To betray the Karag. To commit a crime they saw as comparable to murder itself, to steal Elthika eggs. To betray Syris, Tarkosh, Moak, Ulin. To betray Brune.
To turn my back on Samryn.
To betray Alaryk.
A bitter pain twisted my insides.
Or…I would save my family and Brune’s life.
I thought of the shimmering eggs in the incubation room. If I stole them, what future would await them?
A sound came from across the wall. Brune. A gentle groan, a wheezing breath.
“Shut him up,” Ryak ordered Nevin.
“Wait,” I pleaded.
But Nevin was already jumping over the wall, swinging his legs effortlessly before dropping down to the other side.
I heard the squelch of blood as Nevin hit him, the sound of Brune’s head meeting stone, a wet cough tumbling from his lips.
“Stop,” I breathed, glaring at Ryak through a veil of tears. “Enough. I’ll do it. Stop now!”
He help up his hand, and Nevin ceased.
“I’ll be right back. But don’t touch him again,” I hissed.
Ryak tilted his head back in an affirmative. “Be quick. And nothing funny,pyrokigirl.”
I turned on my heel, my gut churning, making saliva pool in my mouth like I would be sick.
I had a choice…but I wasn’t strong enough to make the righteous one.
And so, I squeezed back through the courtyard door and slipped into the incubation room, the heat of it feeling suffocating.
I was crying as I gathered the satchels from a cabinet near the door. The same ones we’d used to transport the eggs into the cellar. I figured it was their best chance of survival. I slipped my hands into heat-proof gloves, lined in hatchling scales, and scooped up starstone fragments from one of the empty alcoves, filling the bottoms of each insulated bag as quietly as I could.
If Syris woke…or Tarkosh or Moak or Ulin…Brune was dead. My family would be in danger back in Dakkar. I couldn’t afford that, so I worked as quickly as I could with shaking hands, determination feeling like a stone lodged in my breast.
When the satchels were filled, my gaze went to the Rythbacks. The other egg in the room was a Redback, I’d only discoveredrecently. I sure as hell wouldn’t give that kind of power to the Dakkari. The Rythbacks were the most logical choice.
But even as I stole the eggs from their pedestals in the quiet alcoves, I was still crying. I was thinking of Kyr. All the hatchlings I’d seen break from their shells. I didn’twantto do this. I wanted to remain here, to finish what I’d begun.
I wanted to see Syris one last time. All my friends.
I wanted to see Alaryk again.
And now I never would.
My vision was blurred when I tied up the bags, making sure the eggs were nestled deep in the starstone. When I straightened, I touched my pendant, hanging around my neck. My most cherished possession, from my family.
As though it was an apology, I tugged the chain from my neck and laid it in one of the alcoves. I hoped that, at the very least, they would know what I was trying to say. How sorry I was. How truly sorry I was.
The firestone in the pendant glowed from the heat. I felt disgusting, my flesh crawling. I felt empty, scraped from the inside out.
It felt fitting. It felt like I’d cut a piece of myself out, that I was leaving it behind here in the Arsadia.
It would be a beacon to whoever woke in the morning first, to find three of the Elthika eggs gone.
