Page 265 of Burn Her They Said
“Where is Tasch?” My voice shatters as I try to say her name.
“She’s safe.” Malin locks his hazel eyes on mine as the wrinkles stretching from the dark lines painted around each of them soften.
My shoulders drop in response. “What about Lars?”
He shakes his head. “He was with me at the edge of the stage when Drusilla came to explain how she and Imelda had kept the Emperor and his Guards away. Then I lost sight of him right after Fray flew off with Tasch.”
I clench my jaw to distract from the pain throbbing up my leg. “You’re sure she’s alive? You promise she’s okay?”
Malin nods, placing his hand over my heart and pressing in. “I promise. Fray will keep her safe.”
Mei waella is safe.
My shoulders shake as hysterical laughter rocks me.
Mei meida is finally fucking free of this place.
“Though she was distraught about your well-being, and the rest of her Guards.”
She didn’t see me. She doesn’t know I’m alive.
The thought of her suffering—of her worrying about me—I can’t. My heart can’t take it.
“We need to leave.” The boom of my voice rattles me, and my muscles shake with a power I did not conjure as it builds within my limbs, humming in a sickeningly familiar?—
“Stand back!” I toss my arms out to the side, making sure no one comes any closer as the blast energy courses through my body, then propels itself with terrifying velocity, stealing my breath as it knocks me backward.
A terrible crack splits the air as the boulder that had entrapped my leg rises in the air and hurtles to the right—where my eyes widen at Lars, who steps in its path.
His bright blue eyes lock on Malin, and his expression relaxes when we all scream, “No!” The edges of my vision disappear, and I can’t seem to move when the stone slams into his chest. His legs rise off the ground as the force of my magic throttles him backward.
I stare over at Lars, where he lies on the ground with the boulder hovering above his chest, feeling just as trapped as I was with the same rock crushing my leg, unable to take back my action that caused this.
Malin rushes to Lars so quickly he rivals his speed, while everything else seems to have stilled around us. The stone hovering above Lars still poses a threat. One Malin wouldn’t allow if his magic were strong enough, meaning he must have been using it to help save others before this.
“I’m so sorry, mei swul—” Malin says. “I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
His guilt squeezes my heart, because this isn’t his fault.
I did this to the one who is his soul, like Tasch is my own.
Then the world around me fades, and the past I’ve relived too often projects itself over everything?—
The nauseating smell of sulphur fills my lungs. Twisting my stomach as I scan the ground, furrowing my brow, seeking any explanation as to why everyone appears to be lying down.
Why are they on the ground? And why aren’t they moving?
They stare up at the night sky with a lifeless quality. Missing that typical light behind their eyes. Looking different from sleep. More like death than anything.
My stomach plummets.
“Dragons, please don’t let this be happening. Please let this be a bad nightmare.”
Yet as I scan my comrades, my lips form the word ‘no’.
I stand and stare at them. Immobile.
Buried beneath the rubble of a world I used to know.
