31. Ava
AVA
Prince Haryk’s scream ripped through the forest, setting Ava’s teeth on edge as she spun away from Jerrid. The shadow hovered above the fiery phoenix, huge black tentacles driven deep into the bird’s molten chest.
Her own scream died soundlessly in her throat as the fiery blue heat of the phoenix began to drain back into the shadow, drawn up through those horrific tentacles embedded in his chest.
The blue magic spiraled around the shadow magic, twining with it…
Becoming one with it.
And the shadow grew impossibly stronger. It rippled with laughter, each peel like thunder, so loud it pounded against her eardrums and threatened to burst them open.
She pressed both palms to her ears, not sure she could stand it.
It was feeding on them—on Dragon and the phoenix.
She’d known it as Dragon slipped out of her mind like water running down a mountain to the sea, his energy draining out of her and leaving her hollow and empty. She’d known it the moment Prince Haryk’s scream shattered against her eardrums.
Just as she now knew they had reached the end of their battle.
The end of the world as they knew it.
Because this thing was about to unleash itself on Rhuin, and once it devoured Dragon and Haryk, nothing would stand in its way.
If she didn’t do something now, she would be powerless to stop this.
Grinding her teeth together, she reached inside herself and summoned the remnants of her fire. She poured her magic into her palms, scraping the dregs of her body for every last flicker. She left only one tiny whisper inside herself. Everything else she stole.
If she could make this last attack big enough to snap the prince out of the shadow’s clutches…
She stepped toward the clearing, forcing her way through air that felt as thick as sludge.
A tentacle of dark magic writhed toward her. She snatched at the final reserved flame and threw a glamour around herself. The air rippled as the glamour did its work.
The tentacle skittered past her, lost and confused as she vanished from its sight. But she was still there, still driving forward through the howling wind, her glamour a protective shield around her body and a blazing ball of magic in her hands.
Would it be enough?
It had to be, because only one tiny piece of Dragon still clung to her thoughts, the connection so weak it would snap at any moment, and then she would be forever alone.
And who knew what the shadow was doing to Brynja and the girls? As it stole Haryk’s magic and gained power, what would it do to their fragile human minds?
A vision flashed through her thoughts, of picking herself up in an empty clearing and discovering that only she had survived. That everyone had been slaughtered, and she was left—alone—in a graveyard of lost souls and broken dreams. A wave of hopelessness blasted through her heart.
Her glamour flickered, but she stifled a cry and surged forward, unwilling to give up, refusing to be driven away by a false dream of the future. The shadow had wanted her to see that, to see these ruins transformed into a graveyard marked by the mounds of corpses that had once been friends.
It wanted her to think there was no hope because then she’d give up.
The fact that it was trying so hard to dissuade her meant she still posed a threat to it.
Her boots pounded against the ground as she ran as close to the battle as she dared. Bracing her feet, she swung her hands around so that they were braced behind the writhing ball of magical energy. And then she hurled it toward the shadow.
It blasted through the wind, past writhing tentacles that didn’t even move to intercept.
Her glamour evaporated seconds before the blast smashed into the heart of the shadow in a thundering explosion of smoke and blue sparks.
The shadow roared as the phoenix loosed a high-pitched shriek. The shadow recoiled, withdrawing its tentacles from the chest of the phoenix and wrapping them around itself for protection.
And Prince Haryk tumbled out of the air and landed with a hard thump on the floor of the forest as his phoenix evaporated into flaming pinwheels of fire that spiraled delicately to the ground.
Oh no.
Ava couldn’t make her feet move as she stared in horror at the lifeless body of the prince. She was supposed to protect him, to save him.
Instead, she’d ripped him out of the sky.
She took a step toward him, tears streaking from the corners of her squinting eyes. But a large black blur slammed into her, caught her around the waist, and flung her backwards.
She screamed as she sailed through the air and skidded across the damp grass, her back exploding in pain as small rocks dug into her skin, ripping and shredding. She gasped against a sob of pain that wouldn’t tear free of her lungs. Just as she caught her breath, that dark blur took form above her.
The shadow formed its tentacle into an ugly point, razor-sharp and deadly.
Another vision smashed into her mind, the shadow invading her thoughts with the force of a battering ram. The assault was so sudden, so violent, she didn’t even have time to scream.
In the haze of the vision, she saw herself from above, as if she were the shadow about to strike. Her terrified face gaped up at her. She watched in mute horror as the shadowy spear plunged downward, skewering into her body.
Not only was she forced to watch the shock reflected in her own features, but she felt the agonizing pain as the shadow pierced through flesh and bone, driving so hard through her body that it skewered deep into the ground of the Shadewood.
The Ava on the ground coughed and burbled out blood. It ran down her jaw and onto her neck in a dark flood.
Now she screamed, and it wrenched her out of the vision just as the shadow plunged.
Throwing out her glamour, Ava rolled to the side. The ground shuddered as the tentacle slammed into the soil. The impact lifted her off the ground several inches, but as soon as she landed, she kicked herself over in a second roll, trying to get as far away from the shadow as possible.
Above her, the shadow screamed in fury. The tentacle came down again, and again, and again as it wildly thudded into the ground in a blind search. Her weak glamour held as she belly-crawled toward Jerrid, tears streaming from her eyes.
He lay a few yards away, his body motionless. She crawled alongside him, tucking her glamour around them both. It was the only defense she had left.
Haryk was gone. Jerrid wasn’t moving. Dragon was…as silent as the grave.
And she was utterly alone as a monster born of nightmares—fed by nightmares—ruthlessly attacked again and again.
She draped her arm across his chest, too weak to beg him to wake up. She didn’t care if she died today, but she didn’t want to die alone.
And she didn’t want to leave Brynja and the girls to face this thing without her.
Ylsi.
Finnr. Siri. Darling, wild little Roar.
If she died now, the shadow would savage them next. Without magic, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
But Ava’s magic wasn’t enough.
She wasn’t enough.
Ava’s body shuddered with sobs as she pressed her face into Jerrid’s motionless shoulder, her tears flooding across his bare chest. His skin was so cold…and it wasn’t rising and falling with breaths.
She pressed her cheek to his chest and strained to hear his heartbeat—a faint, barely discernible pulse beneath her ear.
The shadow slammed into the ground only a couple of feet away, and she strangled another scream as her glamour flickered. Any moment now, it would fail, and the shadow would find her.
And that vision trying to drill into her mind would no longer be a vision. It would become her reality.
The shadow ground into the earth on her other side, hissing in frustration, then coiled through the air, trying to find her. She wished she had figured out a way to stop it, some clever plan that would save Brynja and the others. A million wishes spiraled through her thoughts.
If only she’d been faster. Stronger. Smarter.
But as she lay beside Jerrid, completely spent of energy and nearly empty of magic, she knew she had given everything she had. She’d spent her whole life trying to measure up, trying to be better, trying to do more.
But maybe it wasn’t about meeting expectations or about getting results, good or bad, but about giving everything she had.
At least she had done that much, and she had no regrets.
She lifted her head and stared into Jerrid’s lifeless face. Well, not many regrets, at least. She brushed his hair off his forehead and wished she had the strength to drag him to safety. But she didn’t even have the energy to move her own body. She had nothing left to give.
I’ll take it anyway, that hateful voice whispered in her ear. I know you’re here somewhere, little elf.
Her blood chilled, and she clamped a hand over her mouth as she pressed closer to Jerrid, clinging to the glamour that stood between them and instant death.
You’ve impressed me. I didn’t think you’d be so much trouble.
The shadow coiled above her, its long tentacle poking at the earth in a slower pattern. It was moving methodically now, searching in grids.
She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, but she couldn’t make herself look away from that dark coil as it slid in and out of the ground, rustling through leaves and scattering loose soil.
A presence brushed against her thoughts, and she clamped down on her emotions to stifle the scream that rose unbidden to her throat. She braced for the attack, for the invasion into her mind, but it didn’t come.
The presence lingered at the edge of awareness, as if…asking permission?
Dragon.
Hope exploded in her chest as she imagined a crack in her thoughts, a tiny door that he could slip through but would be too small for the shadow to notice unless he knew where to look.
Dragon’s mind came alongside hers, a weak thrum of emotions and not much else.
But he was still alive, and he had found her. That’s all that mattered.
They wouldn’t die alone today.
She wanted to say something, but she didn’t dare speak and give away their location.
It’s okay. You don’t have to talk, Dragon whispered. We’re sorry this didn’t turn out the way we had hoped.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hand more tightly against her mouth, lest she succumb to temptation.
I wanted to bring Jerrid back to say goodbye, Dragon whispered, but I don’t think he can. He’s trying to buy us time.
Time for what?
To escape. He’s going to cut the tether between us.
Ava went cold all over as her exhausted brain tried to absorb the implications of what that meant.
It means he’s sacrificing himself to set you—and me—free. Dragon’s thoughts had an edge to them, almost a bitterness. He’s dying for us. For you.
Tears burned behind her eyelids, and she shifted her hand so that she could lean forward and press a kiss to Jerrid’s cold jaw. She didn’t want him to die for her! She wanted him to live for her.
Dying was easy.
Living was harder. Picking up the pieces and going forward despite pain, despite difficulties, despite time itself… That was harder. In the end, how you lived meant more than how you died.
Try telling him that, Dragon thought dryly. He’s got his heart set on dying. He thinks he’s being noble.
She didn’t want him to be noble—she wanted him to be alive.
Her glamour flickered, every muscle in her body straining to maintain the barrier. She couldn’t hold out much longer.
Neither can we. I’m going to have to let go soon.
Panic flooded her thoughts, drowning out anything else Dragon tried to say. She wouldn’t give up. She wouldn’t let them give up, not like this. Because there was one thing they hadn’t tried yet. One thing that might make a difference.
She spelled out her instructions to Dragon as clearly as she could, formulating each thought with precision. There couldn’t be any mistakes, not today.
The shadow drifted closer, punching through a small rock and grinding it to pieces as it probed the earth. If it continued down its current path, it would reach them in less than a minute. They were out of time.
She finished spitting out her instructions to Dragon, and she waited for him to respond. He answered with a thick silence.
The ground shuddered beneath them as the shadow drew closer, and Dragon released a resigned sigh into her mind. That’s all it was, a single sigh.
But she knew what it meant.
Grinding her teeth together, she braced for the moment when Dragon would break the tether.
Someone was about to die.