Page 148 of A Forgery of Fate

“Go now, my love,” Elang said before kissing me on the cheek. “And—may you have the luck of the dragons.”

I fell for the sea, the wind hollering in my ears. As loud as I could, I let out a cry: “NAZAYUN!”

Just as I’d predicted, just as I’dhoped,Nazayun turned.

Through the blur of the sea’s icy spray, I saw him rise before me, taunting me with how close I’d come. His very presence was enough to singe my hair, scald my bare skin, and strangle my breath. But I was undaunted.

Gripping my paintbrush, I summoned the Scroll of Oblivion from around my wrist. With a hiss, the great dragon I’d painted unraveled across the sky and beat against the wind.

It was like putting the Dragon King to a mirror. What I had painted was equal to him in every measure, and as I fell onto the Scroll, landing between a pleat of blue-painted scales, it was as though King Nazayun himself had caughtme.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” I shouted. “It looks just like you.”

I raised my brush, as if to make one last stroke.

A killing blast brewed in the real Nazayun’s eye. I felt its heat before it came hurtling at my heart, lashing out in a whip of fiery steel. I had the Scroll, I could have raised it to save myself. But that wasn’t my plan.

Through Elang’s curse, Nazayun had sworn not to kill me. Breaking that oath would bring divine consequence upon him, but nothing had been said aboutprotectingme. It was a gamble, putting myself directly in the line of certain death.

Thunderbolts of Saino,I prayed,grant me courage.This was my only chance to get close enough to Nazayun to effect the Touch of Entrapment. I had to take it.

The light was dazzling. It turned my world white, so bright I had to shield my eyes. I waited for the blast to strike, for all of me to explode into a firework of flashing embers.

That end never came.

The blast entered my brush with a shudder. Its hairs came aglow, charged by the lightning of Nazayun’s wrath.

The Dragon King let out a roar of disbelief. His eye flickered red one last time, and in a cloud of smoke, the fire blazing from his scales went out. With one divine sweep, the sea turned dark once more.

“An immortal is bound to their promises,” I strained through my teeth, “and you have broken yours not to kill me. Truyan Saigas, the Heavenly Match.”

I leapt onto his head, wrapping my long sleeves around one of his horns. My whole body was shaking, I couldn’t tell whether from the cold of the sea or from the gravity of the fate I was about to deliver. It didn’t matter. Pushing back my sleeve, I leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Rest well, Your Majesty, in Oblivion.”

Then, with one bare and unflinching hand, I pressed my fingers upon his brow.

From the Scroll came a great wind, surrounding the Dragon King. It howled, or perhaps that was the sound of Nazayun himself, I couldn’t tell. The world was swaying, every second thundering forward, the past and future colliding as a violent tremor came over me.

I slid down his horn onto his brow, clutching his mane. He was writhing, his claws thrashing against the sky and sea. Little good it did him. Stroke by stroke, my portrait of him was fading from the Scroll, and he, too, began to vanish. A whirlpool formed at Nazayun’s belly, swirling with ink as it wrenched him from this world—into Oblivion.

If I didn’t get out of here, it would consume me too.

“Jump, Tru!” Elang cried over the clash of sea and wind. “Jump, I’ll catch you.”

I lurched toward him—until I saw Shani. The demon clung to the Dragon King by her stingray fins, hanging just under his eye like a teardrop.

I couldn’t leave her. “Shani,” I shouted. “Take my hand.”

She was too weak.You fool,she whispered.Save yourself.

Not a chance.I climbed down Nazayun’s temple, using the ridges in his scales as holds. Wind hammered at me from every direction, threatening to knock me into Oblivion too.

I stretched my arm, scrabbling for the end of Shani’s tail. One good yank, and the demon flew up into my grasp, her wings nearly throwing me off balance. But I had her.

Slinging her over my shoulder, I spun toward Elang. He’d followed as closely as he could, but he still couldn’t reach us through the battering winds.

Fortune finds those who leap,I thought as I took the biggest jump of my life. Straight into his arms.

Against the hollering wind, the Dragon King let out one last cry. He was fading fast, drowning in the vast tides of Oblivion. The last thing I saw was the pale light of his eye going dark, before the Scroll snapped to a final close.

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