“I don’t know,” he whispered brokenly, his deep voice trembling as he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
I was shaken to my core in a way I had not been in a very long time, but I breathed in my mate’s scent and let it soothe me for just a moment. Then I steeled my resolve, pushing determinedly through the fear, the guilt, and the self-loathing so I could get back on my feet. There would be time later to deal with the horror of what I had done.
“That fucking shield syphoned the last of my strength, but I can still protect the wounded. You can heal as many people as possible,” I insisted, my voice rough.
Sage nodded in agreement as he stood, but I could feel his reluctance to let me go in the way his hands lingered.
“Stay close to me,” I suggested, and he nodded again,although I could tell he was struggling to focus. I did not want to waste any more time, but I also knew I needed to help him if he was going to be useful to his people.
I cupped his cheeks to draw his attention down to me. We were both covered in ash, but I ignored the taste of it and kissed him. He released a soft breath of relief as our lips parted, and I knew I’d done the right thing in helping to ground him amidst this overwhelming tragedy.
“We are okay,” I reminded him, and he melted around me even more with our foreheads pressing together.
“We’re okay,” he repeated with a firmer, more certain nod before taking my hand to guide me through the ashen battlefield in search of survivors.
It was clear from the devastation around where Sage had found me that the only reason I was still alive was because Pyrope covered me whilst wearing my armour. The beetle armour I’d grown was charred and cracked and had even fused with my skin in places before Sage healed me. Which also meant there was a good chance that the only reason Pyrope was still alive was because she had been wearing my rider armour…
I was reluctant to face the others and what they must be feeling toward me in the aftermath of my catastrophic attempt to shield. But I needed to know they were alright. Rian and Darragh were walled off, but I could feel their rage like infernos barely contained behind a red-hot door in their minds. Ciaran was unguarded and…devastated.
I had not meant to draw his attention, but my sense of him sharpened enough that I could tell he was already out healing as many people as he could. He was also looking for Asha and Carrick but had not found them yet.
This wasnotyour fault,he snarled so furiously in my mind that I flinched from his intrusion. His emotions were not directed at me, but they were so visceral and acidic that they were difficult to stomach.
I am still sorry,I insisted, tearing up again as I walked next toSage, but Ciaran’s frustration only spiked.
You tried to protect them, little doe. This could have easily happened to any one of us,he maintained.
He was right. But it didn’t make me feel any better.
We reached the end of the ash and finally began to find survivors. Four of the vargr were on the field and helping to defend and locate the injured warriors for Ciaran who was moving quickly from fey to fey.
Sage joined him without hesitation. I was determined not to be useless without magic, so I did what I could for fey who had not been fatally wounded. The battle raged on to the south, but I’d seen a flare of flame and crackling shadow that could only be Rian with them. Daylight was also not far off, which meant the battle could not last.
Unless that fucking Fuath mage conjured darkness for his vile army again, I supposed.
We worked quickly, and soon a number of fey had been healed by the other riders and were able to help us. Warriors that were far enough from the blast to avoid injury also arrived to help ferry the wounded to the back of the battlefield where medics waited. They came prepared with supplies like bandages and pain medicine.
My guilt did not lessen, but the more aes sídhe I saw, the more my heart began to hope that I had not been as close to them as I’d feared. Perhaps that meant there was a chance that Asha and Carrick were unharmed.
Daylight was just about to break when I was suddenly distracted by a strange… shift. It was a similar rippling sensation under my skin as when my body changed shape or my skin grew things. Only this felt…monumental.
I saw Sage hesitate as if he’d sensed it too. I felt both his shock and concern and Ciaran’s vengeful satisfaction before a thunderous roar filled the air. I could tell it came from far away, and yet it was loud and fierce enough to send a shiver of dread through my body. It silenced the entire battlefield before the feyaround me began to panic. My head tilted in expectation of the worst…
Only to be utterly enraptured by the sight of a massive silver dragon flying toward us from the north.
He seemed to have taken flight from the fields on the other side of the army encampment where he would have enough room to shift safely. He quickly gained altitude, his silver scales shimmering purplish and orange as the sun began to rise over the mountains. He was somassivethat every steady beat of his wings resounded like a tidal wave thundering against the shore. The fine membrane of his immense wings was almost transparent, and he had silver feathers covering his shoulders.His sleek head was reptilian with a slightly beaked snout and a broad crest of backward-curving horns. His long neck was serpentine with two rows of webbed spines that extended down to his shoulders. He had four legs and a long tail that was tipped with a fan of silver feathers.
He was the most beautiful and most terrifying thing that I had ever seen in my life.
“Sweet Elements,” I breathed as Darragh banked to fly over us with the sort of grace that should be impossible for a creature so colossal. His shadow eclipsed absolutely everything, blotting out the morning sun and plunging the battlefield briefly back into darkness. The wind coming off his wings was strong enough to level the trees beneath him and would have certainly crushed us. But Sage and Ciaran used his air magic to form a shield to protect us.
I stood transfixed as I watched the dragon fly over and continue south. I could hear the Fuath army screaming in the distance when they saw him coming. I had absolutely no remorse for them, of course, but there was something so menacing about the dragon that it made me shiver.
I felt Sage touch my arm, offering me comfort before Darragh roared again. The sound was so deep it vibrated in my chest as he swooped low. He opened his mouth and breathed out a blazeof silver lightning and liquid fire that was so bright I had to avert my eyes from it. But I thought it looked like a comet streaking through the night.
The blast hit the ground with enough force to make it shudder beneath me, and I felt the electricity raise the hair on my arms. The temperature dropped so quickly that my exposed skin went numb, and the air became too thin to breathe, which made several fey around me begin to gasp. Every weak exhale clouded the air in front of me, and all the splatters of blood on my tattered armour crystalized while frost spread across the ground. The pungent scent of burning ozone, methane, and frost made me grimace in disgust as his magic crackled across my senses.
I could better understand now why Rian usually tried to avoid using Darragh in battle. We were far away from where he was unleashing his dragonire, and the effects of it still made us uncomfortable. I could only imagine how the soldiers defending the bridge were being impacted at a much closer proximity.
