Page 88 of Reign of Stars and Fire

He’d dig the blood feather from my body, the way it had been taken from him.

“Let me tell you something, Awakener—” Davorin drew his lips close to my ear, voice low. “She isn’t worth all this.”

Saga was worth my every breath, my every heartbeat. She was not a love I simply felt in my heart, she was a love I tasted, one trimmed on every thought, every touch yearned to be hers.

It wasn’t so long ago that we tried to hate each other. Now, I had no doubts, Saga was out there somewhere, fighting for my life before her own.

I could practically hear her demands to hold on, to return to her.

Open your eyes, Ari.

Davorin dug his fingertips into my flesh. The way he’d poisoned me after he killed Bracken, a billow of stinging heat bled beneath my skin.

Open your eyes, Ari.

Hells, I missed her voice.

Ari!

My eyes snapped open. Davorin still hovered over me. He still tried to gain control over the feather. What would happen if he took it while I slept? Could it even be done? Or would he simply infect my heart, so even if I woke, I wouldn’t be Saga’s?

The final thought ignited a new kind of rage within me.

I reached one hand and shoved against his jaw. Davorin cursed and rammed the jagged edge of the stone deeper into my skin. Pain like white hot ashes pouring into an open wound racked my body.

Memories of days spent training in old Ruskig after my family was lost flooded my brain.

I’d been ruthless.

Empty.

I’d been one of the best killers the rogues had produced. Hate, vengeance, rage, once fueled every desire, every instinct. Now, a need to protect Saga, an obsession to hold her again, to tell her face to face that I loved her, powered each move.

With Davorin’s weight lessened over me, I bent one knee and hooked my foot around his ankle. With a quick thrust, I bucked my hips, yanked Davorin’s arm beneath me, and flung him off balance.

We rolled to the side, me half on top of him. I slammed an elbow into his chest and staggered to my feet. Above him, I kicked his ribs. He cursed me, tried to grab my boot. I stomped on his shoulder. He rolled away.

What were we to do here? Fight to the death with our hands? Could it even be done, or would we torture each other, locked in an endless sleep? Saga faded each time she was here, perhaps Davorin would too, but what damage would be done in the meantime?

Could he corrupt the feather, corrupt me? He could’ve spoken true; he could have Saga now.

I needed to break free of him.

Hells, I needed to break free ofme.

Open your eyes, Ari!

I didn’t know who kept shouting at me. It didn’t sound like Wraith, but all I knew to do was shout back. “Take me from him! Get me out of here!”

A spark of heat trickled over my tongue as I spoke. It melted down my throat to my chest. Warmth from the inside fissured through my veins until the whole of my body was engulfed.

The ground split. Eruptions of dirt and gravel shot into the air, the foundation I’d claimed shook, knocking me over. Davorin raged. I dug my fingers into the torrential soil as the world seemed to cave in on itself until, all at once, it settled.

Wake up, Ari.

The meadow shattered. Davorin shouted and tried to grapple for purchase on a root, a stone, anything, but the ground tilted, and he fell toward where I clung to the ledge. Horrid jaws of darkness opened beneath us. A torrent of power drew me closer, like a whirlwind sat at the back of the mouth, snapping its teeth.

Davorin’s body collided with mine when he slid over the edge. My grip slipped, and together we plunged into the shadows below.