For one second, he just looks down at Lyra’s beautiful face. The iron pipe falls from his hand, but his other palm still cups her cheek. Then he topples to the side.
I scream as Alistair just falls sideways, landing hard on the ground. His body tips over and then settles so that he is lying on his back. His hand is only inches away from Lyra’s cheek where the two of them lie on their backs, side by side.
Neither of them opens their eyes.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
“Alistair!” I scream. “Lyra!”
I yank desperately against the stone, but my leg is still trapped.
Chunks of ice roll down from the pile a short distance from me. Then Orion’s arm finally becomes visible as he shoves the last of the rubble away. Pain and worry pulse on his face where he is braced on his hands and knees above Isera. As the final pieces of debris tumble away from them, Isera at last becomes fully visible.
Shock is written across her entire face as she lies there on her back, staring up at Orion. There is still blood on the side of her head, but intense relief washes through me just to see her with her eyes open again. It’s quickly drowned out by fear, though.
“Orion,” I call. “I can’t move! You need to check on?—”
Lyra gasps awake.
I snap my gaze to her as she shoots up into a sitting position and whirls towards Alistair. The confusion on her features is quickly replaced by terror when she finds him lying there with his eyes closed.
“Alistair,” she blurts out. Fear pulses in her eyes as she grabshim by the shoulders. “Oh God, what did you do? Alistair, what have you done?”
From the pile of rubble, Orion struggles to his feet and reaches a hand down towards Isera. But she just stretches out her arm to the side instead and shoots a sheet of ice towards Alistair. Lyra jerks back in shock when it stops right above his nose and mouth. Whirling towards Isera, she begins to speak. But before she can say anything, relief crashes over Isera’s features.
“He’s still breathing,” she declares, and then makes the sheet of ice fade out again with a flick of her wrist.
A sob of profound relief comes from Lyra’s throat. Turning back to Alistair, she slides her arms underneath his back and pulls him up so that his chest is pressed against hers where she still sits on the ground. His head tilts forward until it’s resting on her shoulder.
“Oh Alistair,” she breathes, hugging his unconscious body tightly. “You gave too much. You always give too much.”
I draw in a shuddering breath. Alistair is alive. He just gave her so much of his magic to heal her that he passed out from draining himself.
Because that is exactly who Alistair is. He comes across as angry and rude to people who don’t know him, and he doesn’t care about a lot of people. But over this past year that I’ve known him, I’ve come to realize that Alistair is one of the most loyal and dependable people I’ve ever met. He feels everything so deeply, which is why he only opens his heart for a very select few people. But when he does take someone into his very exclusive circle of trust, there is nothing he wouldn’t do for them.
By the pile of rubble, Isera at last grabs Orion’s hand and lets him help her to her feet. She winces and presses a hand to her temple while squeezing her eyes shut for a second. Orion watches her intently, but the moment she opens her eyes again, he quickly wipes the deep worry from his face.
Instead, he dusts off his rumpled garments and pretends as if he has been preoccupied with that this entire time.
After blinking a couple of times, Isera looks up at him, that stunned shock now back on her face. “You…”
That one word is all that makes it out of her mouth, but the expression on her face says the rest.You shielded me with your own body.
For a moment, Orion just looks back at her. The second seems to stretch into eternity. But just when it looks as if Isera is about to say something else, Orion realizes that his eyepatch is askew. In the chaos of it all, it has slid up so that it’s halfway on his forehead instead, leaving the bottom of his empty eye socket visible.
Deep embarrassment flashes across his face, and he takes a step back, looking mortified.
Yanking the eyepatch back down, he clears his throat self-consciously and moves farther away from Isera. And when he speaks, his voice only holds that nonchalant tone that he so often uses.
“We should help Selena,” he declares, and starts striding towards me. “And then get a move on. We still need to locate the Soul of Trees inside all of this… debris.”
She turns towards him and opens her mouth again, but he stalks briskly across the ground. Hesitation blows across Isera’s features as she stares after him. Orion just comes to a halt next to me and arches an eyebrow.
“Would you like my assistance?” he says, his teasing tone suggesting that he would like me to beg for it.
“If you make me say please, I will tell Draven that you let a boulder land on me,” I inform him.
“Ruthless.” He narrows his eye while trying to suppress a sly smile. “I approve.”
