We slid down the embankment, boots skiing on loose stone and bone, and ran toward him.
As we got closer, I saw what was wrong.
Flynn wasn't standing on the ground. He was sinking into it, but not like Thane had sunk into the mud. Flynn wasphasingthrough it. His paws were buried in the bone dust, but looking closely, I could see the dustinsidehis leg. He was losing solidity. The matter of the Underworld and the matter of the Wolf Prince were trying to occupy the same space.
"Don't stop moving!" Kaelen roared, breaking into a sprint.
Can't,Flynn projected, panic rising to a fever pitch.The air is glue. The dust is grabbing me. I can't... I can't find the friction!
He tried to lunge forward, but his back legs just passed through the ground, offering no push-off. He collapsed onto his belly, snapping his jaws at the air.
"Elias!" I yelled. "What's the fix?"
Elias landed on Flynn’s back.He needs traction! He needs to remember he is separate from the environment!
I slid to a halt next to the wolf. Up close, it was terrifying. The edges of Flynn’s fur were dissolving into motes of grey light.I reached out to touch him, and my hand wentthroughhis shoulder.
It felt like dipping my hand into ice water.
"Flynn!" I gasped, pulling back. My fingers were numb.
Aria?His mental voice sounded distant, like he was shouting from the bottom of a well.It's so quiet here. The wind stopped.
"No, no, no," I said, dropping to my knees in the bone dust. "Kaelen, grab him!"
Kaelen grabbed Flynn’s scruff. His hand held, but just barely. "He's fading, Aria! It's like trying to hold smoke!"
Thane arrived, the ground shaking with his impact. He looked at Flynn, then at me.
"He's forgetting," Thane rumbled. "He's the Prince of Motion. Without movement, he forgets who he is."
I looked at the Wolf. His amber eyes were dimming, turning the same flat grey as the sky. He stopped struggling. He laid his head on his paws, looking tired. So incredibly tired.
Just gonna... nap,Flynn mumbled.Just for a second.
If he sleeps, he vanishes,Elias shrieked.
I looked at my metal hand. The star-metal. It was the only thing that was unequivocallyreal. It held a charge. It held a frequency.
"Hold him down," I ordered Kaelen.
"He's partially intangible!"
"Just do it!"
I scrambled around to face Flynn. I didn't treat him gently. I couldn't.
"Flynn!" I snarled, channeling the command voice. "Look at me!"
His eyes flickered toward me, lazy and unfocused.Pretty... light...
I raised my metal hand. I pushed the pain of my cracked neck aside, pushed the exhaustion down, and summoned a pulse of Titan-energy.
I slapped him.
Hard.
My metal palm connected with his misty cheek with a sound like a thunderclap.CRACK.
