Page 102 of Ash and Feather

I tracked that scent and, little by little, worked to uncover the source, watching carefully for signs of life, until finally—

There.

More slowly, taking care not to let anything else shift and fall onto him, I went back to digging. I pushed away the stone and broken glass around his head, first, making sure he had plenty of space to breathe.

And—thank the Creators—hewasbreathing, though each breath was more ragged and shallow than the last.

His face was a wreck of terrible colors: green and purple bruising across his cheeks, one eye swollen shut and circled in black, all of it streaked with dust and blood.

“Fallon.”

He blinked at the sound of my voice. His eyes darted wildly around before finally settling on my face. Green eyes rimmedin gold, just like our mother’s. They flashed with a whole range of emotions in the span of a few heartbeats. Confusion. Shock. Disbelief. And then they closed again, as if the sight of me was too great a burden to bear.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just kept digging.

Eventually, I’d freed enough of him to manage a solid grip on his torso. I wrapped my arms around him and heaved his limp body the rest of the way out.

Dislodging him triggered an avalanche of debris, each shifting piece knocking another piece free. As a large section of the wall came crashing toward us, I swiftly repositioned myself so I caught the brunt of it with my back.

The avalanche settled with me hovering over my brother’s still body. Several boards rested upon my shoulder blades. My palms were braced against ground that was covered in slivers of wood and glass, and several of those slivers had slid into my skin. Part of the ceiling had fallen away, allowing moonlight to illuminate the swirling dust all around us.

With a grunt, I shoved the fallen pieces away from Fallon and myself before rising to a crouched position.

When I looked to my brother once more, his eyes were open again, staring at me with a dazed mixture of horror and wonder.

“So it ends in dust and rubble,” he mumbled through dry, cracked and bleeding lips, his eyes fluttering shut, “and my brother, the god, comes to see me at last, here at the gateway to the heavens.”

“You aren’t dead, you dramatic idiot. Not yet.”

He blinked again, disbelief flooding his features—but this time he kept his eyes open. Kept them on me.

With some effort, I managed to maintain my balance as I scooped him carefully into my arms and rose back to my feet.

“Dravyn—”

“Don’t talk. Save your strength.”

Throughout our entire childhood, I don’t think he’d ever listened to any command I’d given. But he listened now. His body went disturbingly limp. His head lolled against my chest.

I carried him out of the dust, occasionally stumbling over bits of scattered stone and splintered wood. My own condition seemed to be deteriorating with every step. I was forced to reach deep into the wells of my power, bracing myself with all the magic I could muster just to stay on my feet.

A small company of soldiers met us outside, drawing up short as they caught sight of me.

They stared. At first, none of them spoke. Or moved.

I wouldn’t have dared to approach me, either; I must have been an interesting sight. A frightening one. Divine symbols blazed on my skin, growing brighter every time I accessed my power in a desperate grab for strength. My vision was tinged in red and orange, which likely meant my eyes had taken on a glowing appearance—a powerful gaze of fury and hellfire.

But I still felt alarmingly weak. Far too aware of the blood and dust coating me. Of the poison emanating from the wounds in my shoulder. A ragged, angry god, bristling from too many losses and too many mistakes.

Yet their king was unconscious in my arms—and, to their credit, the humans didn’t shy away, despite whatever terror my appearance invoked.

After several attempts to gather his courage, one particularly brave soul even stepped forward to meet me, his hands outstretched and shaking only slightly as he reached to pull the lifeless body away from my chest.

Others followed his lead. Soon, I was swarmed by humans, all of them reaching, trying to support their leader as best they could while also keeping one wary eye on me.

Part of me didn’t want to let Fallon go.

The other part wondered if it would do more harm than good holding on to him.

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