As if on a silent cue, Solen rolled his head with a whimper.
The darkness threatening to choke Lory retreated, but panic gripped her with fierce fingers as she scanned the area for Tabi and Thal and found neither.
“Where are they?” Her heart was thumping in her ears, nearly drowning out Aiden’s answer.
“Tabi was able to heal herself and Thal enough to get away, but they are in bad shape. They’re headed down the mountain and to the outpost to get help.”
It was clear in his eyes, when Lory turned in his arms and he released her, that byhelp,he didn’t mean that anyone would come for Aiden and her. As long as Tabi and Thal survived, she’d be all right. As long as Aiden survived?—
With a jerk of her head, she scanned the darkness for any sign of Ricca, the only one of their opponents left standing—and found nothing.
“Where did she go?”Not after Tabi and Thal—please, not after Tabi and Thal.
“She fled when you attacked Solen, obviously not eager for a similar fate.”
“What happened there?” Carefully studying Lory’s face, Aiden gestured at Solen, then studied her like she were a wild animal ready to attack as she moved to kneel at the dead ashling’s side.
“I didn’t mean to—”to kill Solen,she finished in her mind, even when she hadn’t. Aiden had stopped her from crossing that line she’d drawn in the sand. And now it was slipping away.
“You did what you had to do.” His pragmatic tone was well practiced—words he had been telling himself.
Lory peeled Solen’s shirt aside at his shoulder, examining the raw edges around scorched flesh, and Solen flinched with pain, but on his face, pure hatred dominated his features.
“You’re an abomination, Elory Vednis. Your kind should have been extinguished for a reason. Your actions are living proof.”
It didn’t matter that it had been Solen who attackedher, thatthey’dbeen on a hunt for the Flame-born. Deep in Lory’s stomach, an avalanche of rocks rolled over her with conviction.
“Ulder is right to kill your kind. He’ll make me a hero for killing you—” As their ruined wrist rolled weakly, white light brightened the sky, but the scream tearing from Lory’s throat as lightning struck wasn’t from pain. It was for Aiden as he shoved her out of the way, taking the full brunt of the blow. His eyes lit up with pale blue light as they met Lory’s shock-widened ones, and for a moment, he seemed suspended mid-air.
Then the brightness faded, and his massive body slumped, covering Solen’s lifeless one.
“Aiden!” Lory’s scream disappeared in the echoes of Ricca’s laugh.
The woman hadn’t hunted Tabi and Thal down the mountain the way Lory had feared but stayed behind, biding her time, and now that Lory was the only one standing, her voice filled the open space around the dead bodies of her classmates, an onslaught of audible blades pushing at Lory, eager to draw blood.
But Lory held her ground. On her knees, she tugged at Aiden’s arm, begging with tears in her eyes that he move.
“It’s too late for me, Lory,” he coughed, nearly startling her to death as she brushed his cheek with her fingers, and for a moment, hope flared in Lory’s chest, a bushel of flames fighting the cold of the ice leaking from Aiden’s hands. His breathing slowed until irregular gasps shook his shoulders.
Lory rolled him onto his back, supporting his head to help him in whatever way she could think of. “You need to get up, Aiden. We need to run.” Because, no matter how hard Lory tried, not a single flame emerged from her palms, not one whisper of embers, as if killing Solen had drained all magic from her.
“Please, Aiden.”
Ricca’s laugh still swirled around them like a fading cage, but there was no sight of the ashling with the unique power. If they wanted to get out of there, now was their chance—perhaps the only chance, before Ricca closed in on them, and even the blade in Lory’s hand would do nothing to save her.
“Aiden, get up.” She tugged on his arm, at the same time slipping her own arm under his shoulder in an attempt at lifting him, but Aiden remained a dead weight, his eyelids fluttering and his lips moving in a murmur.
“I’m sorry, Lory.”
Ignoring the danger circling them in versions of Ricca’s voice, Lory stayed by Aiden’s side. If Ricca had been able to kill them from a distance, she’d have long done it.
“You can’t die, Aiden. Not because of me.” Again, she tugged at him, praying to the Guardians she might be strong enough to drag him out of danger if he couldn’t stand on his own feet.
“I’m not dying because of you, Lory,” he whispered, hand reaching to his neck, behind his ear where the black tattoo shimmered under a sheen of hoarfrost. “That night, when they killed your brother—I was there.” A cough shook him, loosing Lory’s grasp on him, and he slumped back ontothe ground. Something in Lory’s chest tightened to the point of breaking. “I didn’t lift a finger to save him, even though I knew better than to stand by and watch him die. This is me paying for the worst of my crimes.”
When he tapped the tattoo once more, his finger slipped, and Lory bit back a scream as she realized the dragon-like shape was something very different.
“A Gargoyle—” she whispered, and Aiden’s chin dipped half an inch, just enough to pass for a confirmation as his eyelids slid shut and remained that way.
