Chapter 14 Aurora
Pearl’s water bubble burst with a wet gasp, and seawater rushed around our ankles before draining into the cracked earth. Steam rose from the scorched canyon floor, carrying the acrid stench of melted stone and charred pine.
Within moments, the thick and suffocating air, heavy with ash that left grit on my tongue, covered us entirely.
I’d have killed for clean water. But I settled for wiping soot from my eyes and surveying the wreckage.
Where Quakelord had fallen, only dark stains remained on the blackened rock.
The water had carried away every trace of him—his blood, the copper tang of it, even the moss and petrichor scent of his earth magic. As if he’d never existed at all.
Black flakes drifted down and settled on our shoulders and in our hair. I touched my lips, my fingers coming away tarnished with ash.
Survival had never tasted this bitter.
“Give them space.” Terraknight gripped both mine and Selena’s shoulders and cleared his throat. “Let’s step back.”
He steered us away from where the other outliers gathered around their fallen guildmates. Family saying goodbye.
A broken whimper rose from Gale’s throat. Radu kneeled beside Hummingbird’s crumpled body, the iele’s marigold eyes fluttering open—conscious again but fading fast. Blood frothed at the corners of his mouth with each shallow breath.
I couldn’t make myself look anymore. The pain was suffocating, like someone had shoved cotton down my throat. Like a coward, I searched for Selena, hoping to draw strength from her.
She stood on Terraknight’s other side, her face set hard despite the tears tracking through the soot on her cheeks.
Tears pooled in my eyes at the sight, and I looked away. She was supposed to be the tough one.
A little further ahead, Ember had collapsed against Pearl’s shoulder, small fists twisted in the varva’s woolen cardigan as she fought to muffle her sobs. Even though the Magma Lances had pierced through the canyon walls, they still amplified every sound. Each broken breath. Each stifled cry.
Pearl wiped at a tear and leveled a hapless gaze at me. But I didn’t know how to make her feel better. Didn’t have any answers to her pain. Before I could even attempt to offer comfort, another cry of anguish cut through the air.
Gale staggered forward, dragging her injured wing as she stumbled toward Hummingbird. Terraknight caught her around the waist and pulled her back. She fought his hold for a moment, then collapsed against his chest. Her anguish carried, and I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore.
Hummingbird coughed again, a violent fit that shook his entire body.
Fresh blood sprayed across his chest, adding to the crimson already soaking his tattered cotton shirt.
His usual scent of clean ozone, as if he’d just emerged from a heavy storm, still clung to him, but underneath it, I caught the metallic sweetness of approaching death.
His heart stuttered in an irregular rhythm that made my own ache.
“I know it’s ha-hard,” Hummingbird’s voice came in fractured whispers between wet coughs, “but you have to do it.” He tried to push himself up.
Radu’s hand pressed gently against his shoulder, easing him back down. “Don’t strain yourself. You’ll only make it worse.”
Hummingbird’s eyes drifted closed, but a blood-stained smile ghosted across his pale lips. “Just… try to remember something good about me, yeah?” His breath hitched as he looked up at his captain. “And promise me—you’ll take me with you?”
“I will.”
Radu caressed Hummingbird’s face with a hand slick with blood and dirt. A single tear traced down his cheek as he shifted to unsheathe the pistol strapped to his thigh.
They all carried guns. I’d learned why months ago when I’d asked if they used them to slow the Souleaters. They’d been evasive at first, uncomfortable. Then came the truth about Black Sheep and how they fed, and the real purpose of those weapons became clear.
They didn’t want their souls trapped inside monsters. If it came down to it, if death was inevitable, a bullet to the head was the cleanest exit. Even if it wouldn’t kill them outright, at least it would ensure the Black Sheep couldn’t use their brains.
My stomach had sunk when they’d explained it, but I understood.
Now, watching Radu pull out his weapon with that shuttered expression, I learned there was another reason.
Another burden he carried.
It finally clicked why Terraknight and the others sometimes called him ‘our Harbinger.’ It wasn’t just about foreseeing the Souleaters’ approach or honoring their names. It meant something so much deeper. Sacred.
He would shelter their souls.
My heart broke for him. He would carry them—their names, their memories, their essence—until his own life ended. It was the most noble salvation these outliers could hope for. These people who lived knowing tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed and that fates worse than death existed.
I felt his pain lodge in my throat, choking me. I wished I could ease his suffering, take some of that weight from his shoulders.
Radu raised the pistol to Hummingbird’s forehead.
“Farewell, my friend.” His voice cracked despite his efforts to steady it.
Silence fell. Thick. Oppressive. The hairs on my neck rose.
“STOP!” Selena’s shout shattered the stillness.
We all whipped around to stare at her.
She stood rigid, jaw clamped so hard I could have honed a blade on the sharp line of it. Her obsidian eyes were wide with shock, as if she couldn’t believe she’d just interrupted Harbinger from his dreadful task.
I couldn’t believe she’d done it.
Astonishment sucked the air out of my lungs, and I stared at her, speechless.
Her fists trembled at her sides, the wet fabric of her top clinging to tensed muscles.
I expected the gunshot. When I turned back to Radu, he hadn’t moved. His finger remained steady on the trigger, but he waited.
“I can save him,” Selena whispered.
“Sel, he’s not a pureblood,” I replied, keeping my voice low. I was terrified of Radu’s reaction, afraid I’d make things worse and rob Hummingbird of a quick, painless death.
When she spoke again, all uncertainty had vanished.
“Derzelas, don’t I know that.” She glanced at Hummingbird with uncharacteristic warmth before her clinical mask slipped into place, erasing any trace of emotion. Selena had entered work mode.
Then her cold, calculating eyes locked with Terraknight’s. “I’m not a healer for nothing. It will work, but I’ll need a lot of blood at the end.”
He nodded without hesitation. “Whatever you need.”
“I need to stabilize him for transport.” She strode toward Radu, who still hadn’t moved a muscle.
Crouching beside him, she raised a steady hand and gripped the gun barrel. Her heartbeat remained calm as she pushed it down and away from Hummingbird’s head.
Radu’s pulse exploded into a gallop, his body jerking as if she’d shocked him from a trance. The glare he shot her could have frozen oceans, but whatever he read in her eyes made his shoulders relax. Hope flickered across his harsh features, softening the hard lines around his mouth and eyes.
“I want you to trust me,” she breathed. “Give me room to work.” Her voice might’ve seemed harsh to others, but to me was everything. This was Selena’s version of compassion: few words, decisive action.
Radu gave her a quick nod and rose to his feet. Metal clicked as he holstered the weapon. “You save his life, Lieutenant,” he said, bending to lift Quakelord’s lifeless body, “and I’ll be forever indebted to you.”
A portal opened ten feet away. Wind whipped our hair from the force of the darkness writhing within it. He paused, met her eyes once more, then stepped through with Quakelord and vanished.
Selena stared at the void, lost in thought. She bit the inside of her cheek and rolled up her sleeves. Then looked back at Hummingbird, who had passed out again.
“Everyone, listen carefully. We need to move fast.” She swung a leg over the iele to straddle his thighs. “Gale, I need controlled air pressure on his wounds. Stop the bleeding, but don’t compress too hard.”
Gale nodded, tears still wet on her cheeks, and kneeled at Hummingbird’s head, rolling her wrists. She lifted his head onto her knees as her dark eyes began to glow silver-blue. Orange and honey washed away the stench of death.
Blood slowed to a trickle from Hummingbird’s wounds.
“Perfect. Hold that pressure steady—don’t vary it, or you could rupture his veins.”
The bleeding stopped completely.
Pearl dropped to Hummingbird’s side, her muscles rigid. “What can I do?”
“Clean the wounds. Gentle streams. We can’t risk more tissue damage.”
Pearl nodded in quick, jerky movements, the multicolored strands that had escaped her braid framing her face. I realized then that she, Gale, and Ember were the only ones completely dry among us. The perks of elemental magic.
“Just tell me where,” she said.
“Sel,” I murmured. “What if you can’t—what if he’s too far gone?”
She looked up at me, and for a moment her mask slipped. “Then at least we tried.”
Then she leaned forward and used her sharp nail to cut away what remained of Hummingbird’s shirt. They worked together, gently tearing the fabric from his bloodied skin to reveal the true damage.
“Start with the smaller cuts,” Selena instructed, brushing a curly lock from his forehead. A deep gash glistened beneath, filled with debris and ash. “This one here. Rinse out the dirt before we cauterize. Work your way down. I need everything cleaned so I can focus on his abdomen. Ember?”
“Here.” The balaur crouched on Pearl’s other side.
Selena remained hunched over Hummingbird’s torn abdomen, inspecting the wound with gentle prods of her fingers.
“Wait for Pearl to finish, then seal the cuts. The heat will kill any bacteria in the tissue. Can you keep your hand steady?”
Ember shifted into position, tucking her legs beneath her. “I can do it.”