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Three harpies flew in on his left. He turned with a deliberate slowness I found almost infuriating. Flames flew from his palms. The burning harpies spun downwards and sank into the rapids at the bottom of the chasm.
The flock had been decimated. Two last harpies swooped overhead, then turned and beat their wings frantically, speeding away in surrender.
On the bridge, Draven watched them go. Then he sank to his knees. His dark head fell to his breast.
The air began to resonate with the rhythmic pulse of wings in motion. Another flock of harpies was incoming from the opposite direction.
It would never end, I thought hollowly. Draven had pushed himself too far.
Perhaps Sephone had decided to simply kill them all. Or was she paving the way for Avriel? Just how much was she controlling all of this?
“He over spent himself. He did too much. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Odessa chanted beside me, her voice filled with a panic I had never expected to hear. “Lyrastra... Please, if you ever cared for him at all. If you ever cared for this empire, for our people, please...”
I froze. Was this what it came down to?
Was I really going to pray to whatever gods I believed in and beg them to soften Lyrastra's heart? Beg her to give her own life saving Draven?
It should have been me, not her down below with him. I finally let myself say it inside my own head.
Ishould have been beside Draven. Not her. Protecting him. Shielding him. Not Lyrastra, me.
The irrational fear and jealousy filled my body like poison. I could hardly breathe.
He was mine. I was his. We belonged to one another. It couldn’t end like this. Not with us separated. Not like this. We had so much more to say. There was so much I still had to tell him. The words I had been hiding...
Lyrastra slowly lifted her head. She looked up at the onlookers in the gallery.
Her eyes searched across the crowd, then found mine.
We stared at one another as the sound of beating wings filled the air.
I could have mouthed the words. Begged her to save him.
But the moment was over as soon as it had begun.
She broke her gaze from mine and with a movement quick as lightning, pushed Draven off the bridge and into the chasm below.
