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“Icannot leave him to this fate. He cannot be—” His words choked off.

“Do you want us both to die?” I didn’t know how to get through to him. I tried to do the same when my village was burning down, and I understood, but I couldn’t let him go to his death any more than he had let me back then.

His body shook with grief. I hugged myself to him, not letting him suffer this alone, barely keeping control of both of us.

“Nyx, we must leave. You must warn the King. You have a duty.” I made up reasons as I tugged at him. Anything to get him moving. There were too many of them.

“He’s still alive.”

“He’s not.” There was no way.

“We have to fall back!” Luka screamed from atop Augustus. “Another wave is coming.”

I didn’t know how, but I managed to force Nyx back to where the other dragons waited on a hilltop overlooking the pit.

“We can’t stay here long. If there is that many of them, they may be prowling the entire countryside.” Jaxus was breathing hard after he shifted back to his fae form. “Your brother?” he asked Nyx.

Nyx couldn’t even face them. He just stared out over the scene below.

“He’s dead,” I said somberly, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Jaxus met my eyes, and emotion flickered in his as he searched for words. “I’m deeply sorry.”

“They will turn him.” Nyx’s voice came hollow.

I slammed into him, wrapping my arms around his body, and he sobbed into my hair.

“I can stop it.” He crumpled. “I can’t leave him to be one of them.”

“Is it worth trading your life and mine for a body? Because I will go with you. But he is dead.”

“The threads are there. Maybe he’s not dead yet...” His voice cut me in ways I didn’t know pain could, battering my heart to shreds.

I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. “Some threads stay connected in death. But he is gone.” Every single word hurt, but it was true. “So, tell me if our lives are worth recovering his body, because I will follow you to the Valley of the Dead, but only if I know this is what you really want.”

“Do you mean to tell me I have to feel him like that forever?”

“I don’t know, my love. I don’t know.”

“I can’t bear it.”

“Then, please don’t subject me to the same fate. I cannot lose both of you today. If you go, I will follow.”

“We can’t stay here,” Jaxus urged.

Nyx looked over my shoulder.

“Please.” I dug my fingertips into his skin.

“We should return to the sanctuary and warn the elders,” Jaxus pressed.

Nyx’s gaze flickered to him, and something in him changed. “I have to warn the King. I can’t let this plague reach the First Kingdom without warning.”

Jaxus wavered for a moment before determination settled over his expression. “Augustus, Xavi, return to the mountains and warn the elders. I’m going with them.”

The other two dragons gasped.

“Are you sure?” Augustus asked.