Page 75 of Suncatcher

Driz should not have helped. She should certainly not have waited. But she had thought, after the flooding incident, the humans would understand she wasn’t a threat.

They hadn’t. Especially not the sheriff.

Driz was full of wrong thoughts tonight. Because as Oak had stood beside Pearl, some odd pull drew Driz toward her, like if Driz ran to her, the sheriff might keep her safe from everything in the world.

So wrong.

Since Driz had met Pearl, she had helped the humans three times. Each time, they had shot her.

The world was starting to spin.

She smelled the cinderwolf far too late. Standing as tall as Driz’s chest, its soot-black coat smoldered as it watched her with orange eyes. They flickered like the flames in a suffocating mine. More fire.

It had sensed her blood, and her weakness. And for the first time in a long time, Driz wondered if she might truly die. Dawn was a long way off.

Would this be her last night? Driz wasn’t certain she would be so sad if it were. It had started off so beautifully, after all, with Pearl in her arms.

The cinderwolf recoiled as a bullet passed all the way through its shoulder, an explosion of fur evaporating at the impact. It howled again, glowing eyes turning on Pearl, who scrambled over the edge of the slope. She fired again, taking a second chunk from the beast.

Even reeking of blight, Pearl’s bullets were only made of common metal and did not do as much damage as they might have had they been made of silver.

The wolf crouched, preparing to leap, its focus redirected toward the threat rather than the quarry.

It would never reach Pearl. Driz refused to allow it.

She launched herself forward as the wolf leapt, crashing into it in midair.

Molten teeth tore at her shoulder as they tumbled over the earth, burrs and gravel grinding into the raw flesh of Driz’s burns. She roared in pain and fury as something snapped. A primal urge inside her took over.

Smoky fur shredded beneath her claws and stuck to her fangs. Bones crunched and tendons split as she ripped limbs apart, uncaring of her own. The sounds blended with screams she wasn’t certain were inside or out of her head.

Pearl was repeating her name.

Driz blinked down at the mangled remains of the cinderwolf. Hot, smoking blood—a mix of her own and the creature’s—coated her arms and chest. More dripped from her mouth. The burns on her body blazed.

“Driz?” Pearl still stood near the edge of the cliff.

Shame and pain clouded Driz’s vision. She couldn’t stand that Pearl was seeing her, looking at her with those eyes that had watched her so dispassionately as she denied Driz’s existence in her life.

Driz tried to run and lurched off the other side of the cliff instead.

She tumbled, her damaged wings only partially catching near the bottom to slow her crash into the sandy basin.

She skidded and lay where she stopped for several heartbeats, the earth and world shifting around her scorching limbs.

Water trickled nearby and she dragged her body toward it, seeking the small comfort it would give. It wasn’t more than a stream, but Driz lay herself in it, letting the water cool her ravaged flesh.

Pearl stared down at Driz. Driz, who was nearly unrecognizable with blood and burns.

She lay partially submerged in the shallow water, one of her wings at an awkward angle beneath her and the other limp at her side.

Driz had always been so powerful and fierce, even when she was being sweet. Now, she looked utterly broken. And Pearl knew every one of her injuries was Pearl’s fault.

The freshest wounds, the bite and claw marks from the cinderwolf, let off gentle wafts of smoke as the gashes continued to smolder. The water around Driz darkened.

“Driz, you need to get out of the water,” Pearl said, brushing the wet remains of Driz’s hair from her face. Driz twitched at the touch, but she didn’t move or open her eyes. “Driz?”

Nothing.