CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE #3
Like a match had been struck, the entire blade went up in flames—my hand included. Kodhan was right. He no longer had the strength to withhold the scalding heat that devoured my skin. I tightened my grip on the hilt, embracing the pain. Pain meant I was still alive.
With a strangled cry, I sunk the blade right into the first wound I’d given her, just as something splattered onto my shoulder. This time, she screeched, a haunting, ear-splitting sound that curdled the blood in my veins.
Her pallid skin took on a gray tint. And began to flake off her bones.
Lines spread like webs of broken glass down her neck, disappearing under her robes.
Identical plumes of gray rained down from above.
I tilted my head upwards, expecting to find a jaw full of teeth.
But I was met with a massive cloud of gray instead.
Ashes, I realized. They dusted my cheeks, coated my hair.
Though the dragon’s head was consumed, its neck and body continued to crack and splinter like the woman, slowly peeling away.
I didn’t waste another second.
I scrambled to where Kodhan still knelt. Laid both hands—ignoring the angry red welts peppering the skin on my right—onto his bloodied ones. A deep sense of foreboding wrapped around my middle. He didn’t have much time. The skeletal fingers of death already reached for his shoulder.
“You will not have him,” I snarled as his life’s essence continued to spill around him. “He is mine and you will not have him!”
A rising cacophony suddenly broke the heavy silence of the forest. Cheering and distorted chants I couldn’t be bothered to make out.
The surrounding forest turned to mist, everything down to the moss beneath my knees like a replica of an early morning fog, drifting away on a wind I could not feel.
As if the forest never existed. Until all that was left were acres and acres of rolling fields, the castle jutting tall in the distance.
Buildings twinkled behind it. Houses and shops from northern parts of the kingdom.
Despite the ruckus of the crowd, they were still nowhere to be seen. Only one lone figure came into view out of the remaining curls of mist.
Maverick clapped slowly, his lips tilted in sheer arrogance. Like he was the winner.
I lifted my chin. Pretended that quirk of his lips didn’t petrify me.
“Fix him,” I demanded over the volume of the crowd, grateful for the evenness of my tone.
He tilted his head at me. The movement was far from anything human. “Aren’t you tempted?” Magic amplified his voice, eliminating the need to shout. “I could revoke it, if you wish,” he offered. “The ally rule. All you would need to do is ask.”
My heart skipped several beats. “You wouldn’t.”
“I think you already know what I would do for you, Eloise. After all, isn’t that what friends are for?”
Kodhan grunted, attempting to stand. The movement only caused the gash in his abdomen to tear further. Blood spurted, leaking over both our fingers. Blood he couldn’t afford to part with.
Shaking my head, I dug my fingers into his shoulders, forcing him to remain on his knees.
“I will not have him taken away from me. Not like everyone else.” Kodhan didn’t have the time for this.
Warmth slid down my face. Tear after tear streaked down my neck.
There was no holding them back anymore. “Heal him. I’ll do whatever you want. Please.”
I wasn’t breathing. Wasn’t thinking.
Only one thing mattered, and that was fixing the Son of the Second.
Maverick’s head remained cocked to the side, assessing the both of us in a way that made my skin crawl. “Are you certain?”
“Don’t,” Kodhan hissed at me. He was so, so pale. “You don’t know what he’ll make you do.” Guilt pinched deep in my stomach. He had no idea.
“I’m certain.”
It felt like a million years had passed by the time Maverick laid those cold, onyx eyes on Kodhan’s wound. He waved a lazy hand in front of him.
Kodhan’s flesh began sewing itself back together. Until all that remained was a line of pink, puckered skin. Blood crusted and flaked in the places he’d smeared it.
The skeletal fingers of death begrudgingly pulled away.
The shadows nearby snapped at them. Like they were warning it not to return.
Thank the stars.
“You’re okay,” I wept. “You’re fixed. You’re okay.” I ran my fingers over the scar, terrified it would open again.
Color slowly returned to cheeks. “I’m okay,” he murmured, pressing his forehead to mine. “Clever, reckless viper.” His fingers slipped into my hair, gently curling into the strands at my nape. Like he needed confirmation that I wasn’t going anywhere, either.
That crawling feeling worsened. Maverick was watching. And the storm of his anger approached on swift tides.
Kodhan knew. He knew, because he angled my head closer to his, and said, quiet enough that only the three of us could hear, “She is mine and you will not have her.”
The goosebumps that coated my skin were not due to the sudden drop in temperature.
“So shall power be with them,” the crowd bellowed. Necessary words to crown a Starlight Champion. They chanted them again and again.
Frost crawled along the grass at Maverick’s feet. Coated his clenched fists.
“So shall power be with them.”