Page 6

The cold burning sensation that festered within his chest refused to believe there was no way to bring him back.

Kitty, Faunus, whatever his new name was, had come back – by evidence of the gold-filled crack in his skull. There must be a way.

“They aren’t going to leave,” the Witch Owl stated, her voice quiet and distant.

Ingram only answered her with a scratchy snarl. His lungs wheezed on every painful intake, and he was unsure if their shuddering was caused by his internal pain or his external wounds.

“I need you to calm down. Please. I cannot lose you too.”

He turned and spun, searching for her so he could end her infuriating pestering. He’d rend her in two, so long as she gave him the peace of her silence. He chased her within the dome and even clawed at his own body when she tried to hide within him.

Ever since she appeared at his side, this dome had existed around him. Was she the reason he remained separated from Aleron? He would have preferred to go to the afterworld with his kindred, rather than be left as a writhing mass of agony that didn’t have enough humanity to understand just how deeply he felt loss – or how to navigate it.

He felt alone; it was not something he’d ever experienced before. So completely and utterlyalone.

“Ingram, please settle!”

Standing on his hind legs, he lifted his raven skull to the sky as he opened his maw and let loose a bellowing roar. It was silenced abruptly when a warm hand grabbed his horn to keep his head still... Then the Witch Owl removed it from his neck.

Blissful nothingness greeted him.

When Ingram came to, he was completely healed and within Merikh’s protective ward. It glittered red around the area, one third of it hidden within the Veil’s cliff wall.

The waterfall brought fresh, wet scents. The grass was bright as it danced in the soft wind, waving past the two trees and boulders situated next to the lake. Sunlight showered him with warmth, and a dragonfly buzzed around his skull before returning to skate along the water’s surface.

His wake was sudden, and it was missing something vital.

A wing that would normally be draped over the top of him. Limbs that would normally be threaded around his own. A feathery tail his own lizard one would be coiled around.

His waking was absent of the heaviness of another body threatening to crush him, or the gentle pulsating movement of lungs working beneath him as he attempted to crush them instead. It lacked a familiar and comforting scent, a heartbeat he’d learned to distinguish – a pattern that often beat in unison with his own.

Aleron...

As usual, waking from a decapitation was disorientating for the first few seconds, but he attempted to stand anyway.

Ingram whined and searched for his kindred.

His usually purple orbs turned crimson at the memories that slammed their way to the forefront of his mind. Even more so when he saw the Witch Owl kneeling on the ground right next to where he’d been laying.

He cared little for her wounds, which were still unhealed, unlike his own. Her injuries were insignificant compared to the soul-crushing agony he was experiencing at the very core of his being.

“You,”he snarled, stepping towards her in his monstrous form, all four of his limbs moving in perfect unison.

He didn’t give himself time to wallow in his loss, not as rage swept through him and threatened to break him apart from within.

Swiftly rising to her feet, she put her hands out to warn him back. A translucent, dusty black barrier formed between them, like a small shield.

It was similar to the dome that had trapped him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“You don’t understand,” she beseeched.

He didn’t care for her reasons. He lifted up on to his hind legs so he could smash his forearm sideways across her barrier.

She winced, as though it strained her to hold it, and he ended up knocking it to the side with her following it. She kept it above her as she crawled backwards with her backside slipping across the dirt.

“It is all your fault!”he roared, shoving his entire weight onto her shield. She let out a cry when her barrier slammed into her and crushed her into the dirt.“I could have gone to him! I could have saved him!”