Page 103 of Dragon’s Rogue

I’m sorry, Mom and Dad. I’m sorry, Zane.

I’m sorry, Silas.

She could see the darkness gathering over him, all the dark energy he’d harbored in his soul, all the consequences of what she’d done, what she was about to do. She would tear away his last anchor, and then she would let the darkness take her.

And the rest of them would be saved.

She drew her breath for the last, terrible part of the spell. The part that would kill Silas and annihilate his soul.

And hers.

“NO!”

She turned to see Zane jump through the portal. As he flew through the air he Changed to dragon, lurching toward them. Before Blaze could finish the spell, he lashed at Silas with his long barbed tail, knocking him across the cavern into a huge stalagmite. Through the spell, Blaze could feel the ‘crack’ of his spine breaking when he hit.

Blaze saw it as if it were happening in slow motion. The idol dropping from her hands, her palms blistered and blackened from its heat.

Silas’s mouth open in a silent scream. Him falling to the ground, limp as a rag doll, his red eyes dimming as his life force drained away.

The black, roiling arrow of magical backlash that launched back at her from his body, screaming like a freight train.

Zane, running, eyes on her, thinking of nothing but saving her, moving straight into its path.

No! Not Zane. This was her doom—her destiny. She’d torn Silas’s soul apart, and she’d always known how it would end. She couldn’t let Zane be destroyed by what she’d done.

With the last of her strength, Blaze ran for Zane. She threw her arms around his neck, swinging herself around shield him with her body, taking the magical arrow full in the back.

It burned like acid, searing through skin, muscle and bone. She heard Zane howl in anguish, and felt his arms close around her. He poured his magic into her, trying to heal her, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

It was only a few seconds, though it seemed like an eternity of pain. It built and built, until she wished for death that wouldn’t come, wished for darkness and oblivion.

And then the base of her spine exploded.

White light shot through the cavern, sparkling off the cracks in the surface of the tomb. Glowing white mist surrounded Blaze, coursing through her like she’d been hit by an electric shock. Zane was still holding her, refusing to let go, and they sank to the ground together.

The mist turned to a spinning tornado, moving over to where the idol lay on the ground. As Blaze and Zane watched, it began sucking the black smoke from the idol, spinning it out into the air. The smoke hovered over the tornado for a moment, drifting like the remnants of a doused fire. Blaze thought for a moment she saw a man’s face in the smoke, before it drifted upward and disappeared.

The tornado spun itself over to the brass star on the wall of the cavern. It turned into the likeness of a tall, stately woman, her hair and dress moving in a perpetual wind. She smiled and reached one hand out to Blaze, like a blessing.

Then the tornado pulled in on itself, and funneled into the hole at the top point of the star, coalescing and hardening into the Seal.

The cavern rumbled, and the cracks in the surface of the tomb repaired themselves from the middle back to the shore, like a film running backwards. The Draken’s great eye closed, and everything went deadly quiet.

Blaze and Zane clung to each other, panting. Zane raised her palms to his lips, kissing them. They were healed as if they’d never been burned. All the pain in her back was gone.

“You’re okay,” Zane murmured over and over. He pulled her to him, holding her hard against him. “You’re okay.”

“You saved me,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “You saved me. Are you crazy? I thought—” He broke off and hugged her hard again.

“We saved each other,” she said. “And Maia finished the job.”

He gave a shaky laugh. “Yeah.”

He helped her to her feet and they walked over to the brass star on the wall. In the top point rested the Seal, looking like carved ivory, polished and slightly rounded on the top. Etched into it was an exquisite rendering of a dragonfly.

“That’s one,” Blaze said, running her fingers across it. She looked out at the surface of the tomb.