Page 210 of Fangs
“Bones!” she shrieked, her wide, terrified eyes reflecting the orange flames covering her.
“Put the fire out, Sky!” I cried, cradling my burned hand. “I can’t touch you!”
“I can’t!” she sobbed.
A part of my brain registered how strange it was that the blood simply ran down her skin, unaffected by the flames. I glanced at my hand, but the blistering burn covering my skin was very real.
Sky stumbled to one knee, gasping for air.
“Sky! You have to try! Try to put it out!” I pleaded.
“It’s not… not working!” she wheezed.
I knew I should calm down; a good healer would be calm and talk her through this, but my heart was in my throat, and she was bleeding out,and I couldn’t touch her because she was fuckingon fire.
“Please, Sky! Put it out!” I hovered next to her helplessly.
“Help me!” she begged, blood dribbling from her lips.
“I can’t!”
The flames surged even higher as though fueled by the panic I could see on her face. She crumpled to the ground; I forgot and tried to catch her again, hissing in pain and jerking back as my skin burned again.
“Sky!” I screamed.
She lay on her back with her face twisted in pain, struggling to breathe. I could see her fading away. The bullet wound looked like it’d probably gone through her lung. I tried to summon my power, to heal her with a burst of light like I’d done to other people before, but nothing happened.
“Sky, please try!”
Her eyes closed, tears still sliding down her face as her breathing turned into a gurgle. I screamed in frustration as I tried and failed to summon the golden light to my hands without touching her.
“Sky, no!”
It was just seconds later that her chest stilled and didn’t move again. The flames abruptly extinguished, and I quickly grabbed her arm, bracing myself for it to be hot, but it wasn’t. I shoved my healing power at her, but like with Trey, it simply evaporated into the air instead of seeping into her skin. She was dead.
I pulled her limp body into my arms and held her, sobbing broken apologies. Her clothes had burned away. She would be cold in this horrible cell. I tried to wrap my arms around her more, to keep her warm, ignoring the small part of my brain reciting the symptoms of shock at me.
The light in the room began to fade, and I glanced up. Nausea surged as I realized the lantern was lying on its side, broken, and the remaining light was coming from Hawk’s burning body. He’d fallen against the rough rock wall, his body slumped to the side, disintegrating into char and ash. The smell suddenly hit me, and I gagged at the scent of burning hair and flesh. My throat ached from the smoke.
The fire faded to embers, throwing the room into darkness. I stared at the flickering orange glow, silently begging it to stay, even as my mind shied away from the horrible knowledge of what it was.
It flickered again, then went out.
34
Isobbed myself into a state of panic where everything felt like a dream. Sky’s body grew cold, but I couldn’t let her go. I didn’t want her to lay naked on the cold, rocky floor. I don’t know how long I sat like that, but it was long enough that her body began to stiffen as rigor mortis set in. Why couldn’t I summon my power and throw it when Ineededto? Why was I always so useless when it mattered the most?
“Ember!”
I straightened, gasping. Was that real? Was I dreaming?—
“Ember! Can you hear me?”
I stopped breathing, every part of my body straining to focus on the faint voice in my head.“Mac?”
“Oh gods, Em, where are you?”His desperate voice grew louder as I focused on it.
“In the cell. Under the tower. Hawk had a power. Mac, he killed—killed her. Sky. Sky’s dead.”I choked out, hoping I made any sort of sense.
