I press my head to her chest, savouring the gentle cradle of her arms, her soft murmurs of comfort. She must care something for me.
I focus on that hope and grit my teeth against the giddiness, the pain seething in my arm, as the cragstalker carries us into the unknown.
*
THESTORMCONTINUESto rage, but the snow is thinning.
At first, I can only see shadows. The foot of the Astral Mountain is looming above us – we’re close to it now. Smudges appear left and right, which sharpen into the other cragstalkers. I count heads, heart in my throat. Blayze, riding alone; Maris and Delphine together on the third cat. I look for the fourth. A hollow ache drags my stomach as I remember there are only three now. There will only ever be three.
It’s only now I realise our cragstalker is lolloping – dragging its back leg. A trail of blood stretches behind us, looping over the ice like a scarlet ribbon. Mine? The cat’s?
Briar limps into view. Poor Briar, still so weak and forced to carry Tansy on her back.
We’re almost across the glacier, and everyone’s accounted for. Bloodied, bruised, but alive. The frostfangs, nowhere to be seen.
My heart swells. If we can only get to safety, Tansy can close my wounds. They’re deep and my head is still swimming, but the tourniquet is stemming the worst of the bleeding. So long as she acts quickly, we can continue on our quest. My gaze wings up to the mountain’s soaring peak. Stars only know how I’ll manage the climb one-handed, but I’ll find a way.
I can’t leave Leilani alone. Not after Orthriel made me promise…
‘No.’ Leilani gasps, chest straining beneath my head, interrupting all thoughts of the cielsylph’s dark warnings.
I look up at her. Her eyes are clouded.
She’s having a vision, but what has she seen?
A peal of thunder explodes, louder than all the fire-flowers at the Thawtide celebrations, followed by a blinding fork of lightning. It pulls my attention left and my blood runs cold.
This. This is what she saw.
A whip of lightning striking Blayze in the chest.
He slumps, topples from his cragstalker like a felled pine, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Cracks radiate around his body: a perverse halo.
And the Clanschief sinks beneath the ice.
STRICKEN
LEILANI
THEWORLDNARROWS. Time dilates. Maris sinks to her knees where Blayze fell through the ice; she reaches for him, but her movements drag, as if she’s dredging through tar. I want to run to her, to help, but I can’t leave Astrophel.
I wish I could protect them both.
But Astrophel is moaning in pain, his lips are turning blue. I tighten the bandage and try not to stare at the dark stains leaching through the cloth. I need to get him to safety so Tansy can stitch him back together.
I slip from the cragstalker’s back and thread Astrophel’s good arm around my neck. He’s heavy and my boots skate on the ice, but I stagger under his weight till we reach the mountain. I set him down gently, propping his back against a rocky outcrop to keep him upright. His eyes flutter shut; his breaths turn rough. But he’s breathing. I stroke the hair out of his eyes. Like this, wan and helpless, he looks so much like the slight, awkward boy he was when he first arrived at the palace – the one I hoped would be my friend. Perhaps he still can be. I don’t know when it happened. After the hoarclaw? Galtair? That cave? But I no longer hate this man. I need him. I need him to live.
Once Astrophel is settled, as comfortable as I can make him, I look back at Maris.
She’s hauling Blayze back onto the glacier, Delphine clutching her ankles so she doesn’t sink beneath the ice herself. Her hair, her torso, dripping wet and shaking as she grunts with the effort of dragging so much weight. When his feet clear the icy water, she falls on him, clutching him to her chest.
My own cleaves in two.
Blayze’s head lolls, his golden eyes open but unseeing. Serafine’s cries rend the air as she circles above his motionless body.
Sister’s mercy, he can’t be dead.
Deep furrows crease Delphine’s brow and bracket her lips. The pearlsprite’s hair shifts to onyx as, together, she and Maris drag Blayze towards the base of the mountain.
