Page 103 of Forged By Heart and Claws
He blinked groggily, voice wet and fragile. “Your sister… Ember… do me a favor—take Briar and go?—”
“I’d rather die than leave you.” My throat burned.
Then something warm flickered in my chest. A spark of energy, near my heart like a coal that had waited too long to be set ablaze. My focus snapped to Ember.
Her breath caught, and her eyes lifted to mine, then dropped to where our hands were touching Vad.
I sucked in a breath as the sensation spread outward and curled through my ribs as if it had been there all along, buried under grief.
I looked at Vad again and gasped.
His bruised eye, the one nearly swollen shut, had started to open. The cuts across his cheek and neck were no longer leaking blood, and the wound down his jaw was knitting closed.
“Ember,” I whispered, shaking. It was too good to be true, but it had to be.Please, Fate, let it be true.“He’s healing!”
Her hand pressed harder against mine, and her fingertips touched Vad. “Something’s changing—I can feel it.”
A guard sprinted toward us with his spear raised.
No! We couldn’t let him reach us. I tried to remove my hand so I could fight him off, but it wouldn’t budge, like something was holding it there.
The red-eyed wolf homed in on the guard just as the man hit an invisible wall with a crash like shattering glass. Silver light flared. He flew backward and slammed into the far wall, then crumpled in a heap. The red-eyed wolf pounced on him.
The entire hall shook.
The marble floor groaned beneath us. Columns cracked overhead. More dust and stone fragments fell from the ceiling in a choking cloud.
The warmth in my chest expanded, and a heavy droning sound filled my ears. It vibrated through my teeth and down my spine, the hum deeper than anything I had ever experienced.
Vad blinked again, dazed, staring at Ember and me. “Your eyes, they’re glowing… both of you…”
I didn’t know what was happening, but I didn’t give a damn. All that mattered was that he was healing.
I glanced at Ember, noting her eyes were indeed glowing gold with hints of green. Warmth flooded me, building and building. The butterfly tattoos on my wrists fluttered, driving away the ache and the chill.
“Your magic is back,” I breathed. “We can save him.”
Warmth swelled until it felt like it would split me apart. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
“You’re healing him! Your magic really is back!” A knot formed in my throat, tears still spilling from my eyes as I looked up at him. “I love you, Vad. You hold on and show me just how fine you are.”
Then I wrapped my hand around the hilt of the dagger and ripped it free.
CHAPTER 23
Briar
Vad jerked against the chains, and an agonized cry escaped his lips. Blood gushed from the wound, hot and slick. Ember thrust her other hand over the source.
I set the dagger aside and focused on the hand I’d kept on his chest underneath Ember’s. The cuts were healing, the skin mending back into place. The heat inside me expanded and intensified. Then, all at once, golden light exploded outward like lightning crackling through my veins.
It poured from my chest and shot down my arms, scorching through my wrists with a burning, blinding force. The stone altar beneath us lit up.
The room shook harder. Then the heat in my wrists surged and whipped up my arms and down my spine. I arched forward, then bowed backward with a shaking scream as agony tore through me.
White-hot fire burst between my shoulders and raced down my spine like something alive had just ripped its way out. A scream tore from my throat, and my hand fell from Vad’s chest. I dropped to my knees beside the altar, panting. Breathing hurt, like the air itself was made of fire.
Golden light engulfed me, turning hotter and brighter. The shaking continued beneath me as a heavy buzzing sound started and grew so loud I thought my eardrums would burst. Something howled, seeming far away but also near at the same time.
