Page 101 of Fate and Flame
“I can’t,” she cried, tears leaving tracks in the dirt upon her face. “It took . . . It stole my magic.”She looked toward Kai and back to Fen.“Greeve . . .” Her gentle voice broke. “I think he’s gone too.”
Too. The word that shattered my fragile world.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Temir
Rhogan’s wings beating in an uneven pattern woke me. He grunted and strained carrying me, his arms under my armpits, my feet hanging high above the ground.
“Greeve,” I croaked, still nearly drained, exhaustion pulling me away, even now.
“I’ll go back for him,” he grunted.
“No. Rhogan, you have to take him first. Come back for me. I’m only tired, he needs a healer, or he isn’t going to make it.”
“We’re over halfway back,” he answered from above me.
“I don’t care. Leave me here, just go get the drac.”
My stomach plummeted as he descended. We nearly crash landed onto the ground.
“Can you fix my wing? It’s better than it was, but it’s still broken. I can’t fly well.” His eyes were bloodshot, the veins in his muscles protruding from the overexertion. His icy blond hair was a mop of sweat and dried blood. Those raven wings were so damaged he probably shouldn’t have been able to fly at all.
“I’m drained, Rhog. I gave you all that I could.”
He didn’t answer. Only managed a half turn and jumped into the air before he crashed to the ground, sand flying around him. He stood, cursed and tried again, and this time, those broken onyx wings carried him away. It wasn’t graceful, but he was gone.
My muscles screamed at me. Fatigue threatened me, but step by step, I inched my way in the same direction we were flying. I was lost. With each step, I sank deeper into the crimson sand. I pulled at my legs, begged them to keep walking. The horizon began to waver in the heat. Sweat poured down my head and stung my eyes. Still, I trudged on. Nadra appeared in the distance, her curls blowing in the wind, but when I reached for her, she vanished. It hurt to swallow. My swollen tongue became a foreign object in my sandy mouth.
I fell. Pulled myself up. Fell again. I could not go on. I would either die burned by the relentless sun, starving, thirsty and lost in the desert, or I would be found by my broken-winged friend, face down in the sand that began to bury me. As I closed my eyes, I sent wave after unyielding wave of love to Nadra. Because if I was going to die in the desert, I never wanted her to question how I felt about her.
I woke, never fully realizing I fell asleep. The beating sun had moved farther across the sky. My lips were cracked and bleeding. I blinked, and the sand covering my entire body fell from my lashes. Pushing from the ground, I willed my body to stand. To fight against the debilitating fatigue. I walked, twisted mirages appearing sporadically. Autus stood in the distance, flipping his faithful gold knife, the one charmed to never miss a target, in his hand. The sun glinted off the jewel in the center and I felt fear like I had never known tremor through me.
I braced myself for the impact of that knife, my mind convinced that he was real, that he had actually hunted me down and was ready to kill me. But he vanished. The fear did not. I saw Rhogan for the fourth time hovering above me in the sky.
“Just leave me alone,” I yelled, my voice hoarse.
I beat my palms into my temples as the desert continued lashing out in my mind. I stumbled forward as the vision drew closer. The familiar sound of his wings grew, and I pulled my sword I could barely lift from the ground, but still I swung at the mirage haphazardly.“Go away,” I rasped.
“Tem, put the sword away.”
I blinked the gritty sand from my eyes and stumbled backward. “You’re real?”
“Real,” he said.
I dropped the sword and hung my head.
“It’s going to be a long ride back, but Greeve still hasn’t moved. We have to hurry.”
I nodded. His movements were sluggish as he stepped behind me. Likely the strain on his broken wing made him more tired than I was.
“I’ve rested. Not a lot, but I might be able to heal it,” I said.
“No, Temir. Greeve is going to need every bit you can give him.”
He shoved his hands under my arms, and it took three times to leave the ground. His body trembled as we moved.
“Is Nadra at the castle?”
