Page 239 of Starside

Harlan Raker is rushing toward the City on Fire without signs of slowing down, as if he was going to run through the flames for me. That bellow. It was him.

When he sees me, he stills.

Our eyes meet. His eyes. His hood is down. It’s down like it fell while he was running and he didn’t care about putting it back up.

Those gray eyes are gleaming, they are wide, they are filled with a relief that I can almost taste. And something else … something like wonder.

A shriek peels through the sky, and slowly, I look up to where Cadoc is circling on his wicked dragon, close to the ground, as if he wanted to watch me burn. He’s close enough that I see his shock.

He thought he killed me.

He is going to wish he killed me.

Gaze locked on his, I hurl my arm to the side, broken bones screaming, my shredded palm open wide.

“Stellaris,” I bellow with every smelted piece of myself, the word a fractured roar.

And I feel it. My metal, singing a song only I can hear as it arcs through the sky like a shooting star, back into my hand, with a force that rattles my blood. Rattles the world.

Cadoc’s eyes burn with wrath. My stare promises revenge as he takes off into the sky, until his dragon is nothing more than a mottled smudge in the burning horizon.

Then my bones finally give out.

Arms catch me just before I hit the ground.

I gasp.

“Shhhh,” a voice says, so gently it can’t possibly be from the source I think it is. “Just a little longer.”

But I can’t be quiet. Not when it feels like I’m swimming through a sea of blades.

I keep screaming, pain a blinding light. My body convulses, hurt lancing through me again and again.

“Make it stop,” he says, his voice as threatening as I’ve ever heard it.

It is completely at odds with the gentle voice that responds. “The pool needs time. It will be over soon.” I recognize that voice.

Este. She’s here. How?

My body is on fire, burning from the inside out, the water so cold it cuts me down to the bone. I don’t want to scream. I don’t mean to scream. But my body has abandoned my mind, it moves of its own volition, and I hear my bellow and begging as if I’m listening to someone else.

I hear the slicing of a sword leaving its scabbard. “Make it stop.”

I don’t know what happens next. The pain is so great, it pulls me under.

When I awake, the pain is gone. All that’s left is a distant numbness, the ghost of its memory.

My eyes open to find Raker sitting across a glimmering pool, staring. He looks lost in thought, brow furrowed.

He’s by my side in an instant. His eyes are furious.

The necklace. Somehow, Raker used it to summon Este for help. The water in front of us is swirling with silver flecks, like the starlight was broken into it.

“You wasted the necklace on me,” I say, my voice a croak.

If I thought that might tamper his fury, I’m wrong. The anger only grows. He makes an aggravated sound. “Your injuries were significant,” he says tightly, as if that is a light way of putting it. His entire body is coiled tight.

I nod. I could feel them, of course. My body broken and shredded from the fall. I shouldn’t be alive.