I spin, gaze snapping to where Kyzari’s bundled beneath Raeve’s white cloak, pressed against the bars keeping us apart—my breath caught. Every tendon strung tight enough to snap.
Please, no. Please, let that not be what I think it was …
Her back expands with another wet sound that shoots ice through my veins. The slow rattle of impending death.
I swallow the hard ache in my throat, biting my bottom lip to still its tremble. Knowing there’s only one thing I can do for her now.
Hold her. Ease her toward the end with a softness she never got from this world.
I ignore the leering guard now leaning against the wall again and settle on the mess of filthy straw beside the bars, wedge my arms between them, then pull Kyzari close—more difficult than I imagined it would be, her body a dead weight that’s tricky to maneuver. I try not to think too much about that, tucking Kaan’s lark into his daughter’s clammy hand—right atop his málmr—then nuzzle as close as the bars allow.
I begin telling stories of Elluin’s time in Dhomm.
Laughing, I speak of the dae we got swarmed by a flight of muri beetles; of how even Clode refused to help us sweep them away. Though perhaps it was because Elluin was giggling too hard to pronounce the words correctly.
I tell her of how—despite wearing the Aether Stone—Elluin could mold flames into blooms so hot they turned white,like the vurillo flowers born of The Shade. The ones that still grow in her late grandmah’s atrium.
My throat grows thick as I tell her of how I once glimpsed Elluin in the dead of slumbertime, tucked in a dark corner of the Imperial Fortress,surroundedby the blooms. Weeping.
The only time I ever saw her fissure.
I move on, sharing stories of Kaan. Of when I was young and lost and how he loved me with all that he had … weighted by soul-crushing guilt when I realize I had so much more of him than she ever will.
Her breaths become shallow. Less frequent.
I hold her tighter, squeeze her hands in mine. Beg for every beat of my heart to bolster hers, despite knowing it’s futile.
“You’re so very loved, Kyzari.” The words are choked past a clogged throat. “I’m here. I’m with you.”
You’re not alone.
A heavy, clattering thump has me looking toward the guard, now sideways on the floor. Motionless. Like he just toppled over and fell asleep. I’d believe that was the case, were it not for the bloody puddle that’s swelling beneath him.
I frown, the sound of jingling metal making my skin prickle.
My gaze narrows on two small, clawlike, pale-pink hands nudging a ring of keys toward the lock on my door. Hands that areunattachedto any sort of body, hovering all on their own.
Guess the Mindweft fucked me up after all.
The air wobbles like a tossed cloth, falling away to reveal a miskunn stretched tall, tail poised, big pink eyes narrowed on the task of pushing one of the many keys into my lock—seeming oblivious to the fact that its obscuring shroud just crumpled to the floor.
“Who are you?”
The miskunn stills. Its eyes slowly roll in my direction before it blinks, tail swishing once, tipped with the telltale tuft of a female, her woolen tunic patched with many colorful pockets that look good for hiding things. “Uno …”
“Well … what are you doing?”
She tilts her head to the side and frowns at me, tail flicking. “Rescuing, of course.”
My heart skips a beat.
Rescuing …
“Am I hallucinating?” I ask in a wobbly voice that betrays the hopeful hitch of my pulse.
Please don’t be hallucinating …
“No. But we must move fast or the princess won’t get there in time to not die.”
