T
he world was blinding and bright and too damn fast.
Every movement was a deliberate attempt to temper the sheer power that burst from my every muscle. Every breath felt like I was inhaling lightning. I was everywhere and nowhere. I was free for the first time and more trapped than I had ever been.
I spun away from Tisaanah, coiling through the air over the heads of petrified partygoers. Pain still radiated through me, even though my body was a very different form. Her magic seeped into my blood.
The room grew darker and darker. Tisaanah drew herself up, death trailing her feet across the floor. The blue flames burst forth in gushing waves, but they weren’t hot, and they didn’t give off light. Still, they devoured the curtains, the walls, and the flesh of the guests.
“You abandoned me.” Her voice leeched and echoed with unnatural, unnerving bite. “I gave you everything and you threw me away.”
She paced forward. Decay and blue flames slithered closer to the guards and the guests, who were by now climbing over each other for escape.
I threw myself in front of her, separating her from them with the wall of fire that was my body. A smattering of ill-
advised soldiers — idiots! — made a dive for us, though many of their companions instead turned to flee.
I dove in front of her, coiling to surround her with a shield of my body. But I was not accustomed to controlling this form. I couldn’t evade the way I normally would. A shock of pain ran up my spine — a slash far down my body.
What the hell is wrong with you?! I wanted to snap. I’m trying to help!
A hiss graveled from my throat as I shoved the soldiers against the wall with as much force as I could muster. But I was in an impossible position here, protecting her from them and them from her, like there were two sets of teeth clamping down around my throat.
Another screech cut through me as I was hit with another strike. This one so much worse than the first. The kind of pain that took my breath away, sending this unfamiliar body spiraling and lurching.
I glimpsed my tail to see blackened blood glistening through the flickers of fire. Tisaanah stood there with Il’Sahaj in her grasp, Reshaye’s agonized fury etched deep into her painfully familiar features.
I had hoped that seeing at the world this way — through a screen of red and blaring light — would distance me enough to make this easier.
It didn’t.
I rushed her, pulling up at the last second so that she went stumbling back against the wall. Every time I came close to her, no matter how fast I was, she swung for me. Each time, she hit.
It was now completely dark save for the glow of my flames and the garish blue shadows cast over her face by hers. Deep, vicious cracks split the marble floor, the softened flesh of the stone finally giving out.
There were still dozens of people in this room, trapped by cracks in the floor or simply too terrified to make themselves run. But even beyond that, this estate was
massive. Surely there were many hundreds of people in this building. Many of whom were probably Tisaanah’s friends.
I coiled around her again.
Another slash, another cut, another wave of rotting pain.
Come back, Tisaanah. Show me that brute force. Show me you can do this. Show me that I won’t have to walk out of here without you, you stubborn shit.
I couldn’t lose her too. I couldn’t.
I pulled myself into a human shape. I stood directly in front of Tisaanah, who stared up at me with wild eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.
“You traitor,” she wailed, in an accentless voice.
She looked utterly inhuman, bathed in blue ribbons of light, covered in blood. I noticed for the first time that her face was badly beaten, and that her clothes were in tatters.
Anger made the flames around me flare.
Tisaanah. My Tisaanah, picked apart by so many monsters.
I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the wall, ignoring Reshaye’s growl of protest and the pain of the rot that sizzled my palms.
I held her there, trapping her. And then I wrapped my arms around her.
This couldn’t be it. I couldn’t let her go like this.
Decay rippled over my body and flames rippled over hers, a battle of blue and black dancing across our skin. I buried my face against her neck, even though the skin of my forehead screamed at the contact.
“Come back,” I whispered. “You still have so much to do.”
Reshaye growled, its fingers clawing at my back. My eyes began to water as ribbons of rot opened across my skin.
Her body shuddered.
“Why do they always do this to me?” her voice wept. “Why do they always use me and discard me?” It wavered
so much that it could have been her — it could have been the trace of an accent that I heard. My heart leapt and broke at once.
I heard the deafening sound of cracking marble, felt the floor begin to melt beneath my feet. Distantly, the sound of terrified people shuddered through my ears. The same as they sounded in Sarlazai.
The edges of my vision were beginning to blur. The pain was becoming unbearable. I felt her begin to sag in my arms.
She was killing me. We were killing each other.
And if this is how it had to go, then I wanted — I wanted so fucking badly — to burn up with her here. Let our bones lie together.
But.
Promise me, she had demanded.
“You are not fucking done, Tisaanah, so get back here.”
And then I turned her face and pressed my mouth against hers — because I was desperate, because it was the only thing I could think to do — and I prayed to any god that was listening that it was not a kiss goodbye.
