But enough to kill me.
Heat crashes down, heavy as a landslide. It wraps my body like wet wool set on fire—claustrophobic, scorching. My mouth dries up. Sweat evaporates before it even forms.
The air smells like melting plastic.
I stagger toward a cliff wall, dragging myself along the stone, searching for a crevice—any damn crevice—to duck into. But therock radiates heat like an oven wall. I press my gloved hand to it and hiss. The glove’s outer meshfusesto the surface instantly. I jerk away, and the fabric tears.
My mask chirps—error. Then another chirp—critical system overload.
Static fills my ears.
Then silence.
My vision tunnels.
I drop to my knees, wheezing, ribs rattling with each failing breath. The sunlight sharpens, turning white-hot, bleaching the ground around me.
My thoughts fracture.You didn’t plan this right. You should’ve waited. You should’ve known better. Maug would’ve known. Maug?—
A shadow falls over me.
Sudden. Massive.
I blink through sweat, eyes barely registering shape—horns, shoulders like carved stone, fur curling at the ends, smoldering. A growl, low and thunderous, pierces the silence.
Him.
He crouches, one hand on the ground, the other reaching for me. And I realize too late that Iscreamed—or tried to. My throat won’t form the word, but it’s his name in my head. Over and over. My hands slap against his chest weakly.
“NO—no, Maug, don’t—don’t?—”
He lifts me anyway.
It’s not graceful. It’sdesperate.
My vision swims again as my cheek hits his shoulder—and I smell it. The thick, acrid sting of burning hair. Scorching flesh.
It’shim. The sun’s chewing through his back, skin blackening, peeling away, exposing raw meat and bone. His horns press against the cliff wall with a sharpsizzle.
He groans, low and deep, as he climbs.
Climbs.
I clutch at him, panic overriding pain.
“Put me down!Stop it!You’re—Maug, please?—!”
But his arms only tighten.
And through clenched teeth, he snarls, “No.”
Every step, he grits against the stone, claws digging into rock turned soft from heat. Smoke curls off his shoulders. His tunic catches fire.
Still he climbs.
Up the final ledge—where the cave mouth yawns like a forgotten wound in the stone.
He half-falls through it, carrying me, collapsing hard onto the floor inside.
