“ULLA!”Bastion cried.
She turned, as if she’d heard him, and their eyes met.The noise of battle dampened, and relief softened her expression.Bastion’s heart skipped a beat.He was a fool for not understanding sooner.
Then, a blade sprouted from her side, just below her ribs.Bastion went cold, and his stomach hit the ground like an egg.
“NO!”he howled.
Ulla staggered sideways, revealing a gleeful pirate as she grasped the crenelations.
Swift and vicious, Bastion cut down every man in his path, leaving a trail of bodies behind him.He slammed heads into the curtain wall and gutted those too stupid or slow to move.
Ulla’s attacker watched in horror, primal fear freezing him in place.The point of Bastion’s blade sank into his belly before the man could even blink.Bastion kept eye contact as he reached for the man’s shoulder and thrust.Surprise painted his face, and blood dribbled from his mouth.
Bastion withdrew his sword and threw it down.He turned and collapsed beside Ulla, where she slumped against the wall, her face ashen.Blood bloomed beneath the hand she held to her side, and rivulets of crimson ran down her legs below cut-away skirts.
“Why didn’t you stay in the dining hall?”Bastion breathed.
Guards clattered past him as he tried to lift her hand.She convulsed, a terrible sound erupting from her throat.It struck his heart like lightning to a dry tree.
“Minato,” Bastion gasped.He leaned back and yelled, “I need Minato!”
He tried to rise, ready to eviscerate every person between him and the only other healer in Moonwatch.Ulla grabbed his wrist, stopping him, and he could feel the strength in her hand draining away like the blood now pooling beneath her.
Bastion leaned forwards, cradling her face in his palm.Her eyes were becoming unfocused.Her fist dropped onto her chest, and she moved it in a circle, so, so slowly.
“No, no, no!”Bastion cried.“Not now!Not like this!”
“Bastion.”It was Nesrin, as if from a long way off.“We have to move her before the fire reaches us.”
Hands pulled at him.He slapped them away.“Where is Minato!?”
Ulla gave him a sad smile, and then her hand slid away from her side.
“NO!”Bastion covered the wound with his palm.“Ulla, it’s only the beginning!We’ve only just found each other!”
He couldn’t fail.Not this time.
Bastion pressed his palm more firmly against her side and slid his other arm behind her back, pulling her closer.He’d overcome too many obstacles, been blind and stupid from the start.Fear of judgment had kept him at arm’s length when Ulla had already proven she understood what no one else did.
He pressed his face into her hair, pouring every ounce of his being into willing the blood beneath his hand to stop flowing.A cool, tingling sensation sparked across his palm.
“Don’t go,” he whispered.
A blood-slicked hand covered his, claws pricking his knuckles.Bastion jerked back.Ulla looked at him, awe brightening her eyes.He glanced at his palm.Blue light flickered beneath it.
His heart ricocheted against his ribs, and a new fear stung him from head to toe.Ulla mouthed one word.
Yvri.
Chapter 18
Bastion tried to pull away, but Ulla’s claws in the back of his hand kept it pressed firmly to her side.She raised her other hand, knuckles facing him, and wiggled her fingers.
He didn’t know the sign, but some part of him understood.
Wait.
It took everything to keep his hand on her wound while blue light thrashed beneath his palm.A slick, uncomfortable sensation made him stiffen as her flesh knit back together.The sight of it struck more terror into him than any brush with death ever had, because on the other side lay judgment and rejection.
