Page 39 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

Silence stretched between us like a breath before the end.

I know,she said finally.

And the river took me under.

The betrayal struck like a blade between my ribs.

She left me.

Kaelith, my dragon, my other half,left me.

The realization hit harder than the current. My limbs faltered, muscles screaming with exhaustion as the river spun me like a twig caught in a cyclone. Water battered me from every side, a relentless fist slamming me into stone and dragging me into darkness.

I twisted and tumbled, lungs burning, my pendant dragging against my chest like dead weight. I tried to kick, once, twice, but the river didn’t care. It owned me now.

Above me, the white water foamed like the mouth of a beast. Light fractured against the surface, but I couldn’t reach it.

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t fight anymore.

Black dots danced across my vision, bursting like stars behind my eyes. My chest heaved in reflex, the desperate instinct to suck in air?—

But there was only water.

Only surrender.

And then?—

Talons.

Massive and sudden, they pierced the river’s fury, slicing through the current and seizing me. Strong, unrelenting claws closed around my body, and with a violent surge, I was yanked from the depths like a corpse risen from the sea.

Water streamed from my mouth as I coughed, eyes barely open against the wind and sun, gasping for breath that came too late and too painful.

But when I looked up?—

It wasn’t purple scales glinting in the sunlight.

It was silver.

Not Kaelith.

Hein.

And in that moment, the pain in my chest had nothing to do with the water?—

And everything to do with what had broken.

Hein’s talons loosened as we touched down on the opposite riverbank, his massive silver wings folding in with a whisper of wind. I tumbled from his grip, landing hard on my knees in the mud, soaked to the bone, lungs still burning.

Zander dismounted a moment later, boots crunching the riverbank gravel. His expression was unreadable.

I surged to my feet, fury rising hotter than the Dark Flame I barely understood.

“You had no right to save me!”

He stopped, brows drawing together. “You’d rather I let you die?”