Page 21

As she flew, colors passed by, green vines, sickly yellow flowers, dark brown bark covered in fluorescent moss. I nearly reached out to touch, aware that I had to be so careful still held in her claws, each toe digging into my stomach a reminder of how close I was to falling. She might not be able to catch me a second time. Ahead of us, the forest dragon fell away piece by piece.

I couldn’t say I recognized this part of the forest, but I remembered the feel of it. This was where we had entered Tavornai. This was where the monsters had outnumbered us.

Eventually, the last of the small dragons fell, leaving us nothing to follow.

Naî landed, placing me gently on the ground before settling her feet onto the damp earth. The soil here was strange. I felt as though if I dug more than a finger-length down, we would be in the water. Tavornai here felt less like land and more like a raft floating upon the ocean.

Tallu slid down off Naî’s back, and I turned to him, unsurprised to find his face dark as thunder.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his worry making his voice blade-sharp.

The sound disrupted a nearby bird, the creature squawking before flying away.

“I’m fine,” I said, overwhelmed by the concern on his face. “I’m fine, Tallu.”

“What were you thinking? You had just passed out from overusing your magic,” Tallu said, his voice turning cold.

“I was thinking that Kacha killed Homisu. He was faster and stronger than us. And he was going to kill you before we ever had a chance of saving your life,” I said. “I was thinking that I was angry.”

“You weren’t thinking,” Tallu said coldly. “I have watched you time and time again throw yourself into danger. I have watched you throw yourself in between me and danger. It does not matter if I succeed if you are not there with me!”

He came closer, lowering his voice, and I was struck by the impression he gave of a very large predator who grew quiet immediately before pouncing. “Airón, promise me that you will not do it again.”

Around us, the forest was unbearably still. It seemed as though we were in another silent bubble of time, separated from the rest of the world.

“I can’t,” I said.

“Airón,” Tallu snapped. He reached forward, gripping my face hard. “You were out of magic. Naî said so. She was almost drained by what the two of you did, and she said there was nothing left. What did you do?”

“What I had to,” I said. “I couldn’t let Kacha win. I couldn’t let him starve us on that little island or on Namati’s boats.”

“Do you trust me so little that you think I cannot handle him?” Tallu demanded. “What did you do?”

I breathed out, closing my eyes, because I knew he was right. If he had jumped on Naî’s back and destroyed Kacha’s army with his electro magic, knowing that each time he used it, it tore up everything inside him, I would have taken him somewhere far away and tied him down so that he could never do anything that dangerous again.

Slowly, I tried to explain about how using the power behind fire magic to create ice magic and forest magic had opened up an ocean of power inside me. I tried to explain how it had felt, how I had been about to drown in it when I had seen him.

Tallu’s russet eyes never left my face, searching as though he were pulling the truth out from inside me.

When I was done, the forest was still quiet, with a bated-breath feel, and I had no desire to find out if it was the anticipation of a lover, or a borealis wolf waiting to see exactly how stupid its prey was.

What did you say? Naî asked. Her voice was quiet, with none of the amusement or anger I had come to associate with her.

“The amount of power felt endless, and I knew I could use it for any magic type. If I wanted to, it almost felt as though I could use my animal speak to talk with the air or an entire pod of whales.” But I hadn’t used it for that. Instead, I had killed almost a thousand men.

It hit me suddenly, what I had done, and I turned away, vomiting onto the ground. Tallu’s fingers were in my hair, drawing it back from my face, rubbing his hand against my back. What had I done?

When there was nothing left in my stomach, I straightened, wiping the back of my mouth with my wrist. Naî was still looking at me, her opal eyes shifting, but her body was held tense, torso pulled slightly back, as though I had frightened her.

“Naî? Isn’t this what you meant when you said that Kacha had left space in me?” My question felt desperate, and Naî shook her head.

I meant that you have the power to learn all of the magic there is. All of the strands that were lost to people when the One Dragon was killed. I do not know where you are drawing magic from, or how you were able to do so, she said. Be careful with gifts when you do not know who they are from.

I nodded, the taste of sick still on my tongue. “We need to find what killed the forest dragon. If it is something new that Kacha has developed, we must stop him.”

It was a distraction, but neither Tallu nor Naî called me on it. Instead, Naî turned her head, looking in the direction that the forest dragon had been traveling.

She shrank, turning from dragon to person in a shimmer of magic. I took off my jacket, and she put it on, buttoning it up to cover herself. We began walking.