“I need to get out of here,” she says, and her voice is a husk. Bastet growls again.
“I’ll come with you,” Astrid says immediately.
“No. I can’t…” She shakes her head. “I need to move. I need to go.”
Astrid hesitates, then nods. Trusting her, against all odds. Bastet looks at Astrid, clearly not so willing to step aside, but after a moment, he moves—leaving her path clear.
Kaida come?
Skylar bends to stroke the little dragon. She would have done it. She would have gone to kill them all—and she would have left Kaida surrounded by people who want to own her.
I’ll be back, she promises.But stay with Bastet tonight, okay?
Kaida puffs out a tendril of smoke in agreement.
And, finally, Skylar leaves. Her skin feels too tight as she runs through the grounds. She wants to claw it off, be free of it. Be free of herself, because she can’t stand to be here, still breathing, in a world where Cam is not.
She drains her surroundings as she moves, plants shriveling and dying around her—dying like she wants the king to die. With each new life she absorbs, she feels the pain a little more acutely.
He’s dead. Cam is dead. She sees his smile, that faraway look he sometimes got. Sees him sitting on the rooftop opposite her, the moment she first decided to let him in.
He’s gone. And Skylar knows—she will not survive this.
She’s crying. Big, heaving sobs that she can’t control.
Crying does no one any good.Someone in the troupe told her this when she was little. But now, she can’t stop. Tears burn twin paths down her face, salt pooling in the corners of her mouth.
She’s reached the cliff edge. There is nowhere left to go, but she can’t stay here. She can’t be here, with the people who took him from her. She promised Astrid, but still she feels energy building sickeningly inside her. She looks down to the crashing waves, then hitches another sob as her power trembles. She needs to keep moving, or she’s going to explode.
Storm clouds gather. There is a rumble of thunder. Then a comforting presence wraps around her mind, soothing away the darkest of her edges. She takes a shuddering breath.
Mjolnir lands beside her, rocks falling to the shoreline.
Get on, Death Bringer.
She looks into Mjolnir’s violet eyes. He bows his head. And she doesn’t think. Because she needs to escape, because he is offering. She moves to him and climbs, instinctively knowing how to, her magic helping her, making her stronger.
His silver scales shimmer in the light of the moons, hard beneath her touch. Her magic pulses with his presence even as her head pounds, the weight of her grief impossible to hold within her. But it’s okay. Mjolnir is here, and he is going to take her away.
She settles behind his shoulders, his lethal spikes at her back—almost like a part of dragons evolved so that riders could sit here. Her hands find grip at the base of his neck in front of her, and she feels the rumble through her mind. He doesn’t say anything, but she can feel it. That she’s welcome here, that he’ll take care of her.
She doesn’t look down. She doesn’t allow herself even a second to think about what is happening here. Instead all she does is close her eyes, breathe.
And they fly.
She doesn’t know how long they are in the air, before Mjolnir turns back to the castle—as she knew he’d have to eventually.
Flying feels like the most natural thing in the world. She knows that Mjolnir is taking it easy, there are no sudden dives or rolls or anything she’s seen him do with Zryan. But still, it feels as effortless as drawing in energy does. Like it is a part of her.
The air is colder, somehow cleaner, up high. The wind rushes past her ears, and with her power helping her, she can see all the way down, to the streets of the city and beyond to the red desert in the south.
Cam would have loved to see this. It comes unbidden, even as she tries to block off thoughts of him, to protect herself. A fracture cracks her heart, pain ricocheting through her.
Breathe, Skylar.
Mjolnir doesn’t speak to her, but his presence curls around her mind, numbing the emptiness she knows is waiting for her when they land. She can feel Kaida straining to get to her, hopes that Astrid and Bastet will keep her safe until she returns.
Cam is dead. No matter how many times she repeats it, it’s like some part of her won’t believe it. She feels numb and exhausted at the same time. His voice, usually so clear in her mind, won’t come. He’s dead. Has probably been dead this whole time. She was too late. She didn’t save the one person in this entire world she cares about. The one person who deserved to be saved.
