Page 200 of Wings of Ash & Flame
“Kaia!” Alaire’s scream ripped across the ice as her friend was yanked toward the chasm.
She tried summoning her magic, begging it to answer. Nothing. The same emptiness that had plagued her for months. Why had it worked for Dawson but not now? What was different? Frustration burned in her chest, and she wanted to scream.
Unsheathing her daggers, she bolted toward the beast.
Caius was already moving as he fired arrow after arrow at the creature.
“Hold on, Kaia!” he shouted, desperation fraying his voice.
Kaia writhed in its grasp until her fingers closed around the hilt of her mace. She swung with all her strength, striking the thickest part of the tentacle. The creature let out a shriek so piercing Alaire flinched.
The tentacle only tightened. Kaia gasped, face paling as it began to crush her ribs.
The nightmare of battering appendages was relentless.
With a fierce screech, Solflara surged skyward, releasing a torrent of flames. Fire scorched the limbs that edged the ice, but the slick hide resisted her blaze.
Out of the corner of her eye, Alaire saw the portal’s glow contracting, dimming to a fragile flicker.
Hadrian, Onyx, and Beck unleashed lightning and wind in frantic bursts. Kaia’s thrashing forced them to hold back. For every tentacle they cut down, another rose to take its place, slippery and unyielding.
“The portal!” Dawson’s voice tore through the chaos. The gateway cracked, its edges flickering.
Kaia’s gaze shot first to Caius, then to Alaire. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Each arrow struck true, but the monster regenerated, ichor spilling only to reform stronger.
It was a losing battle. One Alaire refused to surrender.
Black blood splattered across her face as she cleaved through a writhing tentacle, blades crossing in a vicious “X.” She cracked her neck and raised her daggers again.
Then Dawson was there.
His arms locked around her waist like a python, unshakable and merciless, dragging her back with a force she couldn’t match.
“We need to go.Now.” His breath was ragged, grip unyielding. “The portal’s closing, Alaire, and we don’t know ifit’ll open again.”
Her eyes stayed fixed on Kaia, still struggling in the creature’s grasp.
“No!” Alaire screamed, heels digging into the ice as he pulled her backward. “I’m not leaving her!” She couldn’t abandon Kaia. Not another friend. Not another name added to the graves already haunting her—Elodie, her parents, Blake. Too many ghosts. Too much loss. She would not let Kaia be one more. Even if it killed her.
She didn’t have time for this conversation. Her hand went to the hilt of her blades to force him back. But he was faster—always fucking faster. His grip clamped around her wrists, twisting until her daggers clattered to the ground.
“Nice try, Firework,” he growled, voice edged with something dark, on the verge of breaking. She’d never heard him sound like this. “But you’ll have to do better than that.”
The portal crackled louder behind them, light flickering sporadically. Dawson dragged her back another few steps.
Her chest heaved. “Let me go!”
“Ever since we got the winterflame, something’s been wrong with this trial. We’re leaving.”
His hold tightened, unforgiving, like he was hanging on to his last lifeline.
“You’re leaving! I’m not going anywhere.”
“We’releaving!” His composure shattered, all his careful restraint cracking apart. “I would rip this entire fucking world apart before losing you. There is no me without you!”
The words struck like a hammer.
