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Images entered my mind’s eye, but they were faded and faint, devoid of color and sound, flickering like a silent movie. In them, I saw the Dragons reawakening from Raithian’s sleeping curse, all scrambling to pull up into the sky again as they realized they were going to crash.
Ember’s attention snapped towards Spike, Harper’s ride, who still dropped near her, taking longer than the others to awaken. Alarm and desperation coursed through me while the memory unfolded, and Penelope dove after Spike with Ember, trying to save them. Unfortunately, Ember hadn’t achieved much altitude to begin with, and Spike was closer to the ground that they anticipated.
There was no time or room to grab Spike and Harper and pull them up.
Exchanging a frantic glance, their decision was made.
Penelope and Ember swooped under them, cushioning their harsh fall against the rocky ground.
“No!” I roared, seeing Penelope be catapulted off Ember’s neck and into the air when Spike smashed into her ride’s back, both Dragons crashing into the ground a couple of seconds later. Spike’s heavy form crushed Ember against the ground and trees.
Harper fell from Spike’s neck too, but not with as much force, landing on the grass, and rolling to a stop a few feet away.
Ember’s last memory was Penelope’s strewn body along the boulders near the mountain, coughing blood with each attempt to breathe. My eyes flew open to find a tear rolling down her scaly check.
“Save her…”Ember wheezed into my mind before her head lolled to the side, yellow eyes devoid of light.
She was gone.
“Penelope!” I yelled, whirling around and running into the castle as fast as my legs would take me.
Wails of grief and loss came from the throne room, so I ran harder than I had ever ran in my life, hoping the energy left in me was enough to heal her. I burst into the throne room a few minutes later to find the Elevated Warriors and most of the Sky Legion gathered there. Harper bent over a body on the floor, screaming in agony—both her leg and arm were badly fractured, but I knew the cries escaping her were not from her injuries.
I was too late. Our friend, our sister, was dead.
“Penelope,” I breathed, and all eyes fell to me, signs of relief becoming clear on everyone's faces. I knelt before her body.
“Braxton,” Harper moaned, throwing her good arm around me, and clinging to me while she cried. “It should have been me,” she sobbed into my shoulder, her despair too harsh for her words to come through clearly. Pulling away, her horror-stricken eyes bore into mine as more tears left her. “She should have let me die.”
“She gave her life for yours, like you would have done for her,” I forced myself to speak, because it was true, and she needed to hear it.
“Any of us would have done the same, my love,” Elijah whispered from her other side, holding her hand. “I tried to get to you, but I was too far away.” The pain and impotence he felt at seeing the woman he loved almost die and being unable to get to her in time to save her was felt by everyone in the room.
Especially me.
Harper turned to him, falling into his chest while sobs escaped her, and he cradled her fiercely in his arms.
“Penelope gave her life for yours, and now I owe her a debt I will never be able to repay, but I am forever grateful,” he whispered, tears escaping him too while he kissed her head. They held each other.
Taking my eyes away from them, I turned to glance at our fallen sister. Penelope’s eyes were still open, red blotches marring her honey-green irises, while her entire body was tarnished by bruises and blood. Cuts and scrapes sliced her face and neck, her hair matted with blood, but the massive hematomas along her arms and stomach depicted the cause of our loss. The fall had been too harsh, her internal injuries surpassing anything anyone could have healed. Even if I had gotten to her when she fell, I feared she would have already been gone.
Gently placing my hand over her cheek, I closed my eyes and remembered her beautiful smiling face. The way her eyes glimmered when she was joking or making fun of me and the other guys. She loved messing around with us. Her rosy cheeks on naturally tanned skin that almost looked like she spent her days playing on the beach. Her lightly pink lips and the flowy brown hair she always wore in a ponytail.
The golden glow in my vision intensified and the magic flowed through me and into Penelope’s body. Gasps escaped those closer to us when the blood receded from her honey eyes, bruises healing from her arms and chest, leaving behind only beautifully soft skin. The purple hue that had captured her lips vanished, light pink color grazing them once more.
My hand remained on her cheek until our precious friend seemed to be only sleeping.
“Rest in peace, Sister,” Kingston whispered, kneeling across from me and gently closing her eyes.
“She was the best of us,” Evie declared, pulling my gaze to her.
“She was the best of us,” everyone else replied like a prayer, and I joined them.
When my gaze met Evie’s, I saw the true pain scorching her heart and tearing it to pieces—even when everyone else only saw her eyes glisten with loss. Her lips trembled as she gritted her teeth, holding a weeping Willow in her arms like she had to be her friend’s strength in that moment.
Evanna had to be everyone’s rock.
It was unfair, because she, too, was crumbling inside, yet she couldn’t show it.
