Page 35 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
Dawn and Mareena surged forward together. Dawn did not hesitate. She raised her tattooed hands and green smoke unfurled from her palms, thick and poisonous. Mareena was already moving, golden glove secured, magic igniting at her fingertips. In unison, they hurled blasts of green power at the beast. The sandwyrm recoiled, retreating a short distance, visibly stunned and confused by such force unleashed by prey it had deemed insignificant.
Arena and Isla were already in motion, fanning out and circling the creature with weapons poised, their movements precise and deadly.
And Kai was charging straight towards its gaping maw.
Alina swore under her breath.
He was going to get himself killed.
Before she could shout a warning or rush to his aid, the ground behind them erupted. Another dune exploded outward.Alina stumbled, her foot catching in the shifting sand, and she fell hard to her knees. Pain flared, but it vanished the instant she looked up.
Another sandwyrm burst from the earth, impossibly close to her fallen dragon.
Alina opened her mouth to scream.
The sound never came.
The creature lunged, its monstrous jaws tearing into her dragon, ripping flesh as though it were nothing more than cloth. Alina’s heart shattered at the sight. Her soul fractured as her beast shrieked in agony, the sound cutting off only when its spirit finally tore free from its ruined body.
Alina did not pause to grieve.
She spun towards her belongings, seized the staff Mareena had prepared for her, the one steeped in magic, and ran. Rage drove her forward, grief burning hot in her chest. She raised the staff, aiming it straight into the nightmare mouth that had stolen her dragon.
Green magic exploded from the staff, pouring directly into the creature’s throat. The sandwyrm reeled as its mouth tore wider, blood raining down over Alina like a violent storm.
But it was not enough.
The beast let out a horrifying, grinding cry and surged towards her.
Alina lifted her staff once more.
Her breath caught the instant she realised how close the sandwyrm truly was. Too close. Before she could will the magic to answer her call again, the creature loomed over her, vast and dreadful, its circular maw yawning wide, ready to swallow her whole.
She did not scream. There was no time.
She curled inward on instinct, one hand clenching the staff,the other still gripping her desert dagger, as though steel and magic together might be enough. Sand and shadow closed in.
And for the first time in a very long while, as the sandwyrm descended and darkness consumed her, Alina prayed for salvation.
…
Dawn had been hurling magic alongside Mareena when she felt the ground rupture behind them. She spun on her heel, purple eyes widening as another sandwyrm tore free from the earth, rearing up behind the wounded dragon. And then she saw Alina, all alone, charging it.
And Dawn, rotten as she was, hoped for a single, shameful heartbeat, that the creature would tear Alina apart.
The thought lasted no more than a second. Revulsion followed immediately. She cursed herself for it, crushed it down, erased it as best she could. Yet it lingered, the echo of something twisted and ugly. It was so hard, sometimes, not to hate her. Not to hate the girl who had once been her closest friend. The girl who had broken her. Who had made her feel smaller. Lesser.
Unworthy.
Unlovable.
How was Dawn meant to forgive someone who had made her believe she deserved every terrible thing that had ever been done to her? How was she meant to care for someone who had sworn they were sisters, who had promised it was them against the world, only to shatter that bond and turn away as if Dawn had never mattered at all?
As if Dawn’s heart were incapable of breaking.
Because witches were not meant to feel.
And though Dawn sometimes wished that were true, wished she could be empty—the truth was far crueler.
