Page 124 of Shadows so Cruel

He understood.

Eyes widening, he whirled around, dropping his sword and raising one hand. With the other, he shoved me behind him, positioning his body as a shield between me and impending death.

The dagger turned, and turned, and turned, silently slicing through the air as it grew large, larger. Shadows sparked into existence around Malyr’s outstretched fingers. Slow, too slow.

The bond within me spasmed, shrieking out a visceral alarm that resounded through the very marrow of my bones. “No!”

Sebian hurled himself against Malyr’s side with a savage grunt. Shoulder collided with shoulder, sending Malyr stumbling sideways.

In a fleeting heartbeat, Sebian’s spine straightened right before me. His shoulders broadened. He drew his arm back, releasing a single arrow before a jerk went through him, splintering him into his unkindness to the clank of metal hitting stone.

Every inch of me trembled as I looked down at the bloodied dagger. Over to Domren, who lay sprawled on the ground, an arrow protruding from his face. Back to the blade.

“No!” Malyr whirled around, letting himself fall to his knees where Sebian came into view at the center of shadows and plumes. “Why did you do this? Why did you do this?!”

Ignoring the numbness in my limbs, I stumbled over to where Sebian lay amid a storm of scattered feathers, blood swelling from the slit in his cuirass. My knees hit the ground with a dullthud, the world narrowing to those beautiful green eyes—like pines, and grass, and everything alive.

“Did I do it?” Sebian’s mouth opened and closed as if gasping for air. “Did I… did I save her?”

Malyr’s glistening eyes found mine before they snapped to the soldiers streaming in. Slinging one arm around Sebian’s neck, lifting his head up some, he slammed his other hand onto the ground. A circle of shadows rippled away from us, only to rise and crest into a black wall.

Everything dimmed.

Everything turned silent.

I reached out, trembling fingers brushing away a stray feather stuck to Sebian’s brow. “You did.”

“Galantia?” He looked around disoriented, his eyes grazing mine several times before they narrowed on me. “Can’t… can’t see you.”

“I’m right here,” I said and leaned over, my eyes burning and, at my next blink, unleashing streams of tears that dripped onto his brown, scuffed cuirass.

Sebian’s smirk tugged impossibly higher as he finally looked at me, only to waver when blood swelled from his mouth, ripping a gargling cough from his throat. “Take… take it. And my bow. You teach her, Malyr, right? Teach her?”

Malyr nodded. “Of course.”

“What?”

“He wants you to steal his gift,” Malyr said, cradling Sebian’s head in his arm, gently rocking from side to side as he brushed the sweaty strands from his forehead.

“But… no.” Shaking my head, I took Sebian’s fingers into mine, so cold. “You’ll need it. Malyr and I, we’ll… we’ll get you out of here. To a healer. Right, Malyr?” I looked up at Malyr. “You have healers at the camp, don’t you? They can take care of him?”

Malyr’s gaze dropped to the wound in Sebian’s chest, then to the way he gaped for air like a fish out of water, then back up to me. He shook his head.

“I can’t lose you.” A sob broke from my lips, and in that moment, the world broke with it. “I love you.”

“And I… I love you. Don’t cry, sweetheart. It’s fated,” Sebian said, his fingertips twitching against my palms as if he meant to hold me tight just one last time. “Take it. Keep something of me. You have to… have to hurry.”

My nose turned stuffy as Sebian’s outline blurred behind tears that came faster than I could blink them away. Then I rested my hand on his cuirass, right beside the slit, sensing his shadows rise into my palm. They swirled into my core easily, making themselves a home there.

My nose wrinkled at the smell of blood. My tongue curled at the taste of fear. But mostly, my ears pricked at the rush of blood that flooded Sebian’s lungs. That, and the beat of a heart that slowed, slowed some more.

Stopped.

ChapterForty-Eight

Galantia

Present Day, a tent

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