Chapter Thirty
Panic hits hard and low, a pounding beat kicks up behind my ribs. I try to move again, but nothing, my legs might as well be nailed to the ground.
“Are you in pain? Can you breathe okay?” Bren’s words stumble out like he can outrun whatever this is. His hands are around mine, hot and shaking.
The wind shifts up the hill, curling cold fingers around my neck—night air, sharp and biting—dragging the stench of burning wood and something worse.
But I need to think. One thing at a time. I try to pull a deep breath, it catches, but it holds.
“Breathing’s fine. No pain.” I say. “But Bren—something’s not right.” Because underneath the numb, there’s pressure. Threads pressing low and tight, climbing up through my calves like they’re being cinched in a vice.
“Lyra!” Ezzy hits the ridge hard. Ash streaks her face, bits of blonde hair plastered to her temples, boots scraping stone as she comes forward, fast, eyes flicking over me.
“Oh, thank the stars, I heard you were stuck, I thought—” Her voice cuts out as she turns, and sees Ashvale in full.
“It’s... It’s gone. Half, more than half the town just..
.” Ezzy’s hands twitch uselessly at her sides, fingers curling, uncurling.
“Shit, Rowan and Finn are still down there, dragging people out, I don’t, I don’t even know how many are still stuck. ”
For a second, I forget the numbness in my legs. They’re Innerland-born; they weren’t trained to help people like us. But they stayed anyway. A flicker of warmth rises high in my chest, tight and unexpected but it doesn’t last long.
In front of me, Ezzy keeps staring out, sweeping the horizon like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. Hell. I can’t believe it either.
“Dragons,” she says, almost shaking. “Finn swore it was three, but I swear I saw a fourth. And the people, I didn’t see them, but Rowan’s convinced.
Said there were people pulling survivors back into the smoke.
” Her voice pitches, fast and thin. “Said their eyes were black. Just… black, hollow. I think...” She shakes her head.
“It had to be the smoke. Or Citadel officers. He just, he just got confused.”
That doesn’t make sense. None of it does.
My head’s too heavy, too slow to keep up, but to my side, something shifts.
Talen. I hadn’t even realised he had come back with her.
His Citadel whites are stained with soot and blood, collar half-torn.
His eyes snap to mine and hold. For a second, a memory flickers—smoke, heat, a hand pulling me up—was he there?
Ezzy drags in a long breath. My gaze pulls toward the sound of it—her hands are trembling, useless at her sides. Finally, she looks at me. It only takes a heartbeat. Her face drains when she sees the way Bren’s holding me tight. “What’s wrong?”
“She can’t feel her legs,” Bren answers for me, voice cracking.
Dropping into a crouch beside me, she starts scanning head to toe, words spilling too fast. “Is it the fire? Did something fall on you? Smoke, was it the smoke?”
Beside me, Talen shifts, just one step closer. His hands are clenched, jaw tight. That same unreadable face, but something’s cracking behind it.
“No,” I shake my head. “No, I don't think so, I inhaled a lot of smoke, but… come to think of it, they’ve been weird all day. Started with tingles, I thought it was just nerves, pins and needles, but then, after I tried to help Rhia—” God, I can’t even say their names, the pain’s too raw.
“When I tried to help them, my legs just gave out. I couldn’t get up.
I was stuck. I thought it was panic, but… something’s different, wrong.”
Ezzy leans in, hair falling into her face, eyes wide and jittery. “Okay, okay, what does it feel like? Is it sharp? Or numb? Can you move anything? Your feet, your legs, shit, is it both? Is it everything?”
The questions come too fast, faster than my heart beat. It's hard to keep up. My gaze drops to my legs, heavy and useless. Beside me, Bren feels my pulse spiking and squeezes my hand.
“It’s… It’s like something crawling up them.” I answer, chest rising too fast now. “And everything behind it goes dead. Like my Threads are being squeezed from the inside.”
Ezzy’s mouth parts, then she glances at Talen. He’s closer now, watching me, face steady—but his lips are pulled tight.
“Anything else?” She asks, voice thin, rushed. “Any other feelings, symptoms? Strange taste, smell, anything?”
“I don’t… I don’t think so. I mean... There’s this taste in my mouth. Like, sour? I thought it was the smoke. But it’s been building all day too.”
Ezzy freezes.
“What is it?” Bren’s head jerks up.
Her eyes snap wide, panic spilling through. “Snare Urchin…”
“A Snare what?” I ask, too fast.
Talen’s mask cracks, his eyes widen, then he’s moving, dropping to his knees, hands tearing at the laces of my left boot.
“What the hell are you doing?” Bren’s voice spikes, confusion and fury mixing, like he’s ready to tear him off me. But before Talen can answer, Ezzy shifts, fumbles for the other boot, her fingers shaking so badly she almost knots the laces tighter.
“Snare Urchin," she repeats, “I, I read about them last week in that library book you keep teasing me about. Their spines, they release venom that paralyses Threads. Squeezes them until they shut down. It always starts at the feet, then climbs. If it reaches your lungs, your heart, you’re already—” She cuts herself off, shakes her head, keeps yanking at my boot. “And the taste, that sour-metal taste. That’s how you know.”
The pounding in my chest rises, pulsing behind my eyes now. What? No, I can’t die here. From a fucking urchin. Not after everything. Not after deciding to go back. The answers are waiting. If I die now, all of this—Ashvale, Rhiann, everything—it was for nothing.
Both boots are off now, as Ezzy scrambles over my legs, eyes darting, hands everywhere. “It’s in you. It has to still be in you, stars, we need to find it before—”
“I don’t understand, how the hell would I have an urchin spine in me? The ocean’s days away.”
Ezzy shrugs as she keeps looking. “Don’t need the ocean. Urchin’s a delicacy at the Innerlands. Someone with access to a kitchen, or the right connections, could’ve used the discarded spines.”
Shifting up from my feet, Talen moves to my left, sleeves already shoved back. His hand catches mine before I can pull away, turning my wrist over, eyes scanning like he’s looking for something under the skin. I warm under his touch, but the next thought sends a cold shiver straight through me.
“So... you’re saying someone poisoned me?” My head struggles to keep up as Bren joins the search, three sets of hands moving over me like I’m a map they’re all trying to read at once.
But Ezzy doesn’t answer. Doesn't need to; I can already see the lineup—Ryven, Strannt, Elijah. Hell, half the Citadel would throw a party if an Outerlander like me bled out on their polished stone.
“But I would've felt it, if someone spiked me, I would’ve known—”
“No.” Her voice is tight as she moves. “It's like a mosquito bite. Numbs the spot first. You don’t really feel it, maybe a scratch. But once it's in? It just waits. Removal’s the trigger. That’s when the real pain hits. And if it breaks off inside—”
Bren's suddenly in front of me, lifting my right hand. His fingers tremble. “Here. This. This has to be it.”
I look down. A tiny black dot. Barely more than a pinprick near the tip of my index finger. I blink. It wasn’t there this morning. Or was it?
“Yes, yes, that’s it!” Ezzy cries.
Bren presses a thumb around the site like he’s going to squeeze it out.
“Stop!” Her voice slices through the moment, “Stop, if you snap it, it’ll splinter. Bury deeper, break into a dozen bits. You’ll never get it all. You need a blade.”
“Okay, fine, someone give me something.” Bren holds out a trembling hand.
Talen moves, and with his free hand pulls a dagger from his belt. His grip is rock-steady. “Unless you plan to cut her whole damn finger off with those shakes—let me.”
Bren bristles. “You think I’d hurt her?”
“I think you’re panicking,” Talen replies flat. “And she doesn’t have time for that.”
For a second. Bren doesn’t move. Then, jaw tight, he glances at his own hand—still trembling—and curses under his breath. His eyes flick to mine, and something shifts. “Fine.” He sighs.
I brace for Talen’s usual smug reply—some barbed comment just to twist the knife, but it doesn’t come. He just turns to Ezzy, my hand still steady in his. “When this comes out, it’s going to hurt like hell. Pass-out kind of pain. She’ll need—”
“Hot water, I know,” Ezzy cuts in quickly, already looking around like it might spill out of the hillside. “Ummm…”
“Hot water?” My brows pull tight.
“Yeah.” She doesn’t look at me, still scanning. “Once it’s out, the numbing wears off around the site. Pain will hit hard, but heat helps neutralise it, but I don’t know where—”
“My place’s still intact,” Bren says. “But I'll need help getting the water back on.”
Ezzy exhales. “Okay, great. Let’s go.”
But Bren doesn’t move, his eyes go straight to mine. “I’m not leaving you here with him.”
“I need to get this thing out, now, otherwise she dies.” Talen says, eyes locked on Bren. “So you can either stand here and watch her suffer in pain once I remove it, or make yourself useful and get the damn water.”
Fuck, the look on Talen's face—serious, tight. Not his usual calm, not the mask he always wears. There’s worry there, strong enough to punch the air from my lungs. And if he’s worried… Shit, this is bad.
Silence.
Talen turns to me. “It’s your choice, Bloom—if they stay or go, I don’t fucking care. But I’m taking this thing out now, and once it’s out, it’s going to hurt like hell unless we get it into something hot.”