Pah’s words bang about my head as my grip begins to fail, telling me how fuckingweakI am. I rage against them, fists clenched on both my thrashing brother and his screeching beast, digging my boots against the sword’s knobbed hilt.
We begin to stabilize, Rygun nowhere to be seen as Arkyn seethes flaming commands that seem to go unheard. I release my fisted hold, whip my arm around Arkyn’s neck, andsqueeze.
His voice tapers into a choked gurgle as he writhes and bucks against me, then jolts.
I feel a sudden blow to my gut, like he just thrust his hand back and landed a blind punch. For a split moment, I think that’s all it is.
A punch.
Until I’m hit with the familiar flare of warm, stabbing pain. Register the foreign object now lodged in my abdomen.
I roar, about to loosen my hold on his beast—to free my other hand and risk falling into the flaming nether to snap Arkyn’s fucking neck—when Rygun hits from the side.
It happens so fast all I see is a hot, cavernous throat and a slash of glinting teeth before he bites down on the Elding Bird to the popping, crunching tune of breaking bones and its shrill, harrowed screech.
Arkyn convulses, choking through a roar while I wrestle to keep himcontained, the sound so grieved it bleeds past my hard, vengeful outer shell, plucking something that twinges.
Rygun’s plumed breaths batter my leg as he growls through his messy mouthful, then tucks his wings and careens toward the veiled ground with such plummeting velocity, I realize he has no intention of landing safely.
My heart pitches so hard and fast the world smears into a ruddy blur.
He’s going to drive the Elding Bird straight into the solid, unforgiving ground. Break the beast against it.
Breakhimselfin his desperation to finish this.
I turn, staring deep into his sooty eye as he finally lifts that wall between us, like wrapping his ribs around the most tender part of my soul—exposing me to his side of our shared heart. Usually a chamber of roiling, ruddy flame, it’s now empty, bar a single ember glinting in the gloom.
My throat clenches so hard my next breath chokes.
He’s driven himself to his limit …
This final act is everything he has left …
Rygun’s gaze softens, and through our bond, he urges me to let go. To jump. Save myself. When I don’t respond, hebellowsit—like clawed fists pounding against my soul.
I offer him a sad smile.“Aburr—ath tuíl, Rygun.”
We’re in this together.
He snarls through his mouthful, then tosses his body in a mighty shake that loosens my grip on the Elding Bird’s plumage. With a pained cry, I fall away from Rygun with Arkyn still clenched against my chest, screaming for his beast.
The Mists move too quickly between us, and I flex my anger into my hold on the male responsible.
We plunge for a moment. A lifetime.
Rygun strikes the ground first. Though I don’t see it, I hear him roar in unison with the thunderous collision and Bulder’s dredging clamor.
My own impact feels like a slap compared to the pain radiating through our bond, all my breath battering loose as we tumble through the snow and ice. By the time we slow, I’m rippling with so much blood-bubbling fury I’m numb and blind to everything but the sniveling male in my grip.
I land atop Arkyn, knees either side of his ribs, one of his arms pinned. The other claws at me, the ground jolting with another fall that paints the Mists red.
The seismic blast strikes with an orange glow that illuminates every gnarly contour of Arkyn’s half-melted face.
His eyes bulge as he chokes breath, his hand no longer clawing, but raised between us like a shield.“I’m your blood. I’M—”
I snatch his wrist. Slam my palm against his jaw with such might I almost pop his head off his spine.
His eyes flash with fear as he flails with desperate, tensing might, grinding out muffled sounds of distress while he tries to buck me off.
