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The dagger-toothed creature pounces onto me. My back hits the ground, and the wind is knocked out of me. His clawed paw presses down on my throat, and I can’t breathe. I dig my nails into his chest and push with all my effort, and all my strength isn’t enough.
“Do you not fear me?” Izamal growls with human lips and slitted eyes, his claw-tipped hands around my throat. “Do you doubt what I can do?”
My vision has started going gray around the corners when Casvian tackles Izamal. I hear them hit the ground as I twist onto my handsand knees, coughing and gasping, filling my lungs with as much air as they’ll hold.
The pounding in my ears is drowned out by a thousand inhuman voices, all growling and howling at once. A thousand screams, a thousand horrible things, all overlapping.
NO MORE WILL YOU BE A COWARD NO MORE WILL YOU BE WEAK
Casvian stands between me and Izamal as if protecting me. But Izamal’s curled into a shaking ball. He isn’t about to attack anyone. I crawl to him, close enough to make out his words over the bestial cacophony.
You let your people die—you gave them knives when they needed a hero—you left them behind—you let them die—you let her die—
Izamal whimpers, clawed hands clasped over his ears. “I didn’t—I’m sorry, I’m sorry—she wanted me to—I wanted to do better—I couldn’t—I’m not enough—please, oh please...”
No longer will you forsake your blood—no longer will her killer walk free—
“Don’t listen to them!” I scream. Casvian pulls me back.
“I don’t think—” he yells in my ear, but even so he’s drowned out.
You did nothing when your father hurt your mother. You did nothing when he killed Nashi—
My voice catches in my throat.
You could have saved them all and you didn’t—
All you had to do was take one life—
YOU LET HER SUFFER YOU LET HER DIE YOU GAVE HER NO VENGEANCE
The voices devolve into furious noise.
Izamal screams, one long, furious howl.
The beasts join him. Wisps of dark cloud whirl around him, sinking into him, sharpening his fear, amplifying his hate as he gives in to the Storm.
“I’ll rip his throat out and drink his blood,”Izamal bellows in a dark voice far more monstrous than all the rest.
Yes,the voices hiss, satisfied.We see your rage, we see your wrath. Wreak your vengeance. Dig your claws into his heart, tear it from his chest, feel its last beat within your fist. We give you power, we give you fury. You are his reaper.
Go. Take your justice.
Izamal, half man, half beast, bounds past us, through the thousand-faced darkness. He runs, dogged by his demons, driven by nightmares toward some wicked end.
“We have to save him,” I whisper.
“Save him?” Casvian asks with extraordinary calmness. “Or save Dalca from him?”
He doesn’t know of Izamal’s brave, futile rebellion. He doesn’t know Izamal was playing a part. He doesn’t know that I believed in Iz, that I still do.
“I won’t give up on him,” I say. “I’ll save him on my own.”
Cas’s gaze is fixed on the shadows that swallowed Iz. “You’re not on your own.”
