Page 46 of A Scar in the Bone
I briefly cracked my eyes open at the sudden lack of noise, the abrupt absence of wind roaring around me. We were no longer flying. Vetr had landed.
We’d made it to the Crags.
I lifted my gaze, glaring up at him as he carried me, every hard step jarring me, stabbing needles into my screaming nerves … raw, exposed, stripped bloody and bare to the assault of air.
I was so cold.So. Bitterly. Cold.
I didn’t think it possible for my body with its own internal fire to ever feel this way. To tremble and shrink. For every joint to clench and ache, as hollow as an ice cave.
“C-cold,” I spit the word out like a shard of ice.
“I know, Little Flame. We’re almost there.”
Scowling, I nestled closer to his warm, pulsing body that was moving, carrying me swiftly past stone walls. I clamped my jaw to stop it from clacking, biting down so tightly, my teeth ached to their very sockets. It was a bumpy ride. I far preferred flying with all its cold, roaring wind. I closed my eyes with a whimper, reaching, stretching my hands back toward oblivion.
In sleep, I felt no pain. No loss. No regret. Nothing. There was a great deal to be said for nothingness. If I went deeply enough, descended and sank into the beckoning void, perhaps I wouldn’t feel quite so lost and alone. Not quite so … hurt.
Just before I faded away, I heard Vetr’s voice give the slightest quiver as he added, “You will see. All will be well.”
Even in my state of semiconsciousness, I heard the lie.
TIME DID NOTexist. It hung, suspended like a flat wind. Going nowhere. As was I, coiled in the darkness like a serpent dozing, insensible, gathering its strength (or not), waiting for lifeordeath to decide my fate.
Waiting forever.
Waiting for never.
The smallest, thinnest thread of life made its way to me. Found me in my shroud. The familiar voice whispered from far away, a distant tickle in my ear, slipping beneath my tight, chilled skin.
Tamsyn.
The deep voice found me teetering at the edge of the void, where nothing lived.
Come to me. I’m here. I need you, Tamsyn.
I turned from the edge, seeking, peering, reaching for him …
He came for me through the darkness like a snarling, ravenous wolf. Sharp teeth sank hungrily, greedily into me and didn’t let go.
I let out a cry as I descended deeper into the void with him.
I WAS FARpast fear. Fear of pain. Fear of death. Far past everything, but I felt it. I tasted it—a fear that was not mine. Sour and suffocating. Sharp on my skin as a well-honed blade. Grinding as rock on bone.
It moved over me like a sickness, hopping and jumping against all my pulse points where my blood chugged, cold as ice, bumping weakly, sleepily beneath my flesh.
It called out, beckoning me to reach for him, to embrace him, the one with the whispering pleas … to save him, this unknown other … when I couldn’t even save myself.
I dove through the bone-grinding pain, through this fetid fear … for him.
For him, I reached and tried to hold on.
I JOLTED AWAKEwith a gasp, noticing immediately that I was no longer so cold. Wind did not roar around me. There was no dragon heart beating in my ear. I was cozy and warm, and I did not reek of blood.
Oh, and I wasn’t dead.
Then I remembered: Vetr flying us through howling wind and sky. Vetr carrying me through a tunnel. My deep sleep with its strangely vivid dreams.
I was back. In the Crags. In the pride.
