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He’d jumped off a building for me with no way to stop himself from hitting the ground. He could have died, leaving Zeke all alone.
I spun on him and hit him in the chest.
He recoiled and glared down at me. “What the fuck?”
“You could have died!”
“What are you talking about?”
I pointed at the ledge. “You dived off the ledge when you knew you didn’t have wings. You could have died!”
Ezra approached us, his shadows now under control after getting their fill.
“I jumped for you,” Cyn hissed.
“What was the plan? Die with me?”
He looked away, his jaw working as he ground his teeth.
“You didn’t have a plan,” I whispered, glancing between him and Zeke. “But why?”
He cursed. “Now isn’t the time for this.” He pushed past me and stomped across the roof.
Zeke stepped forward and pulled me into his arms, whispering, “I told you he needs you.”
“We need to get out of here before reinforcements arrive,” Ezra said, commanding our attention. “Can you fly back to the palace and inform the guards where we are and that we’re on our way? We can’t risk going forward without anyone knowing our whereabouts.”
With a final pained glance back at me, Cyn surged from the roof into the air, his powerful wings flaring with red magic as he shot off into the distance.
“Let’s go.” Ezra approached me, scooping me into his arms bridal-style when I stumbled, the magical adrenaline wearing off.
I glanced around, grogginess pressing heavily on me from all sides. “Where’s Ash?”
Their grave faces made the world fall out from under me as my body finally gave up the fight and darkness swallowed me whole.
Something was wrong with Ash.
Were we too late?
54
RECOVERY
ASH
Waiting on Rae to recover from the remnants of Bondrot and her ordeal in Alonia tried my patience. I’d gone too long without hearing her beautiful voice.
I brushed strands of hair from her face, watching her sleep.
I woke yesterday to discover my brothers had found her in the Jinphni District thanks to Zeke’s dreamwalking and Rinlora.
After Rinlora gave them the location, Ezra manipulated his escort into helping him obtain potions from Cornaith’s private vallant’s collection.
He’d explained that vallants had designed the potions to trick a Shyrlivi’s system into believing they were healthy, giving them close to a day to accomplish whatever they needed.
The magic in the potions didn’t heal them, but it gave them an adrenaline boost to push through—unless they were too far gone like I’d been. Nothing could stop death.
Cornaith had the potions crafted for the Elyrdin Guard to take on missions to Feranzis and Moicae for when worse came to worst, allowing them to get home to the palace without dying.
