Page 35 of Shadows so Cruel

The world around me dulled, all sounds muted, as if a heavy curtain settled around my senses, giving focus to that dread rising in my stomach. No, Ravenna couldn’t have shifted, not without help. And if she’d shifted with help?

My heart beat faster, mercilessly pounding alongside that ache in my chest as if… as if… No, it was nothing. Just a few broken ribs from my earlier fall. Maybe a damaged lung. I had to find her. I had to get them both out of here.

With my sister draped over my arms, I stumbled north, toward the sea-sawing line of conifers. Behind those, lay our hut. It wasn’t far.

But it seemed endless.

Zaima’s weight pulled me from one side to the other. I sidestepped left, I swayed right. My foot caught on something. I stumbled forward to the sound of metal clanking and the twitching flutter of wings.

I looked down at the net of chains that pinned a dying raven to the ground. It blinked at me, once, twice. Then it blinked no more, its beady eyes as black as its plumes—aside from that roaring red and orange center.

My gaze trailed to the all-consuming fire across from it, my vision blurring and warping through the haze. Heat billowed out of a hut in scorching waves, the flames twice as tall as me, gorging on the roof—ourhut.

No…

A raw, animalistic shout ripped from my throat, the sound swallowed by the cacophony of crackling flames, the heat searing my face and stealing the air from my lungs. The chains. The nets. What if they’d trapped Ravenna in there? I had to… had to…

“I have to put you d-down,” I stammered with the same violence my arms trembled and shook as I sat Zaima down as gently as I could, propping her against a tree. “I have to f-find Ravenna. Stay there. Real quick. Ju-ju-just… stay there.”

The moment I straightened, her body slumped, shifted, then fell sideways into the snow, her eyes vacant, staring at nothing. She’d get cold. She had to be cold, but…

“I have to save her.” I spun toward the hut, each stuttering step sending waves of tingling weakness through my legs. “Ravenna? Ravenna!”

Another bout of weakness.

I hit the ground, and my chin knocked against something hard. A metallic tang spread across my mouth. Scrambling, I clawed my way back up. My lungs seared with the smoke, each ragged breath a brand against my insides.Save her.If she was in there, I had to save her!

My world narrowed to the blistering inferno. Holding my arm up in front of me to shield myself from the fire, I lunged forward, elbowing my way through the curtain of leather. Inside, a crossbeam moaned, the structure groaning and hissing in protest. The snow clinging to my armor hissed with the flames.

Smoke choked my throat as I weaved around flames and collapsed crossbeams, my skin screaming against the relentless heat. The world spun, my vision blurring and wavering through the suffocating haze. Chains clanked.

Beneath. My. Foot.

Then I smelled it, the biting stench of charred flesh and singed hair—maybe feathers—a savage retch clawing its way up my throat.No. No, no, no, no—

Biting pain tore through my wrist, shooting up my arm like a bolt of lightning. Lowering it, I stumbled backward, my gaze going to the plumes of smoke puffing from my bracers.

Fire.

I was on fire!

“No!”

My fingers scrabbled with the leather fastenings. I staggered back, away from the fiery hell in front of me. It followed, biting into my skin and eating its way up my arm. The scent of sizzling flesh joined the charred stench of my surroundings.

My own flesh.

My stomach twisted, bile rising. My fingers, slick with sweat, pulled on the leather straps, yanking on the bracers.Get it off me, get it off me, get it off me!

A strangled scream clawed its way out of my throat. I stepped backward and a chill licked at my back. The world tilted, and my balance right along with it. I hit the ground, everything going black to the sound of a hiss.

* * *

“Sebian.”

My eyes opened to the cloudy sky, the blackened branches above me swaying with the wind. Grayish snowflakes drifted down on me, settling on my face, bringing with them the scent of charred wood, smoke, and… something else. Why was it so silent?

Pain.

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