Page 186 of She Who Was Severed

I try to stand.

The wound in my shoulder pulses wrong.

The dragon shifts behind me, flame venting through her teeth like grief.

Freya glows.

But it’s not light.

It’s judgment.

And gods help us—

it’s just beginning.

- x -

Freya

I feel him fall.

Not with my eyes.

With my ribs.

With the sudden gap behind my lungs where the world usually holds steady.

One second I’m stumbling out of the ruins, breath ragged, the Chain wrapped tight around my wrist. The next, something inside me caves inward.

The fire above goes silent.

I lift my head just in time to see the dragon spiral through smoke—wings stiff, off-kilter. Kellen drops from the saddle like a broken thread. Flame whips sideways. He crashes behind the outer wall. Hard. Final.

I don’t see him rise.

I don’t hear him call my name.

He’s just… gone.

And it unhooks something inside me I didn’t know was tethered.

My legs stop listening.

I collapse to one knee, palm slamming the cracked stone, breath caught behind my tongue like it’s trying to kill me from the inside.

The Chain doesn’t defend me.

It accepts me.

Not as warrior. Not as wielder.

As consequence.

It wraps my chest.

Coils up my back.

Burns cold across the arch of my ribs like it’s sealing something shut.