I didn’t know, so I didn’t answer. Instead, I swung my lower half upward, trying to kick at his mouth. His response was to shake me viciously and I gagged again, my muscles going slack on instinct. I heard his laugh slide through my head, silent and yet so loud despite that. In the distance, I was aware of the elders saying something, or maybe cheering, but I didn’t want them to be the last people I heard. It was bad enough that I would have the rotted dragon’s strange not-voice winding through my ears, insipid, acidic, and oh-so-smarmy.

  “Release her, Faeldrus!”

  The voice came from nowhere, yet everywhere. Above us, behind us, I almost wondered hazily if it was coming from within us as well.

  The dragon’s grip on my limb grew ever-so-slightly slacker as his head perked up a bit. “I… I haven’t heard that voice in ages.”

  It was a bit of an incongruous moment, me just hanging there, him just looking around as if he was in a mall and trying to figure out if someone he knew had called for him or not. But then, as the tension mounted, it fizzled out after a few breaths when nothing happened.

  Was that it?

  I shouldn’t have doubted, because less than a beat later, there was a rush, and I could sense something hastening toward us almost too quickly to see.

  Then…then it was like everything happened at once. Too many things occurred simultaneously. World-changing things. Impossible things.

  From the corner of my eyes, I saw the spirit—the grim reaper that had been following me, who had guided me back to consciousness just minutes ago—pop into existence. She was carrying the same weapon she’d had when we’d first spotted each other, shining far too realistically for something that was supposed to be phantasmagorical.

  Then she was launching herself upward.

  “Let. Her. Go!”

  There was a flash, and a surprised not-shout from the rotted dragon that almost made my brain fall out. Then it felt like someone lit my arm on fire, sharp and excruciating. Then I was falling.

  Falling?

  I hit the ground so hard that the breath was knocked out of me. I heard snapping, I heard popping, and then a crack as the back of my head connected with the earth.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. The events happening in front of me washed over me like water. Things I couldn’t stop. Things I could barely even comprehend.

  The dark spirit was standing in front of the rotted dragon, her scythe raised. Her clothes were rippling more than usual, the dark smoke that often surrounded her, made her, was thick and churning.

  The rotted dragon was staring down at her like she was a ghost, which I supposed she was, but I was too removed from everything to laugh at my own mental joke. There was a strange sort of energy between them, something that felt familiar, but I couldn’t gather my thoughts enough to figure out how.

  “Maedryell?” he asked, sounding bewildered. It was a tone I didn’t think that I had ever heard him use before, and it stuck out within my mind as something interesting. But I couldn’t think of why. “Ah, my sweet girl. I had missed you terribly.”

  “I need not your words, Faeldrus. You have no right to be here. Leave this world while you still can.”

  “I must admit, your vim and vigor are still just as virulent as it was when we first met. But we both know you cannot affect any of this. Part of your curse, yes? That was set upon you by all your brothers and sisters who you betrayed?”

  Instead of answering, she swung her scythe across him. Despite everything my weary, drifting mind expected, a wound opened along the front of his proud, broad sternum, revealing more pus and pestilence that began to pour out.

  The rotted dragon took a stumbling step back, his head tilted to look down at himself.

  “Well, that was unexpected.”

  “You underestimate us, just like you always have. You know in this form, I am more powerful than you, especially before you’ve had a chance to feed. So, leave now, run while you can, or die before anything can start.”

  Instead of being intimidated, the rotted dragon just laughed. It was even more horrible with every interaction, burrowing into my skin and sending darkness spreading through me. I felt like I was going to get dragged down into the nothing. That all that was Davie was going to be erased and all there would be was his cold, cruel laughter.

  “My lord! We are here to help you! Let us through that we may fight this apparition for you.”

  If I was myself, if I wasn’t slowly growing colder and colder by the second, unable to move, then maybe I would have rolled my eyes at the elders. But I couldn’t. I could only lay there as these mythological people fought over me. It would be rather ironic if I just died there, wouldn’t it? All this hubbub, and I just slipped away to be with Mallory and my parents.

  The rotted dragon looked behind him, then back to the grim reaper before his tail slapped into the ground. I felt the results almost instantly. There was a sort of cracking at the base of my shield, one that rolled along it until it was well beyond my sight, and then the fissures latticed upward. I knew what he was doing.

  He was breaking the shield.

  I couldn’t stop him—I didn’t have the ability—but what I could do was take all that power back into myself before he destroyed it. Maybe then I could fight back. Maybe then I would be able to move.

  The intricate pattern of breaks made it nearly to the top. I had a breath, maybe two, to act. It was a gamble—some might even say it was selfish—but it was the only thing I could think to do.

  So, I opened myself up, letting my natural walls and defenses fall, and called all that magic back to me at once.

  It was…a lot.

  Even after all the cracking, even on the verge of being shattered, it was just so much. Especially considering how hollowed out I had been. How I’d barely been able to connect with what made me an oracle. All of it hit me at once, diving into my core and spreading through me, waking up all the parts of me that had gone numb.

  Ow.

  The only thing about suddenly being alive enough to feel was that I was feeling everything all at once. It was a tsunami of pain and anguish, and for a few moments, that was enough to wipe out the entire scene in front of me.

  By the time I came to, it was woozily but I felt less like I was about to die in just a minute or two and more like I might make it ten.

  I blinked blearily, and my eyes slid to where the elders had been standing. They were no longer human, but rather three brilliant beasts that would have truly been massive if they hadn’t been standing next to the gargantuan rotted dragon.

  They let out a roar each, celebrating—no, reveling—in their leader’s bellow, and they stepped forward into the line in the grass that no longer existed.

  It was like an era of my life done and over. I had resurrected that shield in my new life and now it was gone. Gone in a flash, with only the remnants inside of me.

  The three dragons moved forward proudly. One a shimmering, blinding white. Another a deep, deep red that was almost black. And lastly, an azure dragon with dark green scales rippling along him, his joints tinged with gold. They really were beautiful and radiated a sinister sort of power that spoke of ancient times and old wisdom.

  No wonder they were elders. Their heads were raised high, all of them sporting so many horns, with what was left of the afternoon sun shining along their hides. Maybe I would have liked to draw them, were they not my mortal enemies, cheering at the death of all I loved.

  They marched, a formidable line, but then the rotten dragon turned and snapped the red dragon up in his mouth.

  It was as if there was a thunderous record-scratch as we all realized what happened, but the rotted dragon didn’t even pause. He ignored the shrieking and flailing of the red dragon, chomping violently several times. Blood and viscera were everywhere, shocking, horrifying, and then he was swallowing everything down.

  When he was finished, his jaws snapped closed several times as if he was smacking his lips, and then he looked at the remaining two elders.

  Unsurprisingly, the white dragon hissed and took to the air, fleeing so quickly that they were barely a streak in the sky. If I had to guess, I would say that was Valirie.

  The blue dragon was clearly the more surprised of the two and spun around to run. The rotted dragon was faster, however, and his teeth closed around the azure tail.

  I thought that was maybe the end of him, but then the entire tail released just like a lizard, and he was flying off too.

  The rotted dragon paid that no mind, however, tilting his head back and greedily gobbling the entire tail right up.

  He didn’t even hesitate once it was all swallowed. His head lowered and turned back to the spirit, his nostrils flaring and more green gas billowing out. “You were saying about not feeding?”

  “If you want a fight, I’ll give you a fight. One I’ve owed you for a very, very long time.”

  He smiled, mouth full of row after row of jagged teeth. Had he had that many before? I hadn’t felt that many biting into my arm. Then again, it had been such intense pain that I couldn’t really feel much at all beyond the blinding agony.

  “Come now, let’s see just how strong that curse made you.”

  And then they were at it, the rotted dragon flying into the sky, his chest filling with air, and her leaping after him. He breathed gas and fire, and it would have been almost awe-inspiring if it wasn’t the end of the world in real time.

  A gentle, hardly-there rumble tickled down my head and spine, the tiny vibrations reminding me how much pain I was in. It wasn’t welcome, and I assumed it was just the world responding to the cacophony above me, but then it began to grow stronger.

  And stronger.

  What was happening? The rotted dragon had already crawled its way out of the earth, what else could come out of it? A kraken!?

  The rumbling became almost overpowering, and that was when my hazy mind finally understood it wasn’t coming from the earth at all. It was a car.

  What was a car doing out here?

  “There she is! Grab her!”

  I… I knew that voice. But that was impossible. Valirie had done some sort of magic to the manor and made almost everyone sleep.

  But then hands were on me. They made me scream. Even just the light pressure from them made pain stab through my entire being.

  “I’m sorry, Davie, I’m sorry. It’ll be okay. I got you. I’ve got you.”

  What was it about trauma that made people repeat things? I had done the same things with Mall—

  Mallory!

  “No!” I managed to mutter, trying to wrest myself away. “Mallory, you can’t leave Mallory!”

  I couldn’t imagine a greater indignity than laying there, cold in the dirt, witness to a fight between supernatural beings. I had come back from the dead, who was to say I couldn’t do the same to her?

  “Davie, come on, let’s go. We have to get you out of here.”

  They were dragging me back, making my stomach roil. “No, you can’t leave her! You can’t—”

  I recognized Krisjian’s face above me. “Davie, she’s dead.”

  “I know, I know, but I can change it. I can. I know I can.” I was desperate, breathless. The edges of my vision were both red and black. That was impossible, and yet that was exactly what they were.

  Krisjian’s soft hands came up to either side of my face, soft and cool. They felt like heaven against my heated face, but when I pressed into his palm, there was just more pain. There was always pain. The whole world was pain, and it wasn’t stopping. Soon it would swallow me up, but I wasn’t going to give up on Mallory!

  “Hey. Hey, look at me.” I tried not to, tried to flick my eyes towards where Mallory had rolled. Where was she? I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t feel her. But Krisjian persisted in his gentle, comforting hold. “You’re so tired, aren’t you? You should just close your eyes and go to sleep. We’ll take care of you. I promise.”

  “But… Mallory. I…”

  “We got you back without your body, right? It’ll all be fine. Just let yourself rest.”

  …rest? That sure did sound nice.

  My eyelids grew heavy, weighed down by everything that had happened. He had a point, actually. I was very tired. I had gone through too much for one human. I deserved a rest. Surely if I closed my eyes for just a moment, it wouldn’t hurt anything.

  “Just sink right down into that warm, cozy place you feel inside you. It’s so nice and welcoming. There’s really no reason to resist it, right?”

  “No…reason…”

  “Come on! We need to get her out of here now!”

  The other hands holding me gripped tighter, pain trying to bite into me but unable to get through the warm, syrupy contentment. I was dragged backward, then lifted and slid onto a seat. It was far too similar to what Baelfyre had done to me, and I tried to kick out.

  I didn’t get any traction, however, and fell into the comfortable dark just below my feet.

  13

  It Doesn’t Get Any Worse than This

  I’d been unconscious so many ways that I thought I had experienced pretty much all of them. And yet, as I wavered up toward the world of the living, I found myself plunged right back down again into the welcoming dark.

  It didn’t cross my mind to fight it, so I just let it push and pull me, drifting up to almost the surface of the force I was under, then sinking right back down. It almost might have been fun if I could understand it. But I couldn’t. I wasn’t able to think at all, really.

  But then, after an indeterminable amount of time, whatever was pushing me back waned, and my ascent didn’t falter.

  Once I crested the thick layer that was my sleep, I wasn’t greeted by anything that made sense. The walls around me were jagged, aged, and leaking. It wasn’t anything like the manor or the palace. Where was I?

  I tried to look around, but my eyes wouldn’t move. Nothing would. My thoughts were muddled together and slipshod, sliding past each other too fast for me to grasp. So, I just laid there, only able to stare up at the ceiling and see the wall in my peripheral vision.

  Not for the first time in my life, time didn’t matter or make any sense. Some moments it went on forever, sometimes it rushed by. I couldn’t say whether it was minutes or hours before there was a noise at the door followed by footsteps.

  A soft, small hand slid into my own, and I managed to flick my eyes down enough to see Sokhanya’s concerned face.

  What was she doing up? I tried to ask her, but that required far too much muscular ability that I didn’t have. After so much running and…and…

  Had all of it even happened? Or had I just come out of the worst nightmare in my entire life? The worst vision I’d ever encountered… The worst terror that had even lurked in the back consciousness of my mind.

  She squeezed my hand once then left as quietly as she had arrived. Not too much later, Bronn and Mal were running in, Krisjian skittering just after them.

  “You’re awake!” Mal said, sounding happier than I had ever heard her. “Oh God, I thought you might not wake up!”

  She pressed right up to the side of my bed, looking down at my face. I had to be low to the ground for her to be above me, but I couldn’t quite roll to my side and glance at the floor.

  “Get the doctor,” Bronn said, his voice low. He didn’t look like he was happy. In fact, he looked the worst that I had ever seen him. His eyes were sunken in with dark rings around them. He had a slice down one cheek, and he looked ashen. What had happened while I was gone?

  “Davie…” he whispered before his voice crumpled and suddenly, he was right where Sokhanya was, snatching up my hand and holding it to his face like he almost couldn’t believe I was there. “Davie, I’m so sorry. I’m…” He choked on his words, and tears dripped down the side of his cheeks. “I couldn’t wake up. I could hear you running, the manor falling down around us, but I couldn’t wake up.”

  I tried to say that it was alright, but my tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth. Welded there with a solid layer of what could be crust. Gross.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, so—” He couldn’t get it out. His head was pressed into my middle as he just cried.

  Something truly terrible must have happened. He hadn’t even reacted so poorly when I had come back to life after sacrificing myself. And what did he have to be sorry for? It was old magic, magic that was so laid into the foundations of that amulet that I hadn’t been able to sense it at all. And my soul had literally bathed in magic when I was dead.

  He stayed pressed against me, his palms gripping my side with a terrified sort of tenderness that made my heart ache.

  “So, it was all real then?” I asked after I couldn’t take it any longer. I wanted to support Bronn, to wrap him up in my arms and tell him it was going to be okay, but I could barely even wiggle my fingers.

  He looked up at me, his face seeming to crack even more at my question. “How much do you remember?” he asked, clearly struggling to hold on. I hated seeing him like that, all broken open and barely clinging together. Was this what our destiny was going to be? Always with me in a hospital bed, grievously injured, and him just watching me try to knit myself back together?

  That certainly didn’t seem fair to him.

  “All of it. Or all of it until you arrived. I was just hoping it was a horrible night—” I halted myself, realization hitting me. “Krisjian put me to sleep, didn’t he?”

  Bronn nodded. “You were fighting us. You wouldn’t let us get you away from that awful place.”

  I swallowed, but with so little spit in my mouth, the action mostly just scraped along my sore throat.

  “And Mallory? Did you get her too?” He didn’t answer, his lips pressing together so tightly that they were hardly even there anymore. I felt my stomach come to life only to sink down inside of me. “Well… That’s alright. I can find a way to bring her back. I’ll just get to your library now that the shield is down—”

  “Davie,” Bronn interrupted me gently, but urgently, and I could see all the grief and pain written across his features. “You can’t go to the library.”

 

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