Page 260 of Vasmora

“Viatrix. Is he alive?” he asked, changing the subject.

“He fell from the sky.” Twisting around showed Raivox in the distance, sniffing something on the ground. “I’ll be right back.”

Crossing back toward him, I skimmed my gaze over our surroundings, slowing my steps as I came upon dozens of ravens scattered over the ground. Some struggled to move. Others were clearly dead. All of them bleeding out from broken bodies. My heart clenched at the sight.

“There are so many,” Corwin said, coming to a stop alongside me. “I didn’t know Viatrix long, but he was a wonderful protector to Achlys.”

“If only I had more time, I’d offer them mercy and bury them.”

Rykaia and Branimir.

Turn away.

Focus.

“I’ll do it.” Corwin let out a pained sigh. “I’ll stay back with Adira, and I’ll end their suffering.”

The knot in my chest loosened a little. “You would do that?”

“Of course.” He offered a somber smile. “I know how much you’ll miss my incredible feats of fighting and impressive acrobatics.” With a quick glance back toward Adira, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “But in spite of what she says, I don’t think Adira wants to be left behind alone.”

“I think that’s a good idea. She’ll need someone to watch over her until Achlys has healed.” I turned my attention to Raivox, exhaling a shaky breath. “Time is short, but I’m afraid to climb back onto him.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Falling to a painful death.”

“That possibility has always been there, and yet, you climbed onto him fearlessly when we set out.”

It wasn’t that I feared death itself, but what came after it. If I perished, I’d be sent to Caligorya, separated from everyone I loved, until the next vessel was born. I’d become someone entirely different. A different body. A different soul. And those I loved might’ve long perished by the time I took a new vessel. “When those dragons attacked, and I was clinging to him, too high in the air to escape, I felt a glimpse of how fragile the human body can be.”

Corwin snorted and turned back toward the ravens. “How strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“From my perspective, I only saw how strong the human body could be.”

Another slight smile pulled at my lips.

“You better go.”

I leaned forward to hug him. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “Go on, then. Kill some spiders.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

ZEVANDER

The Arcanaca Tower that stood before them might’ve been beautiful once, with its ancient architecture and detailed stone carvings, but set against the dark gloom of the sky overhead, the smattering of webs adding a sheen to its stones amid the surrounding decay, it’d become a casualty of the plague’s destruction.

Beside Zevander, Maevyth stood quiet, eyes lost to thoughts, and he didn’t have to take hold of her hand to know she still trembled. The small vibrations radiated off her bones, carrying through the quiet stuttering breaths that slipped past her lips in puffs of white mist.

“You don’t have to do this,” Zevander assured her.

She didn’t so much as look at him when she said, “Yes I do.”

Behind them, Torryn, Kazhimyr and Lothare tied up their horses, leaving Obsidyen untethered at Zevander’s request.