Page 13 of Claim the Light
She helps me upward and supports me for the four steps it takes to reach Micah’s side. Then she helps me lower myself down next to him where I can kneel beside him.
Now leaning against his chest, I reach for his cold face.
Tears slide down my cheeks. “Micah was trying to protect me. He kept punching through Tyler’s body and each time he made contact, more of this ash covered his body.”
Beatrix kneels beside me, but I sense her sudden tension.
She checks her hands and arms where she touched me, revealing that some of the dust has rubbed off on her. She brushes at it, an increasingly panicked movement when the dust sticks to her skin. “Fuck! It won’t come off.”
“Oh no,” I whisper.
It’s spreading. Transferring from one of us to the other through touch and then sticking to us.
Beatrix shivers so violently that her scales recede. She stares at her dusty palms before she wraps her arms around herself. “It’s plucking at my soul.”
“Taking away your happiness,” I whisper.
“Yes.” Beatrix gives a low moan. “Like falling into a dark pit with no way out.”
Just as Tyler threatened, fear is spreading.
CHAPTERFIVE
Ican only stare in horror at the dust coating Beatrix’s skin.
Dust that I transferred to her.
At that moment, Gisela and Dane approach us quickly across the rooftop, and it’s clear they’ve been listening to our conversation when they keep their distance.
They settle into a crouch on my left.
Dane cranes his neck to study Micah’s face without touching him. “It must be some kind of toxin.”
He glances up at Gisela, who nods.
She explains to me, “Every Scorn dragon is taught about poisons. My mother had many different toxins in her vault, some very rare. But I’ve never seen anything like this. It seems to be keeping him unconscious.”
“Or slowly killing him,” I whisper, unable to conceal my fears.
“I agree it’s some kind of toxin,” Felix says, rising to his feet on my right. “It must be a new power belonging to Tyler’s dragon. Just as Callan and Lana can breathe fire. Tyler can do this. Whateverthisis.”
“Like water is part of me.” I swipe at my tears before I hunch over Micah, pressing my forehead to his. I’m certain I already have ash on my face—the buzzing in my head indicates it—so this contact with his skin shouldn’t worsen my condition.
I let my tears fall. “How do we help him?”
Beatrix’s hand lands softly on my shoulder, but her whisper is urgent. “Sophia, look.”
She gestures to Micah’s face where my thumb brushes slowly back and forth across his cheek, smearing my tears over his skin.
Where the liquid has fallen, his scales are glistening again. Bright and living. His eyelids flicker and, even though he doesn’t open his eyes, I sense his breathing deepening a little.
“Water.” I gasp, looking to Beatrix and the others for confirmation. “I can’t seem to rub the ash off my palms but could it be as simple as washing it off in water?”
Of course, I’m ignoring the possibility that there could be some aspect of my tears that’s helping him, but even if I wept my heart out, I couldn’t create enough to bathe Micah.
“Can you summon the rain?” Beatrix asks with hope in her eyes.
I shake my head, my despair returning. “I’ve only ever manipulated raindrops once they were falling. I’ve never created them. We need a water source large enough to fully immerse ourselves, and we need it soon. Before this ash does any further damage.”
