They gust forward, encompassing Kyzari in an intimate embrace, the two fitting together in a manner that makes me think of Kaan’s málmr.
Two perfect parts of a whole.
I’m so enraptured—breathless from the blunt force of their catastrophic love—that I don’t notice some of the moons jiggling from their lofty perches and plummeting toward the snow-covered plains.
Until the first one strikes.
Raeve continues to belt commands with the vengeance of a scorched Creator. Her molten champions thrash about, further hollowing the pit that’s starting to resemble a volcanic boil.
Every bit of pain evaporates in the aching wake of my relief as I crush Raeve’s arms against her chest and dig my face into her taut neck. “You got him,” I say, squeezing. Trying to get her to exhale without blasting more words.“There’s nothing left. It’sdone.”
She sings louder.
Harder.
The mountain continues to melt around us, slopping down the ravine, refueling the manifestations.
Expandingthem.
Although Rygun’s delighting—rubbing against the hot, viscous walls like he’s trying to reach a deep-seated itch—Raeve’s skin grows hotter by the beat. As though she’s lit with a fever.
“Moonbeam, enough!”
The champions melt, losing shape. Plunge back down the chasm they spawned from, even though Raeve’sstill singing.
She snarls, busts from my grip, and charges forward, hollering down into the gullet with all the rage of a rabid dragon.“Luvth at uin shiith, Bulder ahn Ignos! NAILEN! NAILEN! NAILEN! LUVTH AT UIN—”
I lunge forward and whip her around, away from the edge. Her chest heaves as I grip either side of her blood-splattered face and look down into pitch-black eyes that bear no specks of light.
Not Slátra. Just a sure sign she’s toeing too close to her bloodlust.
Her brows knit together while she gulps the smoky air and tries to jerk from my hold.
“It’s done,”I repeat, quietly pleading with her to let go. To come back to me. “It’s done, Moonbeam. You did it. We’re safe. We’realive.”
Her features soften.
She wobbles, and her gaze slips around the melted pit.
No more words come. No seething songs to the Creators. Just the slightest shake of her chin while she pulls short, sharp breaths through her nose, like she’s trying to calm herself.
“We’re alive,” I repeat with more composure than I currently possess.“We’re. Alive.”
Some of the blue returns to her eyes.
She brings her hands up over mine. “You’re okay,” she whispers as moonlight floods the pit and paints her upturned face. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“I—”
A fierce shriek has me looking up, seeing a massive gold-and-red-feathered beast nudge free of a gaping hole in the molten basin. Itleaps,tossing out its wings with a spray of melted stone—gusting skyward, tilling a stir of embers.
A beast that looks like an—
“Elding Bird,”Raeve rasps as it powers toward the breach she and Rygun forged. An exit to the cleared sky above.
The beast churns, exposing its back to us.
My blood chills at the sight of a familiar figure perched between its wings, boasting a crown of pinned teeth, tattered cloak snapping about.
