Asha did. Along with the ability to sharpen both of my canine teeth and transform both of my eyes. My eyesight was already enhanced, but my new wolf’s eyes allow me to see much more clearly at night.
At the same time, I lost Skirra from my mind. His impulses no longer fill my mind or influence my actions, and while I miss his directness, it doesn’t feel as if he’s gone. We’ve fully merged and now my thoughts and instincts are complete.
Asha made me whole.
I’m not sure exactly how she did it. She seems to use her power instinctively, which makes it equal parts breathtaking and terrifying.
I squeeze my eyes shut now, fighting the pain and pushing back against my increasing panic.
I can smell Asha’s blood, fresh and new, and it’s driving me to desperation that I can’t do a fucking thing to help her.
Taking another long breath, I wait.
Wait…
The pain in my upper back begins to ease.
I take the chance to test my arms, using my claws where they’re impaled in the ground as leverage to ease myself upward a bare inch off the ground. Hopefully not so much that I’ll draw attention. Just enough to lift my right ear out of the water. Once I’ve done so, sounds rush in.
First, I hear the water running over the edges of the clearing as the icy deluge drains away.
Then Asha’s furious voice reaches me from somewhere at my back, her tone filled with all the brutality she carries in the palm of her hand. A malice she fights with every beat of her heart. Even so, she sounds winded, as if she can’t breathe properly.
“Why do you think I know where Malak’s son is?” she asks, and I can only assume she’s speaking to Graviter Rex since the shimmers of heat through the air above me are growing more intense.
Malak’s son orchestrated this whole situation.
He murdered this dragon’s child but made it look like his aunt, Milena Ironmeld, had been behind the murder. Then he imprisoned Milena on this mountaintop and left her here for us to find, knowing that the Graviter would seek revenge for his child’s death.
It was a trap.
The fact that I didn’t see it coming has shaken me.
I made Malak tell me everything before he died. I’m certain he never knew he had a son.
Right now, my focus is on surviving the fight with this dragon, but if we get out of this alive, we’ll need to know everything we can about Malak’s son and what he wants—other than wanting us dead.
I take a moment to test my toes, then my calves and stomach muscles, clenching and unclenching them. They’re finally responding to my commands.
The pain has eased.
I’m not sure how I’ve recovered so quickly. Perhaps my bones weren’t broken, after all. Maybe the paralysis was only temporary.
I don’t have time to second-guess it.
Behind me, Graviter Rex has continued to speak, and Asha’s response is even more breathless.
He can only be seconds away from killing her.
As fast as I can, I shove at the ground where my claws are driven into it, pushing myself upright.
In the seconds it takes me to rise into a crouch and get my feet under me, I take in the entire half of the clearing that was behind me.
The tree that Asha transformed comes into view first.
Milena Ironmeld has remained sitting propped up against its trunk. Scorched leaves float around her and blood trickles down the side of her nose from a cut in her forehead.
Countless large bones litter the ground around her. Any one of them could have struck Milena when the dragon’s fire blasted through the snow.
