Squeezing my eyes shut, blood pulsing in my ears, I try again, harder this time, reaching for power that isn't there. My fingers curl like I can claw the magic out of myself, my shoulders shaking with the effort, but still nothing.
Thump
The ground shakes again, but the heat shifts. Not closer this time; past me.
My eyes fly open and I turn, dread hollowing out my chest as their massive forms move into the circle, heads lowering toward the bodies resting there.
toward Neeve.
She’s curled on the ground with one hand tucked beneath her cheek, her long braid spilled over her shoulder, the gold of her nose ring catching in the moonlight.
She looks too soft for this place. Too alive.
Oh god, they didn’t come for me.
They came forthem.
For her.
And I convinced her to come.
The realisation slams into me as the dragons swell, their chests expanding as they drag in air, the heat almost unbearable.
“NO!” I scream at them, barely keeping myself standing. “No, you can’t. You can’t take her. Her dragon is coming! Her dragon is coming!”
My Threads are empty. There’s nothing left in me, but still, my feet are already moving, boots slipping over loose stone as I force every last bit of strength into my legs and race past the dragons toward her.
Every instinct begs me to turn back, but Neeve is merely a few feet away. I’m so close. If I can get my hands under her arms and drag her out of the way before the fire comes, maybe?—
A roar erupts behind me, heat blisters across my back, and I throw myself forward. My fingers brush the end of Neeve’s braid?—
—the world lurches violently upward.
My stomach flips as claws slam around my ribs, and suddenly my feet are no longer beneath me, and my body is ripped into the air, away from the clearing, away from Neeve, just as the ground below me erupts.
Flames devour the circle.
And every body inside it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Icould have saved her!” The scream rips out of me, more animal than human, as Ahria gently releases me from her claws and drops me into the empty and silent clearing outside the camp.
Circling back, she lands in front of me with a heavy thud, full-grown and towering over me, her emerald scales catching the red wash of moonlight.
“Her dragon was coming!” Adrenaline hits so hard my whole body starts to buzz, every nerve lit too bright, too fast, until I can barely even hear myself over the rush of blood in my ears. “Why didn’t you let me save her? Her dragon was coming!”
Desperately I swipe at the tears that streak down my face, my chest hitching with each inhale, but Ahria doesn’t move. She stays there, looming over me, smoke spilling from her nostrils as each heavy breath rumbles through her, her violet eyes never leaving mine.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I’m yelling at a fucking dragon... a dragon who finally just chose me, a dragon who could stillunchooseme.
A dragon who tried to burn me alive the first time we met, who could end this before the sun even rises.
But the fear doesn’t stop the words. Nothing does now.
“For nine weeks, I’ve tried to be enough.” The words drag their way up from somewhere deep inside me, ugly and raw. “Strong enough. Brave enough. Controlled enough. I tried so hard not to let you see any weakness. To be like my mum. But I can’t hide it anymore!”
