Chapter 31 #2
“Where are they?” Her heart was thumping in her ears, nearly drowning out Aiden’s answer.
“Tabi was able to heal herself and Thal enough to get away, but they are in bad shape. They’re headed down the mountain and to the outpost to get help.”
It was clear in his eyes, when Lory turned in his arms and he released her, that by help, he didn’t mean that anyone would come for Aiden and her. As long as Tabi and Thal survived, she’d be all right. As long as Aiden survived—
With a jerk of her head, she scanned the darkness for any sign of Ricca, the only one of their opponents left standing—and found nothing.
“Where did she go?” Not after Tabi and Thal—please, not after Tabi and Thal.
“She fled when you attacked Solen, obviously not eager for a similar fate.”
“What happened there?” Carefully studying Lory’s face, Aiden gestured at Solen, then studied her like she were a wild animal ready to attack as she moved to kneel at the dead ashling’s side.
“I didn’t mean to—” to kill Solen, she finished in her mind, even when she hadn’t. Aiden had stopped her from crossing that line she’d drawn in the sand. And now it was slipping away.
“You did what you had to do.” His pragmatic tone was well practiced—words he had been telling himself.
Lory peeled Solen’s shirt aside at his shoulder, examining the raw edges around scorched flesh, and Solen flinched with pain, but on his face, pure hatred dominated his features.
“You’re an abomination, Elory Vednis. Your kind should have been extinguished for a reason. Your actions are living proof.”
It didn’t matter that it had been Solen who attacked her, that they’d been on a hunt for the Flame-born. Deep in Lory’s stomach, an avalanche of rocks rolled over her with conviction.
“Ulder is right to kill your kind. He’ll make me a hero for killing you—” As their ruined wrist rolled weakly, white light brightened the sky, but the scream tearing from Lory’s throat as lightning struck wasn’t from pain.
It was for Aiden as he shoved her out of the way, taking the full brunt of the blow.
His eyes lit up with pale blue light as they met Lory’s shock-widened ones, and for a moment, he seemed suspended mid-air.
Then the brightness faded, and his massive body slumped, covering Solen’s lifeless one.
“Aiden!” Lory’s scream disappeared in the echoes of Ricca’s laugh.
The woman hadn’t hunted Tabi and Thal down the mountain the way Lory had feared but stayed behind, biding her time, and now that Lory was the only one standing, her voice filled the open space around the dead bodies of her classmates, an onslaught of audible blades pushing at Lory, eager to draw blood.
But Lory held her ground. On her knees, she tugged at Aiden’s arm, begging with tears in her eyes that he move.
“It’s too late for me, Lory,” he coughed, nearly startling her to death as she brushed his cheek with her fingers, and for a moment, hope flared in Lory’s chest, a bushel of flames fighting the cold of the ice leaking from Aiden’s hands.
His breathing slowed until irregular gasps shook his shoulders.
Lory rolled him onto his back, supporting his head to help him in whatever way she could think of.
“You need to get up, Aiden. We need to run.” Because, no matter how hard Lory tried, not a single flame emerged from her palms, not one whisper of embers, as if killing Solen had drained all magic from her.
“Please, Aiden.”
Ricca’s laugh still swirled around them like a fading cage, but there was no sight of the ashling with the unique power. If they wanted to get out of there, now was their chance—perhaps the only chance, before Ricca closed in on them, and even the blade in Lory’s hand would do nothing to save her.
“Aiden, get up.” She tugged on his arm, at the same time slipping her own arm under his shoulder in an attempt at lifting him, but Aiden remained a dead weight, his eyelids fluttering and his lips moving in a murmur.
“I’m sorry, Lory.”
Ignoring the danger circling them in versions of Ricca’s voice, Lory stayed by Aiden’s side. If Ricca had been able to kill them from a distance, she’d have long done it.
“You can’t die, Aiden. Not because of me.” Again, she tugged at him, praying to the Guardians she might be strong enough to drag him out of danger if he couldn’t stand on his own feet.
“I’m not dying because of you, Lory,” he whispered, hand reaching to his neck, behind his ear where the black tattoo shimmered under a sheen of hoarfrost. “That night, when they killed your brother—I was there.” A cough shook him, loosing Lory’s grasp on him, and he slumped back onto the ground.
Something in Lory’s chest tightened to the point of breaking.
“I didn’t lift a finger to save him, even though I knew better than to stand by and watch him die.
This is me paying for the worst of my crimes. ”
When he tapped the tattoo once more, his finger slipped, and Lory bit back a scream as she realized the dragon-like shape was something very different.
“A Gargoyle—” she whispered, and Aiden’s chin dipped half an inch, just enough to pass for a confirmation as his eyelids slid shut and remained that way.
“I’m sorry.”
His last words dispersed on a wind, Ricca’s voice chasing them away with a mocking call of his name.
But Aiden didn’t stir again, and Lory was running out of time.
Inside her, a void had opened, swallowing all emotions, and the ice on Aiden’s skin seemed to freeze her heart, lodging deep inside her chest as sorrow over losing her friend warred with the betrayal confessed on his dying breath.
When Lory squeezed his cold, limp hand, what heat had lived inside of her, ready to destroy whoever touched a hair on Aiden’s head, was swallowed by the chasm now defining the dark, hollow space where her heart had been a moment ago.
She opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t know what—because there were no words of absolution forming on her tongue.
Nor any of goodbye. All she could find was anger and the ice-cold that should have belonged to Aiden.
When she finally managed to let go of him, bringing her legs under her and picking up her sword, Ricca’s voice sounded from nearby, not a single echo engulfing her. “Regretting making friends with scum like Bellmont yet?”
Ricca’s green eyes glimmered in the moonlight, and at her words, a stab ran through Lory’s chest.
A Gargoyle. Aiden had been a Gargoyle. He’d belonged to the most dangerous street gang in Dunai—the one responsible for Evven’s death. And Aiden had been there.
Tears swam in Lory’s eyes, blurring her vision, but she held her ground. He’d died for her, to make up for what happened in the streets that night. Had probably been making up for it from the day they’d met at Ashthorn, and he’d never uttered a single word about it.
None of it mattered now that his body lay lifeless behind her, and Ricca blocked the path south, where Thal and Tabi had hopefully found a place to hide and rest before they made the descent to the outpost.
Two of her friends injured, one dead—it didn’t matter what he’d done, he was still dead because of her, and now, Lory was alone, the blade in her hand the only friend that could help her.
“Aren’t you going to fight, Flame-born?” Ricca prompted when she stepped closer, blade at the ready and her voice multiplying once more, the sound placing bonds around Lory’s arms and legs like invisible versions of the roots Nyla had commanded.
Lory merely stared at Ricca, the steel in her palm colder than she liked but a reminder of the power Aiden had used to save her.
There was nowhere she could run if Ricca used her magic again.
Not even a tree strong enough to climb. The rocks weren’t tall enough to climb out of Ricca’s reach either, only to slow her down should she choose to bolt.
Ricca took another step closer, the echoes fading, and with them, the bonds.
During this fight, Lory had seen enough of the ashling’s magic to know she had a brief window to make a move before a new wave of sound could trap her, and that, if Ricca’s magic was anything like Nyla’s, hurting the magic would hurt the wielder.
A blade wouldn’t cut through sound, though, or it would have recoiled from her left hand, where she was clutching the sword in a death grip. She needed her magic.
But when she reached deep inside of her for her untamed fire, not a spark of it responded, as if Aiden’s death had frozen everything that killing Solen had taken from her.
“I’ll make it quick, Lory, because I just watched you being served the best punishment anyone could wish for—the loss of someone you care for and their betrayal.”
Ricca’s voice tightened around her once more, squeezing hard enough to take Lory’s breath for a moment, and the ashling came to a halt in front of Lory, her black clothes melting into the night, as did the chin-length curtain of her hair.
The silver blade, however, flashed in front of Lory’s face as Ricca lifted it to her throat.
Think, Lory. Think!
The Almelyte—
Like the good student she was, she’d kept it in her pocket, moving it from one set of clothes to the next whenever she’d changed, and now it weighed like lead in the pocket of her pants, a few inches from her hand.
If she waited a few minutes, kept talking about anything that kept Ricca from opening her mouth and spewing those echoes that would bind her, she might stand a chance at retrieving it.