Page 113 of Mother of Death and Dawn

Agony ripped up my spine, yanking me back into the real world. Tisaanah’s hand shook violently. Erratic sparks of unnatural white light snapped in the air like fragments of lightning, briefly illuminating split seconds of Tisaanah’s head lolling.

Fuck. Stop, stop, stop—

“Klasto, open the fucking door!” I demanded.

Tisaanah slumped back. The splinters of light became streaks. One struck my shoulder and left a streak of burns. I struggled to control the stream of magic we had opened, so it now rushed between us with nowhere else to go.

“KLASTO!” I bellowed.

The door flew open. Klasto cursed and threw up his arm to shield him from the fire, while Blif tried to fight them back with her magic.

Klasto grabbed Tisaanah and pulled her away from me. Her hand clung to mine with such ferocity that he had to pry it away. He seized each of our hands and I didn’t have time to protest his invasion when I felt his magic press against my mind. The connection between us was immediately severed.

Everything seemed like it got very quiet very suddenly. The flames and white light were gone. Tisaanah was a heap on the ground, still.

I couldn’t breathe. I crawled over her, taking her listless face in my hands. “Tisaanah.”

Klasto and Blif both leaned beside her.

“She should have stopped,” Klasto muttered. “It was stupid of her not to stop.”

Of course she wasn’t going to stop. Even I, someone who had known Tisaanah for all of a week, found it so glaringly obvious that she would never have stopped if there was even a shred of a chance of success, not even if it meant burning her own Ascended-damned hands off.

Her eyes slowly opened. I let out a ragged breath of relief.

“You are an idiot,” I muttered. “That was such a stupid thing to do.”

“He’s right,” Blif said. She took Tisaanah’s hands and flipped them over, revealing a blistering burn over her opened palm.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, even though she clearly had to fight for consciousness.

“None of that was fine,” I shot back.

Klasto leaned over Tisaanah, tilting her chin up to look into her face, eyes narrowed in concentration. “He’s right. You pushed forward when—”

“Andyou.” My glare snapped to Klasto. “What are you scoldingherfor? What the fuck was that?”

“It was the best way to give you both the opportunity to—”

“You locked her in a fucking box with—”With me.I choked on the words. “You locked her in a fucking box. Where the hell were you? Why did you let this go so far?”

“Would you rather I have pulled you out when you might have righted it?”

“No,” Tisaanah said, firmly. “I could have fixed it.”

“No, you couldn’t have.” I stood and extended my hand to Tisaanah. “Let’s go.”

Blif’s eyebrow arched. “One attempt isn’t enough.”

Tisaanah gave me a disapproving glance, but as she rose, she faltered slightly. That one little sign of pain, no matter how much she tried to hide it, was enough for me.

“We should try again,” she said.

“I’m not doing it. Absolutely not.”

That was all I had to say about it.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT

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