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Buffalo, crocodile, gazelle, and bear.
Horse, hippo, lion, and jaguar.
They yipped, howled, barked, and brayed.
Turtles, lizards, snakes, and skinks.
Wolves, elephants, goats, and rabbits.
On and on they came.
The moon rose, and my skin no longer glowed, fading to a dying star the longer I bled. I cried for my ending but even my tears were magic. Another river gushed, giving sanctuary to the water creatures that burst forth.
Dolphins, fish, crabs, and whales.
So many things.
Too many things.
As the cosmos glimmered above, I felt a pang of homesickness. I wanted to fly skyward and feel a tenth of the power I used to have.
Birds flocked free.
Sparrows, gulls, eagles, and raptors. Hummingbirds, finches, swallows, and parrots.
A whirlwind of rainbow feathers, chirping for joy, soaring where I could not go.
Darro trembled as my blood dried up. I turned cold. Bone-rattling, teeth-chatteringly cold.
“Runa...don’t. Don’t you dare.”
I looked into his stunning moonlight eyes. “I’m sorry our time was so brief, my vanzaari.”
He shuddered. “Don’t call me your other half when you’re about to leave me.”
“Il lapinzana nu,” I whispered. I love you. I love you in our tongue. The tongue of suns and stars.
Angry tears glittered in his gaze. “You’re not dying. This mortal form will trap you for far longer than this.”
I gave him a sad smile. He was wrong. I’d sacrificed myself for life. I’d given a million other hearts a chance of existing. They would have what I could not: a chance at love. A chance at living.
“I didn’t chase you all of my existence, only to have you for a few moons.” His voice turned dark as he raised his hand and bit at the fragile skin covering his wrist. With a savage grunt, he tore with his teeth, breaking his flesh and bringing his wrist to my mouth. “Here. Drink. It will sustain you until I hunt one of those animals you birthed. I won’t let you die, Runa. Not yet. Not ever if I have my way.”
“No, don’t—” I struggled as he pressed his blood to my lips. “Darro—”
The acrid, dangerous taste of him flowed onto my tongue.
Hot, vicious lightning arced from the sky, striking both of us with no warning.
We jolted and fell apart.
His blood dripped onto the golden puddle I’d left behind.
And something happened.
Something that should never have occurred.
A silver-dark web fed through my faded blood, cracking soil and stone. His own lifeforce gleamed black and lethal, soaking into the earth, fissuring it wide, letting loose an acrid, steamy breath. And from that steamy fissure, monsters suddenly roamed.
Halcyodon, regaloth, parthiquin, and brakiosun.
Each more monstrous than the last.
More appeared.
More creatures I shrank away from.
Beasts that upset the balance of carnivore and herbivore. Chimeric abominations that darted, crawled, and flew.
I forced myself to sit up as the last of Darro’s antithesis affected what I’d birthed. His shadows tainted the creatures still close by, morphing their simple excellence into corrupted mutants. Wolves grew spiral horns. Lynxes sprouted two tails. Grasshoppers begot wings of turquoise feathers, and turtles grew talons along their shells.
On and on the twisted metamorphosis spread across the world, leaving some creatures untouched while reforming and mutilating others.
A storm gathered above.
Thick clumping clouds and black threatening rain.
Darro crawled toward me as the hair on our arms tingled. The electrical current of impending lightning ached in my teeth.
“Hold onto me. Don’t let go—”
A firebolt struck.
I screamed—
“Runa? Runa!?”
The vision shattered.
My eyes ripped open as Natim raised his huge butterfly-sprinkled head and sniffed at the sky.
I couldn’t catch a proper breath.
My gaze dropped to the tiny smear of blood that marred my forearm.
Was it real?
Was the vision a memory or a dream?
“Runa. For fire’s sake, answer me!”
I froze, my ears ringing.
Natim’s nostrils wrinkled a little, and with the vantage of his towering height, he saw who searched for me. The link between us showed a hazy image of a Nhil male with a shaved head, long braid, and an ash snake coiled over his shoulders.
Aktor.
I balled my hands as my chin dropped.
No...please, no.
I didn’t have the energy to deal with him.
Especially not after what I’d seen.
What I’d felt.
“Il lapinzana nu,” I breathed, touching my lips with trembling fingers. How had I forgotten that phrase? How had I forgotten something as monumental as conjuring all of the world’s creatures—
“Runa!” Syn cocked her head as Aktor’s voice sounded closer. “I know you’re out here. I saw you leave.” The snap and rustle of brittle grass guided him nearer. The lynx licked my cheek and sprang to her feet, preparing to welcome another member of her pack to our strange morning excursion.
“Runa? We need to talk. I know you coupled with Darro the night of the hunt and—by the fire, ow—” He cursed as if he’d stood on something sharp.
My heart pounded.
He knows?
What would he do in retaliation?
Clearing his throat, he said loudly, “Come to the river with me. I need to see you.”
