Screaming, she charges me again, saber spinning blindingly fast as I awkwardly parry her strokes. I can barely hold my own, and my adrenaline is starting to wane. I stumble a couple times, my vision blurring. I keep the altar between us, knowing it won’t be long before she claims the advantage. But all I have to do is hold out for the dawn.
“So valiant, yet all for naught,” she taunts. “And now we will finish what we started. The power of Fero will make my son rise again.”
“Your son is cracked in half,” I say. “Nothing’s going to bring him back.”
Her smile makes my blood curdle. “You know nothing, child.”
“That may be, but at least my parents loved me,” I say. She thrusts at me again, but instead of fighting with blades, I fight with words. “You delivered your only son to his death. What kind of mother does that make you?”
A muscle jerks in her cheek as her eyes turn red with rage. Her first sign of weakness. She fumbles, blade driving into the stone and falling from her hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that Roshan has crawled away from the altar, a crossbow in hand. A trail of blood follows in his wake. Lifting the weapon, he groans at the effort, and I cry out, distracted for a second. It’s all Morvarid needs. Leaping over the slab, she knocks the remaining sword out of my hands and plunges the dagger into my side. I scream at the agony spearing through me as I feel the sharp tip scrape bone.
“Shoot her,” I cry out, but Roshan shakes his head.
“Do it,” I scream. “You can’t let her finish the ritual.”
Morvarid’s eyes glitter with triumph, just as something buckles on the far side of the room, and a rush of power surges like a flood within me. A second twang echoes through the air. Oddly, I’m growing stronger by the second, and I realize what Roshan has done. Instead of shooting her, he has eliminated the Scav weapons binding me. He aims for the third as Morvarid sends her fallen sword spinning through the air.
Her aim is true as the blade slams into his shoulder and pins him to the wall. With a soft cry, his weakened body goes limp.
“Roshan!”
“Time for you to join him, useless littlefirebird,” she snarls, twisting the dagger still lodged into my side. I feel it pierce my flesh andslide between my ribs, reaching for my heart as the specter of Fero swirls like a hungry beast between us.
White dots cloud my vision as blood pours from the gash at my side, but the power billowing inside my body is gaining by the second, my magic desperately focused on healing my half-broken body. I’m nearly unconscious, but I grab Morvarid’s wrist, forcing her back with shaking hands.
Her eyes meet mine with hatred in them. “Impossible.”
“I’m not just a firebird. I’m human, too, and where there’s hope, there’s always a way.” With the last of my physical strength, I heave the blade I’d forged so long ago from my side. “It’s over, Morvarid. You lose. The dawn is here.”
“I’ll kill you first,” she snarls. Morvarid’s hands reach for my throat, and I call upon the rune I’d painstakingly carved, seeing my pretty blade illuminate, the imbued jadu glistening with starlight and steel. “What is that rune?” she demands.
“My rune,” I rasp. “And my mother’s. Go fuck yourself.” And then I plunge it right into her dark heart. Mouth agape in a soundless scream, as white light explodes in a shower of sparks around us, she slumps over me, and it’s all I can do not to collapse.
Sensing my vulnerability, the blood-red shadow flies toward us, ready to devour me in the last seconds of night. I throw my dimmed magic up and out with a plea to Vena and my mother or anyone else listening.
It’s a miracle as the first rays of the sun’s light shimmer across the brightening dawn sky, and I hear the shadow let out a keening wail. It fades and shrivels before my eyes, consumed to crimson dust motes as light pierces its smoky hide. Within seconds, it slinks away and disappears, winking into nothing but burnt embers, banished by the dawn.
I whisper my fervent thanks. Then I crawl over to Roshan, yank the saber from his shoulder, and cradle his limp body in my arms. His eyes are closed and he isn’t moving.
“Roshan?”
There’s no response. I press my hands to his cool, clammy forehead and then to his chest. Nothing. No heartbeat, no breath.
“You promised you wouldn’t die on me,” I weep softly. “You have to live, do you hear me? Your people need you to.Ineed you to.”
But it’s no use and I know it. His body sags like a deadweight against my side. The pain comes in full force then. He can’t die, not now, not after everything.
I close my eyes, feeling my magic humming inside of me. Roshan had saved me. He’d saved countless women and children in Nyriell and across Oryndhr. He’d saved everyone from what I would have become.
He of all who had dieddeservesthe most to live.
Hehasto live.
I press my hands over his temples and force my gathering magic to flow out of me into him. An ethereal glow surrounds us both, and I hold him close, willing my rallying life force to heal his. I’d give every last drop of magic up for him. Our glow brightens impossibly, turning into the vibrant colors of the desert sky as we burn hot and fierce. My strength gathers with each beat of my heart, and I wrap my arms about him, keeping him safe as my heart goes supernova, surrounding us in magic, hope, and stardust.
A star will die and another will be reborn.
I brush the hair from Roshan’s beautiful face, tracing his eyelids, that teasing mouth, his noble nose, and that obstinate jaw. I never got to tell him how I felt. How very much I love him, too. “Live, please,” I whisper, kissing him. “Live.”
