom. We were falling.”
“When the circle closed, it released a wave of power,” I whispered. “Lokken and I took less of a hit because we were in the rear. He took the brunt of it.”
Dörr’s chest rose and then he sighed like a mournful wind. “Flying. Mistake.”
Her face relaxed into a relieved, tearful smile. “Most Aima can’t fly. I suppose we should have walked the circle except for the cliffs, but it didn’t occur to me that there would be any danger.”
“As long as you’re unharmed, all is well, my queen.” He already sounded better, and he lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “If Svar hadn’t been right behind us, we might very well have perished on the rocks.”
She turned her head, pinning me with dark eyes gleaming like polished obsidian. “Thank you, Deadliest.”
Guilt weighed heavier, strangling my throat. “Lokken slowed his fall.”
