Page 52 of Haunted

There is no fear as long as we are one.

His wings spread, and he lifts enough to expose his chest.

In an eye blink, the empress surges up to Neifion and plunges the blade into his heart, right between the scales of his breast.

Pain and shock.

I feel it as my own.

I wheeze, paralyzed with agony. Our dragon bond links our pain. Neifion writhes and flaps his wings furiously, but he fights as if a tether holds his hind legs to the earth.

The empress pushes the blade into his chest, to the hilt. I gasp as sharp pain spears me.

Neifion shudders and collapses onto his side.

His stinging inhalations rip through me. I clutch at my chest. Neifion! Neifion.

He is unable to speak.

I’m here, I say. I’m sorry. Oh, I’m so sorry.

I want to crawl to him. To hold him. But I can’t move, the pain is too great.

I can’t hear him. Neifion!

I feel weak from the life force slipping away from him. The magic of our dragon bond can’t save him. The power of the stone around my neck only guarantees an eternal life if that life isn’t taken from him.

No! Neifion! The pain I will survive, but the guilt, my failure has cost me my dragon. My soul rips apart, broken from sorrow. Tears blind me. I can’t even hold my dying dragon. The world spins. This wasn’t how his life was supposed to end.

Then his voice, finally returning. No sorrow for me. I will be at peace.

Don’t leave! As his spirit slips away, I fall further than any soul could ever fathom. As Neifion loses his sight, I lose mine. Coldness swallows me. Blackness. Then stillness.

Unnatural freedom.

We are untethered.

Come back, Neifion.

Lightness.

Neifion gasps one final time, and a part of my soul dies with him.

I vomit and vomit until dry-heaves overtake me.

The empress jerks my head back and rips the dragon stone from my neck. The chain slices into my skin, but what’s one more cut on my torn body.

Neifion. I can’t breathe.

My vision works hard to focus.

The empress drops my stone and grinds it into the ground with another rock. The last link to my dragon’s spirit disappears.

I pray she has mercy and cuts my heart out.

38

“Take him to the boundary.” The empress uses the hem of her cloak to wipe the black dragon blood off her hand and forearm. It sticks to her skin, coating it like tar. She gives up and turns on her heel. As she strides to the edge of her semicircle of half-emrys, she waves her hand. “Away with him. I don’t wish to see him again. And get rid of this dragon carcass.”

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