Page 134 of A Dusk Of Stars

Who knows?

Maybe this time’s the charm. Maybe this time…

I’llstaydead.

***

I’m coughing something up, feeling the slight waning of the paralysis even before I open my eyes. My heart explodes as soon as I see him. Jericho, standing right before me, having forced a bitter liquid into my mouth.

My voice is a hoarse whisper when I say, “I thought I told you I’d kill you if I ever saw you again.”

“Sure,” he says in a tense voice. “And I’ll get on my knees for you to do it.”

He closes his fist, darkness now everywhere around me. Then the eyes appear, the darkness catching fire. “Just let me take care of this bitch first,” he comes to whisper into my ear.

There’s so much I want to say to him right now, but I’m still weak and groggy. “Jericho,” I plead just as he pulls back again.

There’s sadness, fear, something tender and a determination to hide it all in the wink he throws me. Then, as he tears his eyes away from me, I watch them overflow with hatred, the look sending shivers down my spine. I see Serra getting off the ground near the pedestal, an energy surrounding her.

“You,” his voice booms with that hard, bone-chilling cruelty I’ve only heard once before, the words gritted out, “are dead.”

His hands clench into fists and his body somehow gets bigger, tenser. “I will rip you to shreds,” he snarls as he gets moving. “But first, I make yousuffer.”

There’s a movement I barely register.

Jericho stops midstep, groans and falls to his knees. Serra has her hand on the pedestal, this ominous glow emanating from it. She lets out a laugh. “You’re no match for me, Bane. Not anymore.”

For a second, I think all hope is lost, but then I see Jericho get up with a smirk on his face, taking something out of his pocket.

Almost too quickly for me to register, he throws something in the air, I hear the click of a lighter and I watch him blow into the flame, sending a blaze of wildfire in Serra’s direction, roaring as it illuminates the cave in an explosion of light.

I close my eyes. Instead of silence or sounds of struggling, what I hear is this faint, strange sound that reminds me of something spinning rapidly. I open my eyes, but Jericho is blocking my view.

“Fucking—” I hear him grit out and break off just as Serra appears in my line of sight.

She’s still far away from us, but she’s alive and well, smiling as she spins her cane in her hand with Jericho’s watchful eyes on her.

“It’s Air Magic, Jericho,” I struggle to warn him through half-paralyzed mouth, my heart plummeting as I realize she’s enchanted the cane to amplify her magic, allowing her to block the fire.

I watch her take a swing at the air with the cane, propelling a swarm of ethereal blades at him.

My eyes round, but he’s on his feet again and then there’s his hand in the air again, the click of the lighter and the explosion of wildfire, bigger than last time and fast enough to block the blades.

I breathe a sigh of relief, but the next thing I know, the fire is gone, she’s blocked it and she’s attacking again.

Then there it is again — the hand, the lighter, the explosion.

This time, though, before the fire clears out, I watch him turn to me, his chest heaving and these nasty gashes spewing blood down his shirt.

For a split second, he just stares at me, seemingly hesitating. Then he grits his teeth, this fiercely determined look in his eyes making mine round just as he tears them away and I realize what’s happening.

He’s going all in, for me.

The next thing I know, I’m watching his fox coming to land on all fours, its body tensing for a split second before it lunges.

Then there’s chaos filled with snarling, teeth snapping and short, staggered cries sounding from everywhere around me.

I struggle to keep track of Serra’s panicked movements as she tries to use her Air Magic to get away from the fox.

---