Page 99 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

“Thes esmad,” Leiya hissed. “What ef the lad hemself es hurt? We have te get her te a healer,” Leiya said, her voice more stressed than usual.

“He will be here,” Cobal said.

A deep flutter filled the sky, and a large creature came into focus. Ezren soared down to us in Dragon form, his glimmering scaled body decorated with blood and ash.

My eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. I had only my ears. The ground crunched and yielded under his claws. He roared, the sound of something not quite Dragon, but also not quite Fae, likely a symptom of the Dragon blood that still ran through his veins as he changed.

“He esn’t himself, after he shefts,” Leiya groaned. “He’s got a devel en hem.”

“Bring him to her,” Cobal commanded. “Her scent will calm him.”

Leiya still held me tight to her legs, but then there was shuffling, and the clash of steel on steel. I heard a loud crack, a low series of grunts, and then the sound of a body being dragged in the dirt.

“Wait until hes eyes change,” Leiya commanded.

Minutes or moments later, Ezren whispered, his breath close enough to tickle my face. “Terra?” He struggled to speak himself, and I knew the sensation of blood flooded his airway.

“Warrior,” Cobal said. “Do you know how to use your binding to share your life source? It is similar to how you sent more of your life source to me when she freed me during the Skøl.”

“I think so,” Ezren rasped weakly from somewhere near me. “I remember the sensation. But how does it start?”

“Through blood sharing,” Cobal replied carefully. “As you likely know, Fae’s blood sharing with Talpa presents no risk of forming the Matching bond, given that Fae and Talpa couldnever be Salanti. But it will be different between the two of you. If you are indeed Salanti, she will forfeit her choice to Match.”

“No,” Ezren growled. “If there is any other way, Talpa, say it now.”

“Hmm, show me your mark,” the Talpa commanded. The words continued to float around me. “Interesting. There may be a way to share life without mixing blood. You will lose much strength. And we must try it fast, and if it doesn’t work, be ready for the blood sharing.”

Ezren grunted approval. “Where is her mark?” Cobal asked.

I fought to speak, to open my eyes, or to raise my hand. I could not. I only pictured the Dragon scale on my hipbone. A moment later, his rough hands slid gently down the side of my pants, running over my mark. Then he took his knife and sliced the pants from the top down, exposing my hipbone and the mark it bore.

I was slipping fast. I heard nothing else they said until Cobal directed Ezren to place the inside of his wrist on my scale. He then flowed not only his power and magic, but life source, into me. And it felt good, almost too good, like a drug numbing my pain. The arrow ripped free from my throat and Ezren’s free hand pressed into my neck, stemming the flow of blood.

The tether between us existed no longer just in theory. It was not the whispering pull I felt to him when we journeyed east nor the conceptual bond I was aware we had after the binding. It was a ripcord, from me to him, a braided chain of metal, of ice, of fire, of all substances, of none. My heart was bursting as his life source flowed into me—liquid iron penetrating my veins. Ecstasy, pain, and everything in between flooded all corners of my body.

And then, quiet.

My eyes fluttered open. He kneeled, bent close, his wrist still pressed to my bare hipbone.

“Can you speak?” he whispered, his voice breathy but recovering from the strained contortion it had been earlier.

“Ezren,” I rasped. The words came out and my hand flew to my arrow wound, which had closed now, only dried blood mixed with mud remaining where the shot had been.

“I’m covered in mud, aren’t I?” I asked.

“Aren’t you always?” he quipped back, and I choked on the tears bubbling up from shock.

That small noise broke him, and he pulled me into his chest, squeezing just slightly more than a typical embrace. “To the gods, Terra, I thought you were going to die,” he breathed into me, trembling. With relief or exhaustion, or both, I could not tell.

“We,” I corrected, pulling back from him to look at his face. “We were going to die.”

His eyes—still rimmed with a panic that made a small part of my heart crumple—searched mine. “I can’t lose anyone else, Terra. I can’t.”

“Ehem,” Cobal said, clearing its throat, transporting us back to the smoking reality in which we sat.

I looked around, and so did Ezren, his body tightening when Fayzien’s face came into focus. His muscles flexed, and I put my hand on his biceps, shaking my head. He raised his brows a fraction, but relaxed.

“We need to move.” My attention floated to Leyia, squinting at the sky.

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