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Madwoman

JEDIDIAH

T he earth shook violently as I split it open to save her. I broke into her tomb and found her there, laying on the unforgiving ground amongst a few muted everflames.

Her eyes met mine for only a split second before her earth shake collided with mine. I halted mid-step, my pulse throbbing in my chest.

Time stopped.

The horror in her fully black eyes as she watched me take in her appearance shattered my heart in two.

I didn’t know. I hadn’t realized—

“Get. OUT!” she screamed. The sound was raw and bloody, her throat dry from her weeks locked away in here. Her cracked lips tore back over her teeth. “Leave me!” she hissed.

I blinked.

Nyx Morningstar. The most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on…

She was—

“LEAVE!” she cried, slamming her fist against the stone floor. The earth shook fiercer in response to that, nearly making it impossible for me to stay standing.

Gobsmacked, my limbs feeling like cement blocks, I looked around desperately for the dragon. Surely, he would help me get her out of here.

My stomach fell when I realized he was nowhere to be seen.

“Get OUT!” she screamed once again.

Dust and rubble rained down, and by the look on Nyx’s face, I knew she wasn’t going to relent.

I forced myself out of the shock induced trance and lunged forward. She yowled a wordless protest, but I didn’t care. I scooped her up in my arms, rocks pelting my head and shoulders as the tomb threatened to collapse in on us.

“No!” Nyx bellowed. “Leave me, you idiot! You have no idea what you’re doing!”

“I’m doing what I promised you I’d always do.” I reached into my pocket while Nyx wailed like a madwoman and the mountain convulsed and seized. I coughed, my lungs burning from the dust. The second I fished out the portal globe, I tossed it, hurling us into it just as the tomb collapsed.