If you want him alive, you’ll hand yourself over tonight.
It was signed:Your beloved husband.
The parchment fell to the dirt at her feet.
“Asha?”
She moved for the tent opening. Dax stopped her, forcing her to look into his eyes. “What is it?”
“Let go of me.”
From behind her, Safire picked up the message and read it. “He has Torwin....”
The words rocked her. Asha knew, better than anyone, what they meant.
She pushed past Dax and ran. Jas reached, trying to stop her, but she was too fast. Asha ran hard to the edge of the camp and up through the woods. Safire was behind her; she knew the steady thump of those footsteps by heart. But Asha ran faster, calling Kozu to her as she did.
She knew her way through the woods now. And by the time she reached the other side of the trees, the First Dragon waited, glimmering in the starlight. Asha launched herself onto his back.
Safire stumbled out of the woods behind her.
“Asha!”
Asha paused.
“Please. Don’t go down there alone.”
Asha looked back. Safire’s face tilted upward. The starlight gleamed on her skin and her eyebrows knit together with worry.
At a movement in the trees, both their heads turned. Reaching down, Asha grabbed her cousin’s arm and pulled her up.
“Hold on tight.”
Safire’s arms came around Asha’s waist just as Kozu leaped into the air.
Forty-Four
The moment the lake came into view, shimmering beneath the pale light of the moon, Asha saw the scorched rock. There’d been a fire. Torwin’s tent was in tatters.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Kozu landed and Asha dropped to the rock, with Safire following her, both of them staring at the hump in the darkness.
“Shadow?” Asha called softly. The hump didn’t move.
Safire stayed back while Asha moved closer. She stepped in blood. It glistened on the rock all around her, pooling from some deep gash. The dust-red dragon curled tightly around himself. His eyes were closed.
“Shadow?” Asha’s voice sounded tinny in her ears.
Those pale eyes opened slowly and only halfway.
Asha let out a shuddering breath. “Oh Shadow...”
She sank to her knees, reaching for his snout. His eyes closed again.
“No,” she said. She needed to figure out how deep thewound was.Wherethe wound was. So she could tend it. “Come on. Get up.”
Pale eyes flickered open. He didn’t raise his head, just looked at her. Like he was too tired. Like his playful spark had gone out. His stare made her think of Torwin, walking away, trying to soak up the sight of her before he was gone.
