Page 128 of Dream Reaper

“It’s eating me,” Dragon whispered, his head collapsing against the ground as he groaned. “Bleeding me dry.”

Jerrid’s heart began to thump loudly in his chest, the only sound in this strange place of mist and shadow and cold. “What do you mean?”

“The shadow.” Dragon coughed, and it was a wet, terrible sound.

A death rattle.

“I’m just food to it. Fodder for the darkness.”

Jerrid flinched at the bitter, guttural laugh that echoed across the dreamscape. Dragon had given up.

This, more than anything, filled him with fear. Dragon had always been the strong one, the fighter. Jerrid had only been along for the ride. And if something were to happen to Dragon now…

Where did that leave him?

“You can’t give up,” he whispered as he crouched in front of Dragon. “We need you to keep fighting. We can’t do this without you.”

Dragon’s eyelids fluttered heavily, his breaths so weak they barely fogged the air.

“Ava needs you,” Jerrid continued as he stroked the Dragon’s head, running his hand along one of the long horns that sprouted above his angular temple. “You’re the only thing protecting her.”

Dragon coughed again. “I know. But there isn’t enough of me left.”

“If you don’t keep fighting, Ava will be next!” Desperation clogged his throat, tears prickling behind his eyes.

Dragon peeled his lids apart and stared up at him, and he saw himself reflected in those reptilian eyes. He saw a battered, broken little boy who had reached the end of a very long path, a road that had always been destined to end in this place.

“I know,” Dragon whispered.

“The only way she survives is if you survive.” Jerrid’s voice hitched, his mind already made up.

“I know,” Dragon repeated, but this time his deep groan was filled with emotion, with regret.

Jerrid could feel them, the emotions mirrored in his own chest. But he knew what he needed to do. Dragon was more important to Ava than he was. They both knew this.

“Give me up,” he whispered to Dragon. “I’ll take your place.”

Dragon mustered the energy to shake his head. “You won’t last. It’s too strong. It’ll devour you in minutes. Maybe seconds.”

Jerrid’s nostrils flared as his heart kicked hard against his ribs. “I can hold out long enough for you to escape. For you to get to Ava. And then…then you need to break the tether to this body. To my body. To me.”

A tear pooled in the corner of Dragon’s eye. It glittered against his black scales.

A bitter laugh tore out of Jerrid’s chest, tearing at his tight throat to escape. How stupid was it that he only now admitted how much he and Dragon needed one another. How much they could have accomplished if they’d worked together instead of fighting against one another all this time.

Only now, when it was too late, did he finally believe that they were stronger together.

They always had been.

But now they never would be.

“I would…make the sacrifice…if I could,” Dragon rasped.

Jerrid stroked his head and smiled. “I know. But you can’t. It has to be me.”

A shudder ran through Dragon’s body, his teeth bared as if he needed to moan in pain but couldn’t get the sound out of his body. They were running out of time.

“You need to go,” Jerrid said, stumbling to his feet and backing up. “Tell Ava…tell her…”