Not now!
“Andar,” I moaned. “What were you thinking?”
Against all odds, his charred hand found mine and gripped it. “You are supposed to hold still.”
How had he managed to whisper when his face and chest were so burnt? I couldn’t even answer his words because I was too worried about his body.
And then a gleeful cackle, made threatening by the deep rumbling voice it rose from, caught my attention. One of the dragons leaped back toward us with something gold and glistening in its hand. “Surrender the treasure,” it rumbled at me.
I leaned over Andar. He could not take another blast of fire. He might not even survive the burns he already had. But the dragon didn’t torch us again. It waved the golden object at us. “Relinquish your claim.”
When he stopped waving his hand, I realized what he wanted: the lamp that Andar had been tied to.
My throat tried to collapse in on itself. “You have it, don’t you? It’s yours already!”
“Give it to us,” the dragon hissed, shuffling himself around so he could shoot more fire. “The fae’s word.”
If I hadn’t been at risk from fainting already, I would have rolled my eyes. The most infamous of thieves, the ice dragons, wanted a fae’s binding word that they could keep the lamp. If I’d had any idea, I would have given it to them when they first appeared.
“Now!” the dragon added.
“Fine,” I spit out. “The lamp is yours. You saw it in your Kahunamons and, as the last owner, I formally surrender it to you. Go put it in your hoard.”
All six dragons—all thoroughly defrosted—lifted into the air and soared away. I turned my attention back to Andar.
His breathing was so shallow, I couldn’t see or hear it anymore… and I didn’t want to think about what that meant for his heart. “Why didn’t you protect yourself too?” I croaked.
His hand gave mine a weak squeeze. “Part of the illusion. Dragons… are satisfied with roasting an enemy. They would have… ignored you… if they saw me burn and you disappeared.” He sounded awful. I tried reaching for his heart with my magic, sure that the key to healing him enough that he survived would be in his heart or lungs, but as soon as I extended the magic, black filled the edges of my vision. I didn’t have the strength to use any magic.
But nobody else—
The musicians!
I whipped my head to the side, where I’d last seen them huddling inside their musical shield. Theywatched us—like they were interested, but they didn’t dare come too close.
“Aakil,” I panted, starting with the most reasonable of the three of them. “Can you heal him?” The Librarian—I really should ask him if he was a librarian before he took up music—shared a look with Amador, and then they both crept closer.
Aakil knelt down on the opposite side of Andar from me. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, we can’t touch magic right now. Amador and I already passed out for a few seconds, and Bummel’s come close. We never would have survived if the dragons didn’t all leave.”
Something burned behind my eyes. “None of you can help? Not even a little?”
Moisture filled Bummel’s eyes. “If we tried anything now, we’d just black out, and you’d get nothing useful out of us anyway.”
“Why did you do it?” I whispered the question into the air, not really expecting an answer.
But Andar managed one anyway. “It was… the only way… to keep you alive… to make sure you know… that I care.”
I blinked to keep the moisture out of my eyes. “What good does that do if you die?”
He seized my hand and tensed his entire body. “It is good that you know you are worthy of love. Do not be alone.” His breath turned raspy, and he struggled for air.
But his short words sank into my soul, lighting everything they touched on fire.
You are worthy of love.
Do not be alone.
As his words settled against my heart, they hit the crystal magic that had protected it, vibrating it until the layer that had once been an ironclad barrier was nothing but a brittle lattice. I did not want to be alone. And I did not want to lose Andar.
