“I don’t know.” And I didn’t act on uncertainty.
Except now I was being forced to. I couldn’t stand the thought of those I loved so very dearly paying for that.
“All the more reason for us to bolster you,” Evira insisted.
“They can tear through dragon hide, Evira.”
She started, but still stood firm. “Still not leaving. We stand together. Come what may.”
I winced. “I can’t lose the three of you.” The only people in my whole life I’d ever loved, who’d ever loved me.
“This isn’t him talking,” Zayn told Winter and Evira. “It’s what his parents do to him, how they are… it’s a really demented thing.”
“Zayn,” I protested.
He came to me and grasped my arm. “You’re all about standing as a united force. This is fear that you’re not used to feeling talking. Fear that’s been coming at us all so much lately. The hits we’ve all taken, it’s all slamming into you now—and this attack is clearly the last straw, the dam starting to break on you compartmentalizing it all to keep our foursome going. But it’s okay, Vax. It will be okay. Because we’re all still standing here. Through all of that fucking madness.”
Winter laid his hand on my shoulder over on my other side. “And we’re not exactly easy to kill either, are we?”
Evira grasped my jaw, forcing my gaze to hers, even using her draconic strength in her urgency. “We’re not leaving you. That’s not up for debate.”
I stared out at them all, rapidly trying to calculate—
There was nothingtocalculate.
This was their love for me shining through, surrounding me.
What was I—of course we stood together on all things.
Zayn was correct. This was some sort of delayed trauma response from me.
“I… I’m so sorry. You’re right. All of you.”
Evira softened her grip. “It’s okay. We all get it, believe me.”
“Win especially,” Zayn said, eyeing him pointedly.
“Reformed now, remember?” Winter reminded him.
“I know. So let’s keep it that way for all of us, all right? Vax?”
I nodded. “Yes. Of course.”
“Good,” Evira said, releasing me. “Now, pinpoint these foolish assassins so we can get to work tearing them apart.”
Before I could get another word out, I felt a formidable pulse shooting across the area, headed straight for us.
Translucent wisps caught my eye and I identified the trajectory fast enough to grab Winter and Zayn with a burst of speed and move them out of the way. In the next moment, we all erected shields around ourselves. But just as the pulse shot past us and dissolved into the atmosphere after missing its target, I sensed a fusillade headed our way.
In the next moment, Zayn was crying out as one hit his shield, preventing horrific damage, but not all damage, and the impact propelling him into the springs.
He plunged deep with a violent eruption of water spraying out everywhere.
Winter burst forward and conjured his shadows into the water itself, where they swirled around Zayn. But as he started to lift him out, he was hit by a pulse and went spinning out across the grass.
Evira snarled and bellowed out a battle cry, then erected one of her ice walls in front of us.
Pulses slammed into it, cracking and denting, impacting its integrity.
