Page 131 of Dream Reaper

And she didn’t want to leave Brynja and the girls to face this thing without her.

Ylsi.

Finnr. Siri. Darling, wild little Roar.

If she died now, the shadow would savage them next. Without magic, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

But Ava’s magic wasn’t enough.

She wasn’t enough.

Ava’s body shuddered with sobs as she pressed her face into Jerrid’s motionless shoulder, her tears flooding across his bare chest. His skin was so cold…and it wasn’t rising and falling with breaths.

She pressed her cheek to his chest and strained to hear his heartbeat—a faint, barely discernible pulse beneath her ear.

The shadow slammed into the ground only a couple of feet away, and she strangled another scream as her glamour flickered. Any moment now, it would fail, and the shadow would find her.

And that vision trying to drill into her mind would no longer be a vision. It would become her reality.

The shadow ground into the earth on her other side, hissing in frustration, then coiled through the air, trying to find her. She wished she had figured out a way to stop it, some clever plan that would save Brynja and the others. A million wishes spiraled through her thoughts.

If only she’d been faster. Stronger. Smarter.

But as she lay beside Jerrid, completely spent of energy and nearly empty of magic, she knew she had given everything she had. She’d spent her whole life trying to measure up, trying to be better, trying to do more.

But maybe it wasn’t about meeting expectations or about getting results, good or bad, but about giving everything she had.

At least she had done that much, and she had no regrets.

She lifted her head and stared into Jerrid’s lifeless face. Well, not many regrets, at least. She brushed his hair off his forehead and wished she had the strength to drag him to safety. But she didn’t even have the energy to move her own body. She had nothing left to give.

I’ll take it anyway, that hateful voice whispered in her ear. I know you’re here somewhere, little elf.

Her blood chilled, and she clamped a hand over her mouth as she pressed closer to Jerrid, clinging to the glamour that stood between them and instant death.

You’ve impressed me. I didn’t think you’d be so much trouble.

The shadow coiled above her, its long tentacle poking at the earth in a slower pattern. It was moving methodically now, searching in grids.

She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, but she couldn’t make herself look away from that dark coil as it slid in and out of the ground, rustling through leaves and scattering loose soil.

A presence brushed against her thoughts, and she clamped down on her emotions to stifle the scream that rose unbidden to her throat. She braced for the attack, for the invasion into her mind, but it didn’t come.

The presence lingered at the edge of awareness, as if…asking permission?

Dragon.

Hope exploded in her chest as she imagined a crack in her thoughts, a tiny door that he could slip through but would be too small for the shadow to notice unless he knew where to look. Dragon’s mind came alongside hers, a weak thrum of emotions and not much else. But he was still alive, and he had found her. That’s all that mattered.

They wouldn’t die alone today.

She wanted to say something, but she didn’t dare speak and give away their location.

It’s okay. You don’t have to talk, Dragon whispered. We’re sorry this didn’t turn out the way we had hoped.

She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hand more tightly against her mouth, lest she succumb to temptation.

I wanted to bring Jerrid back to say goodbye, Dragon whispered, but I don’t think he can. He’s trying to buy us time.