“Kezra?” I cry out desperately.
She shakes her head in dismay, her eyelids fluttering down.
“There’s nothing anyone can fucking do?”
“Elysande,” Daegan says calmly, pulling me into him again.
I push off. “No. I can’t stand here and accept this.”
“Raef!” I scream his name and turn around. It’s a broken, shrieking, desperate plea, and it feels like a knife cutting my throat from the inside. “Raef!”
“Elysande!” Daegan’s voice is raised, pleading. “Please.” His voice finally cracks, and it forces me to turn and face him. His heartbreakingly calm eyes look right into my soul, and I step closer to him again. “I don’t have much time left.
My stomach flips. “How long do you have?” I whisper, and I’ve never feared an answer more than I do in this moment. The moment that will forever be the worst one of my life.
“Until the dragons fly,” he whispers.
He pulls me close, placing a frantic kiss on my wet, salty lips as he squeezes the sides of my face with his desperate hands. Then he pulls me into his chest and strokes my hair.
I tilt my head just enough to look up, and my stomach drops once again. The veil has cleared a massive section of the sky directly above us. Thousands of tiny lights twinkle at us, and it feels like they’re laughing at me.
Fuck those stars.
I can’t bear to look at them. If this is the last night I have with him, I will forever hate those stars that are watching, mocking. I don’t want any of it if it means he won’t be here. I’ve dreamed about seeing them my entire life, and now all I want in the world is for the haze to reform and cover them all up, keeping Daegan safe down here with me forever. But it’s too late now.
I want to throw up.
“We’ll tell them not to fly!” My words tumble out of me in a rush. “If they never fly, you can stay with me forever.”
A shard of hope sparks in me, before a simple shake of his head and a pained look in his eye smothers it just as quickly. “It’s not just about that. A few years living like this, and I’ll end up like one of Maethrel’s wraiths. I don’t have much time either way.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face in his chest. My home. I breathe him in again, squeezing my eyes so tight I think I can shut out the world. It doesn’t work.
Maybe they still can’t fly. The sky is clearing and not a single dragon has taken flight yet. Maybe the curse did irreparable damage. Maybe after a thousand years of being forced on the ground, they simply lost the ability. Maybe it was all a cruel joke made by Maethrel.
A dreadful, dark feeling tells me that’s not true, though.
“We did it!”
Raef’s victorious voice makes me jump, but my tight grip on Daegan remains strong. I don’t turn. I keep my face buried in his chest. I’m never letting go.
“I heard you call me from all the way over there. I almost thought you were in trouble, but you guys actually did it!”
I sob into Daegan’s chest again.
“What’s wrong?” Raef asks hesitantly, his tone shifting.
Daegan wraps me in his arms tighter, stroking the back of my head. He doesn’t answer Raef right away.
“Guys? What the fuck? Where’s Kezra?”
“I’m here,” I hear Kezra from somewhere behind me, her voice monotone, almost… sad.
“What’s going on?”
“The blue dragon made a deal with Maethrel long ago, during your first visit with him. The oracle saw the only possible way for you guys to succeed involved Daegan’s demise. He’s known this entire time and only just revealed it to us. Explains why I’ve sensed something different about him since he found us after the battle…” she trails off at the end, talking more to herself.
“What?”
