33. Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Three
Avod
He went down hard.
One moment, Drake was all fire and shadow, his body mid-shift—eyes burning, teeth bared, half human and half dragon—and the next, his knees buckled like someone had cut the world out from under him.
“Shit—Drake!”
I caught him before he hit the ground. Just barely. He was burning with leftover Rift, magic crawling over his skin like it still wanted to finish what it started. His body twitched in my arms, heat pulsing under my hands, muscles locked like stone.
I’d seen Riftburn before. Seen it hollow people out from the inside, eat them alive for trying to hold more power than they were meant to. But this wasn’t burn. This was transformation. I’d never seen someone shift before. Heard the stories, but didn’t know it was actually possible.
He didn’t even groan. He just collapsed into me.
I gritted my teeth and pulled him upright, slinging his weight over my shoulders. “Godsdamn your big ass,” I muttered, stumbling toward the ravine wall. “You couldn’t wait until after the fight?”
There was a half-sheltered cave tucked behind a tangle of vines, maybe twenty yards off the trail. I’d spotted it earlier—an old instinct never let me stop mapping exits. I hauled him there, half-dragging, half-carrying, stumbling on rocks as his boots scraped across the ground.
Inside, the air was cooler. Damp and close. I lowered him gently, propping his back against the wall. His chest rose and fell in shallow bursts, jaw tight, eyes shut hard. A tremor passed through his arms. Not cold. Pain.
Or whatever came after it.
I pulled off my gloves and crouched beside him, pressing my fingers to his neck. Pulse: fast but steady. His skin was too warm. His scales glowed faintly. His bones looked like they were trying to shift still. Like his body didn’t know what shape it was supposed to be anymore.
“You big dumb bastard,” I muttered, yanking off his breastplate. “Really had to try and shift, huh?”
No response. Not even a twitch.
Figures.
I struck the flint and lit a fire in a shallow pit. The cave was cold, and he was soaked in sweat and Vyrmin blood. I hated this part—the waiting. Sitting around with no idea whether your friend is gonna wake up or die, drooling blood into the dirt.
I didn’t need to ask why he’d done it. It was written all over him. He’d gone full beast mode for her. For Eva.
She was changing him. That much was obvious.
And I think she was changing him for the better.
He was softer. Kinder. Happier. Either way, she was there, under his skin.
You could see it every time he looked at her like she was the last thing holding him together.
It’s a dangerous kind of look. The kind that doesn’t go away clean.
I leaned back against the wall and wiped my face with the least filthy part of my sleeve. It came away streaked with sweat and ash. Gross.
Drake groaned.
“Easy,” I said, leaning toward him. “You’re not dying today. Not if I have to drag your half-shifted ass all the way back to Felix myself.”
His brow furrowed. His lips moved like he was trying to say something, but all I caught was?—
“Eva...?”
Of course.
“Yeah, yeah. She’s safe,” I lied. “Go back to your fever dream, loverboy.”
That seemed to calm him. His breathing leveled out a little, and the tension in his shoulders eased. Even unconscious, he needed to know she was okay. Gods.
I sat beside him, shoulder to shoulder, feeling the heat coming off his skin like he was still burning from the inside out.
The fire crackled low. The cave smelled like smoke and blood and singed leather.
Outside, the wind cut across the hills, whistling in the entrance, but here, we had a little quiet. For now.
I looked over at him. He didn’t look like the kid I met years ago.
That guy was cocky, sharp-edged, trying too hard to be the one in charge.
He always carried guilt as if it were part of his uniform.
Now? Now he looked like a weapon someone forgot how to hold.
The Rift was carving new rules into him, and he was trying to pretend like he could still live by the old ones.
He’d never admit it, but he was scared. Not of dying—that’d be too easy. He was scared of changing. Of not recognizing himself when it was over. Afraid of turning into something that didn’t know how to care.
Which was funny because he still did. Even now, half-dead in a cave, he was thinking about her. He always cared enough to ask me if I’d eaten, even when we were neck-deep in a mission. He made sure Fen had tea when she was pacing like a feral cat. He made sure Felix was comfortable when healing.
“Don’t disappear on me,” I muttered. “You’re the only one in Riftreach who laughs at my jokes.” But really, I wasn’t prepared to let go of my best friend. He didn’t respond, but I wasn’t really expecting him to.
I leaned my head back against the wall and shut my eyes for a second. Just to rest them. And, of course—like clockwork—my brain decided to pull Fen’s face into focus.
She’d have some smartass remark ready for this mess. Probably something about Drake being a showoff. Or me being a sentimental idiot for dragging his body out of a battle again.
But she’d still have come. She always did.
Fen was… a disaster. Loud, stubborn, and too sharp for her own good.
And somehow, she’d made herself permanent in my life without asking.
I couldn’t even pinpoint when it started.
The fights that turned into long looks. The insults that sounded a little like flirting if you tilted your head.
The way her hand would linger just a second too long on my arm.
She drove me up the wall. And yeah—if I’m being honest? I’d probably let her wreck me if it meant she’d stay. But she wasn’t here. I opened my eyes. Drake still hadn’t moved.
“You’re not allowed to break,” I said quietly. “Not before I tell Fen she was right about you being dramatic.” Still nothing. But the glow in his skin was fading. Slowly. Whatever the Rift took, it hadn’t taken everything.
I stoked the fire again and stood to check the cave mouth. Nothing out there but wind and rocks. When I came back, I sat beside him again and let the silence settle.
“You better wake up soon, Captain,” I said, staring into the fire. “We’re not done with you yet.”