Page 204 of The Incendiary

I dragged my heavy-lidded eyes up to Ezra’s face, but they didn’t make it that far. The gash on his neck had reopened, and it was deepening and widening quickly. I gasped and fell forward, pressing my trembling hands back over Ezra’s wound and reaching for more power.

But there was nothing left.

“No!” The dam on my tears broke. “No, no, no, Ezra!”

“Ary… it’s okay,” he croaked as the gash on his neck slowly worsened. I couldn’t stop it.

“I’m sorry,” I whimpered, taking his hand in mine. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I lied.”

“Just”—he coughed and winced—“just do the right thing for everyone. Promise me?”

“I promise.” I nodded, forcing back sobs. “Yes, I promise.”

He coughed again, and blood sprayed out.

“Don’t be afraid.” I wished I could give him Effusia’s peace, but my power was drained, and words were all I had to give now.

A peaceful smile softened his face. “It’s so beautiful, Ary. The temple. The colors.”

“Good,” I croaked. “Just stay in the temple with me. No one will try to hurt us this time.”

No thieves. No Insidions. Even no Gavin Smyth throwing blades at our captors. Just us and the Selvaren.

But then sudden fear and melancholy drowned Ezra’s peace as he gurgled out, “But the gods are missing.”

“What?” I breathed, searching his fading eyes. “Ezra, what do you mean?”

I stared, helpless, as the gash opened so deeply into his neck that he could no longer speak, and he began to choke on blood. A few short seconds later, his chest shuddered and stilled.

He was right here with me, and then he wasn’t.

“Ezra?”

He gave me no answer, and each breath of my own felt like a betrayal. One more second alive that he didn’t get to have.

“Ezra,” I pleaded again.

Those blue eyes that I’d latched on to from the first day in Warrich were now vacant.

“No!” I wept, fumbling with the collar of the shirt beneath his leathers, ripping it open. As if that could help me save him. “Help! Somebody help me!”

“Ary!” A familiar man’s voice, strained from running. “Aryella!”

It wasn’t the voice I needed, but it was the one I had.

“Ary!” Shera’s voice followed Elias’s. “I couldn’t find you!” Panicked, she called down the pathway, then bumped into me. “He dragged you too fast, and I couldn’t find you!”

“Aryella, what happened?”

“I can do it,” I insisted when Elias tried to pull me away. I shrugged him off, refusing to leave Ezra. “I can bring him back.”

I told myself I would find the power, but I was already too familiar with how it felt to float adrift in helpless, grieving silence while I reached inside the wheel the gods gave me and found nothing to grasp but air.

“Ary, he’s gone.”

“No.” My fingers tightened around Ezra’s blood-drenched shirt. “No, he’s not!”

“I’m sorry, Aryella.” Elias pulled me into his arms, trying to console me.