Page 84

84

It Can’t End Like This

NYX

“ F irefly?”

His quiet, rasped voice gutted me.

“Yes,” I panted, my heart hammering. “It’s me. Solaris, you need to stay with me. Stay with me .”

Glorious circled above us.

Solaris blinked at me before he took in the reality at hand. His wings beat mechanically. We were flying on the spot, his arm tight around my body. He scanned the sky and the storm and the dragon overhead.

“The shadows,” I explained quickly. “They took over you. Solaris, you opened a rift. We were closing it but I don’t know if we sealed it all the way.”

He was like a child jarred from a deep sleep. His bewilderment was tangible in the air. I mean, if I had suddenly woken up in the middle of the sky I would be confused too. But we didn’t have time for this.

“You need to take me back up. Solaris , are you listening? We need to go back up. Above the storm. We need to make sure it’s closed. You have to take me.”

“What else have I done? Jedidiah…?” He whispered his brother’s name, his features struck with fear. He glanced over at the black sword in his hand. He unwound his fingers from the hilt and let it drop.

I watched it fall, swallowed by the endless dark below.

“Jed is fine. He’s safe—you didn’t touch him. Solaris, take us back up.”

He wasn’t listening. With his head tilted back, he watched my dragon circle over us. His chest heaved against me. When his metallic gaze met mine once more, it had softened. “You… Drakiana . So beautiful.”

My eyes burned. I cupped his icy cheek with my palm. “Adore me later. We need to close the rift . Now! ”

His eyes flared. My urgency struck him. His wings cracked like a whip, both his arms securing under me, and then we were vaulting back through the storm clouds with Glorious following promptly. He had no problem ascending now that he wasn’t bearing my weight.

The rift was mostly closed but one small snare remained. Shadowy hands from inside were attempting to rip it back open.

Solaris stared at what he had done, and a darkness passed over his face that made my stomach fall.

“Bring me closer!” I shouted, praying I was imagining that baneful look in his eyes. “I need to close it!”

He glanced back at me and shook his head.

What?

Glorious roared—a warning.

A current of darkness shot out from the rift and crashed into Solaris, knocking us back. I yelped in shock and watched as the shadows plunged into his mouth and eyes to then turned around to look back at me through them. His rightful gleaming silver was gone again.

The void was glaring at me through Solaris and every inch of me turned to ice.

“No!” I cried. “Solaris!”

STUPID GIRL! the shadows screamed, then dropped me.

My insides lurched into my throat. Free fall again .

A golden bullet shot after me. I reached for him, my clawed hands searching desperately. I caught Glorious’s neck and we both grunted as he struggled to support my weight with his wounded wing. It took every ounce of strength in my body to hook my leg over his shoulder and pull myself up. My muscles screamed in protest. But I did it. I secured my mount, breathing hard, despair clogging my throat like a jagged stone.

My body weighed him down. We couldn’t climb back up to seal the rift.

It was fucking hopeless.

Tears scorched down my cheeks as we passed through the dark, rumbling clouds once more.

I had to give up.

If I pushed Glorious any further, I could lose him. I could feel his exhaustion dampening my very soul. He needed to land.

I failed.

And I’d lost track of Solaris. Maybe because my vision was too blurred to see. But he’d dropped the sword. He couldn’t re-open the rift. When Glorious regained his strength we could go back up and finish it. We—

Shadows blundered into us.

Glorious screeched and wobbled, tipping sideways so I nearly slipped off.

Solaris’s winged frame emerged from the clouds and descended upon us. He had no sword. His weapon was his element. His shadows. He unleashed them in droves that struck my dragon and—blinded him.

No.

I cried out, holding on, but I knew it wasn’t long before I lost my seat. Glorious was panicking, spiraling and plummeting.

He spewed blue flames aimlessly into the air and then flew us through them. They scorched away the shadows, bestowing his sight upon him once more, but the force inside Solaris had no mercy.

The thing observing me through him was pure death.

And it was coming for my dragon.

It spewed more shadows that snared Glorious and had us spinning out of control. It was going to blind him over and over until we crashed into the earth and then finish us off on the ground.

Moonfire had banished the darkness once but I wasn’t going to get another shot. Even if I did, it had only been a temporary fix.

“Hold on,” I begged my dragon. “I’m going to finish this.” My face was burning as the ferocious wind froze the tears staining my cheeks. “Just hold on a little longer.”

I leaned to the side, coaxing him to bank around.

Back to Solaris.

A bolt of lightning stuck between us and him. An omen.

I clenched my jaw and braced myself.

Solaris’s long feathered wings sliced the air as he flew in place. His blacked-out eyes feasted on me and his lips tore into a sneer. Splaying his arms, summoning shadows over them, he waited for me with a dare in his viscous gaze.

Always so arrogant.

Glorious’s mournful bellow shattered my heart but I had to do this. I urged him on.

A torrent of dragon fire clashed with a river of shadows. The elements hissed and sizzled as they collided and started eating each other.

The perfect distraction.

I vaulted off the dragon’s back. Hurled through the air on the wind of my own battle cry. He caught sight of me just in time for us to lock eyes as I slammed into him and plunged the demon blade into his heart.

His mouth fell open.

The sky itself seemed to gasp.

The darkness in his eyes dissolved until I was peering into clear, moonlit silver.

And we were falling. His arms wove around me and he angled his body under mine instinctively. Protectively . I gritted my teeth and wept as I shoved the blade deeper into his chest with both hands. His blood coated my skin. He murmured something, something I didn’t catch, blood flying from his lips. He wasn’t furious or frightened or trying to fight back. With the blade in his heart, he was relieved —and that was so. Much. Worse. What have I done? Suddenly I yearned for his ire; I needed it and I needed him to hate me and fight me and be alive because after everything it couldn’t end like this.

IT CAN’T END LIKE THIS.

He was immortal—we both were—no, we were eternal. He promised! He promised death was nothing to us but the light in his eyes was draining and it was different from the last time he’d died. It was so horribly different and I’d known it would be because I knew this blade was no ordinary weapon. And still, I’d lodged the blasphemous thing into his heart—and now I was screaming for him to stay awake. Stay awake stay awake stay awake. I needed to stop you. I don’t want you dead. Stay awake . The wind devoured my pleas or maybe I hadn’t even shouted them aloud but inside our heads instead, either way, he didn’t hear me as his skin turned to stone and his eyes clouded over with white. It was over.

The dark city zoomed closer and closer until we were falling past buildings. The streets waited like savage jaws to devour us.

With the blade stabbed to the hilt in Solaris’s chest, I released my hold on it, my tears burning away in the wailing wind. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his blood-soaked cloak as we crashed into the earth like a fallen star.