Page 127 of Ashen Wings

Tears flood behind my eyes. “There are too many of them, Jace. You can’t take them all yourself.”

“Go, starling.”

The creatures twitch their heads in unison, the cracked folds of flesh over their eyes wrinkling with delight. One steps forward, maybe the leader of the group, and outreaches his sinewy arms toward us. Bile floods up my throat when it unleashes a dying, demonic howl from its shrouded mouth.

“I’m not fucking leaving,” I say.

Jace slams his lips against mine with an urgency that threatens to steal the ground from under me. Every unspoken thing between us collides with the terror that this could be the last breath he takes from me. His mouth moves in a frantic tempo, like he’s devouring every bite he can manage. His tongue finds mine, as if I’m his last meal on earth.

The kiss is fire in a world gone cold—reckless, devastating, and heartbreakingly final.

“I didn’t know how much you’d mean to me when we met. I didn’t know…”

My heart shatters into a thousand pieces. “Please Jace, don’t fucking do this. Don’t do this!”

“I’ll see you tonight.” He smoothes back my hair. “Isra, protect her.”

“Don’t do this! No! NO!”

“I’m sorry, starling,” Jace whispers.

Isra’s arms wrap around my waist. Then, he runs.

“No, no, not again. I swear to Astora, Isra, if you don’t put me down!” I sob, fists slamming on his chest.

Jace’s growl behind us draws in the lurkers. They creep and crawl on broken limbs, swarming him like flies to carrion. I watch him disappear under a sea of wriggling grey skin and nightmarish howls.

Tears blur on my lashes as I thrash and punch and kick at Isra’s hold. “Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!”

“I can’t…” is all Isra says.

“I will never forgive you for this.” The sobs break my voice, shrill and panicked. “I will hate you for this.”

“Hate me, fight me, never speak to me again…at least you’ll be alive. Jace’s order was clear. Protect you.”

“I hate you! I hate you!” The cries pour from me and my body ignites in trembles. “Put me down! We can’t leave him!”

Isra grunts as I throw my fist into his side, but his pace never lags. He barrels for the tree line as the lurkers yip and chitter with delight. Bones crunch, bodies thud, muscle shreds. The creatures just keep coming. Where one ends another begins as they trickle from the trees.

There are too many. Even for him.

A roar cuts through the evening light, one both fierce and waning. Only then do I squeeze my eyes shut, and offer a prayer to the gods who have forsaken me so many times before.

He will live, because he holds my heart.

He will live, because I’ve given him no other choice.

He will live, because without him…I can’t.

Every step away is worse than peeling skin from bone, but I repeat the mantra again and again until I’ve convinced myself I believe it.

51

Wingbeats boom above us like furious thunderheads, shaking flakes of frost from the branches. The forest recoils from the sound like it prepares for the dragon's landing.

“No! We can’t leave him!”

Isra lodges himself in front of me, arms spread. I sidestep him and rush for the tree line, but he’s too fast. My cheek crashes into his chest, and the dam holding my tears fractures.