Page 133 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
I mean to try.
I willnotleave Aurelia behind. Not now that we have finally found one another again.
I willnotdie today.
My hands grip tighter at the roots I cling to. The muscles of my torn back burn as I haul myself upward bit by bit, finding new holds as I go, fighting against the rush of the earth all the while.
Gusts of Air race past, trying to rip me from the earthen wall and pitch me down into the deep. Beneath my grip, the delicate plant matter snaps. I slip back down by several more inches until my fingers find new roots to tangle themselves with.
“And since you were so concerned about how I intend to claim the Corona once you are dead: I do not believe witnessing you be buried alive counts as—”
His words cut off on a pained roar. His wings crumple. Suddenly, the great mass that is my uncle in his dragon form is falling straight toward me, a single ballista bolt piercing the joint of his right wing. Not a Spirit bolt like the one still lodged in my heart.
Just… a ballista bolt. Like the sort Malice used to shoot me out of the sky back in Spindleton.
I press myself against the wall of the chasm and try to make myself as small as possible. But it’s not enough. His body still slams into me in passing.
Something inside my chest gives way with a sickening crunch. My delicate human bones are no match against his draconic.
Suddenly, breathing is painful.
My head swims.
My grip on the roots loosens.
Malice’s screeches of panic fill my ears and my mind alike as I tumble backward into the darkness, following my uncle into the belly of the Vale. Into the grave we are clearly meant to share. His desperate weaves do little to slow either of our falls.
He expended too much of his energy in ripping open the earth with mere Air and Fire in the first place.
My vision darkens at the edges, fading, even as a blinding light spills into the chasm from above. A golden glow that descendstoward me like a shooting star, calling forth lavender strands as she goes.
Aurelia.
Her Air weave wraps around my broken body, gently slowing my fall. But not quickly enough. Still, we tumble down into the unknown.
The ground around us rumbles, as if calling out a low warning.
Even wavering on the verge of unconsciousness, I sense my queen’s fear.
“Hurry,Therya’fey!” someone shouts from above. “Now that its magic has returned, the Vale seeks to heal itself!”
Aurelia’s weave tightens around me just a little more. But I can still feel her hesitation.
“I don’t want to hurt you,”she whimpers within my mind. The damage to my torso must look even worse than it feels.
“You can’t,” I remind her on a hoarse whisper, choking on the words. “Not like that… at any rate…”
Threads of Air snap taut around me, reversing our course so quickly that I forget how to breathe.
Blood pools in my mouth.
I feel myself fading.
Some part of my mind fears I’m not going to make it.
“Yes, you are,” Aurelia bites out, flying as fast as her weave can carry us. The ground shivers all around, an emerald light borne of nothing but the land itself glowing bright as the soil swiftly knits itself back together like a healing wound.
Beneath us, a greatboomresounds.
