Nothing.
I give her a jolt.“Raeve?”
Not a twitch.
Panic mauls through the contents of my chest cavity.
I pull her face to mine, kiss the spots where her dimples sleep. Press my ear to her chest.
Shake her …hard.
She doesn’t move. Doesn’t breathe. Doesn’t open her eyes and look at me or crack a smile and slit me with her words. Doesn’t doanythingbut lay slumped against me, limp just like Mah was when I wove her arms around her newborn daughter and pretended she hadn’t left us both.
“WAKE UP!”
The world tunnels, time stretching as something inside me tears through—so fucking slow I feel every fiber give way …
Giveup.
A languid death that starts in the very core of my being, works its way out, and spreads like a plague.
I realize I’m screaming, crushing her close, as though I can make her whole again—
A thump in her chest. Weak … barely there … yet it feels like a punch. So hard and sturdy I’mcertainit happened.
Certainit was real.
Please be real …
I guard my breath, face dug into the crook of her neck while I wait and hope to hear another, begging the Creators tomake … this … real.
I’ll do anything.
Please—
Bud-ump. Bud-ump. Bud-ump. Bud-ump. Bud-ump. Bud-ump—
My face bunches.
I lean back just enough to cradle Raeve’s cheek, swiping my thumb over the swell of it; less gaunt than it was. Slowly plumping back to her regular, healthy form, coloring with life.
“You’re here.” I kiss the cold tip of her nose. The smooth skin between her brows. “You’re okay—”
Something pinches my shoulder.
Bulder’s song disappears so fast I immediately know I’ve been pinned.
Lifting my head, I watch numerous folk push runed shrouds off their shoulders, emerging from invisibility. Garbed in black cloaks and bronze beaked masks, they surround us from all angles, some looking down the scope of bows with their springs notched.
An ambush …
Shit.
I slam a wall between myself and Rygun. Launch over Ahvi and Raeve, shielding them as a series of strings loosen.
Twang-twang-twang-twang-twang-twang-twang—
Pins pelt the stone, peltme—piercing my unguarded bits while a volcano of blistering rage brews beneath my ribs.
