Page 31 of Daughter of the Ninth Line: Part One

He snarled at me, his face full of hatred and malice. “Fuck you.”

Magic surged from him in a hot wave.

A deafening bang.

A blinding flash.

Searing pain.

Nothing.

Nineteen

Avalon

No.

Lightning struck at the ring where Hayle had stood. Three bolts in rapid succession.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

My ears rang, and my eyes burned, making seeing anything but black spots almost impossible, but still, I jumped down from the fence and ran. Bodies were strewn around, people covering their ears as blood leaked from their lobes like teardrop rubies.

Hayle.

No.

The hounds were yowling, and someone was screaming. I ran, hurtling people and bodies. I was there. So close. “Hayle!”

Eugene lay on the ground, uninjured. Beside him was scorched earth from the thunderous crack of lightning that had reverberated around the training ring.

The earth was still smoking. No, not the earth. Something.

Someone.

No.

“Hayle!” I screamed. I could hear it now, my voice echoing around my head. My pain spread down my limbs. I climbed under the rope, but others were arriving.

It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him. I refused to believe it.

The charred lump was a person, I had to acknowledge that. It had arms and legs and a head, but everything else was black. But it couldn’t be Hayle. The smell of burned flesh made me want to vomit but still, I went closer. A flash of white on the charred wrist was like a razor blade to my heart. Burned at the edges, but achingly familiar.

“Hayle…” Pain ruptured in my chest. Pain like nothing I’d ever felt, or maybe I had. It felt like an old friend, but also like my mortal enemy.

Loneliness and pain. My heart splintering into a billion pieces.

Someone scooped me up and walked me away, but I was screaming, searching the crowd. Looking for Hayle, because that couldn’t be him. Maybe he’d be okay. I should have checked if he was still alive.

I looked up into the pale face of Vox Vylan. “Take me back!” I screamed in his face, spittle flying from my lips. “This is your fault.Your fault.” I slammed my hands against his chest, but he didn’t put me down. “Your fault.”

“I know.” I felt the words more than heard them.

My scream got louder and louder until the world was spinning. I screamed until the man in front of me, his mouth wide with shock, flashed in and out of my vision. I screamed until shooting stars of burning light spun around me, like a cyclone of fire. The world was on fire. My chest was on fire. My heart was a charred, burning lump in the middle of the training ring.

No, there was no world without Hayle. No world in which I lost him so soon.

I screamed at the Goddess. I screamed at Vox Vylan. I screamed at fate and fear, and as I fell to my knees, I screamed even as the world disappeared.

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