“I will do it—ladies first,” Mathilda spits, trying again to grab the sword from Tane.
“Absolutely not. You will probably crush it and get hurt,” Tane retorts, twisting it out of her grip and taking a step away.
She stomps her boot on the ground, and a plume of dirt wafts up. “And you wouldn’t?”
“I can’t have you getting hurt,” and then in a smaller voice he doesn’t want us to hear, “it doesn’t matter if I get hurt.”
A retort flies from my lips, but Mathilda beats me to it.
“It absolutely matters if you get hurt, you oaf!”
Mina shares my sentiment as she crosses her arms over her chest and glares at Tane.
This is becoming out of hand, and the likelihood of one of them getting hurt if they crack it stresses me out even further. Lachlan came very close, and he doesn’t have the strength that Tane or Mathilda does. Elowen’s last moments circle my mind, and I shake my head. I can’t have anyone else getting hurt.
“Guys!” I yell, and they turn towards me. “Neither of you should do it. It’s too dangerous. We need another plan.”
Luna crosses her arms and shakes her head. “We already wasted five days just constructing this plan. We’re running out of time.”
Lachlan takes a step forward, placing himself right next tome. “Lena’s right, we need a different plan. A safer one. What else did the books have to say?” He looks between me and Luna.
“Wait—so you guys can throw yourself in harm’s way and attempt to puncture the quartz, but we can’t? That’s not fair.” Mathilda glares at me.
“None of us were even close to breaking through the quartz, and we were a safer gamble,” Evander adds in.
“I will not jeopardize any more lives, Mathilda,” I reply. Elowen’s face stays at the surface of my mind like a trap, ready to spring as soon as I close my eyes for too long.
But my words reach deaf ears.
Mathilda swipes again for the sword, but Tane is quicker.
Instead of moving it out of her reach, he shoves her off balance with his free hand. The motion has her stumbling backwards and away from him.
In the same heartbeat, Tane steps towards the throne and swings the sword in an upward motion, aiming for underneath the crystal seat.
The blade of raven stone pierces through it and into the belly of the crystal, where the green color is the brightest. He beams at us before turning back to the stone. “There. I told you guys—upward motion.”
But before I can yell to stop him, he wrenches the blade free. Leaving a hole in the crystal that has venom trickling out.
And on to his unprotected hand.
Mathilda screams before Tane can even register the pain. The venom burns through his flesh and bone. The sword clatters into the dirt, black smoke curling from the blade as the venom leaking onto it from the punctured throne dissolves.
Tane turns towards us, dropping to his knees before the throne. His hand is outstretched before him, and his mouth stretches wide open in a silent scream. Mathilda hurls herself to his side, all the while screaming his name.
I’m stuck in frozen horror as the smell of venom burningthrough his hand and wrist coats the air. Evander kicks the obsidian bowl underneath the chair so that it’s under the venom still dripping from the throne and rushes to Tane. Lachlan is right behind him.
Mina’s cries cut through my horror, and I instinctively step closer to the chaos, needing to help somehow. Luna pulls the blade from beneath the bowl and rips Mathilda out of her way. The raven stone gleams in the sunlight as she raises it.
“Hold his arm out!” Her voice rages with command.
Lachlan stares, mouth open, at Luna as she holds the blade high above her head before he grabs Tane by the bicep, holding his arm up.
Like a lamb to the slaughter.
Tane struggles to pull himself out of his grip, thrashing his body around. But the venom is faster, eating through his forearm as it makes its way up his elbow. Tendons, ligaments, bones, and muscles…all gone.
Evander grips Tane around the neck, yelling in his ear, “Hold still! It’s your arm or your life!”
