Page 99 of Damned and Broken Gods
I climbed, bracing my boots on the shell and hauling myself up until I was at the hull, then over it. I hit the deck with awhump, rope burning a path across my palm, and forced myself to stand.
I had to see what was happening.
“Leela!” Vick came running over, tackling me in a hug, weeping and saying Priti’s name over and over. I clung to the rope, clung to him, as the ship swayed, as Rajnanga attacked the crimson serpent while Keyton held it in the grip of a vortex of air. Araz stood atop it, aflame, the air feeding his fire.
Rajnanga ripped out the serpent’s throat.
The beast toppled, and as Araz leapt off it, something burst out of the water behind him, fins spread, a sword-like nose aimed at Araz. It pierced his abdomen, snapping him out of the air and taking him into the sea with it.
“Araz!” I shook off Vick and threw myself at the hull, ready to leap into the sea once more, but a gust of air knocked me on my ass, and a voice whispered on the wind.
“Stay back, I have him.”
Keyton?
I scrambled up, scanning the waves for Keyton or Araz, my heart in my mouth, my pulse humming as heat pressed against the back of my eyes.
Long seconds passed before a scream bubbled past the constriction in my throat, ready to kiss the air.
“There!” Vick grabbed my arm and pointed.
I followed his gaze to two figures floating in the air above the sea, held aloft by a mini vortex—Keyton with Araz in his arms.
I hugged the barrier, leaning over it as if I could reach them, as if I could get to Araz.
Keyton floated closer, and my wet hair whipped against my face. I raked it back, eyes watering. But I refused to close them, needing to see how badly Araz was injured.
Oh gods, so much blood. Too much blood.
The vortex slowed, shrinking to allow Keyton to step onto the boat.
He lowered Araz onto the deck and stepped back.
Araz was still. Silent.
Pale…
I dropped to my knees, the motion jerky. I reached out to touch his cheek, gasping at the chill. Araz was never cold. He was flame. He was inferno.
“Leela…I think he’s?—”
“Shut up!” I didn’t want to hear it. I wouldn’t, because…He was still here. I could feel him humming beneath my ribs. The vibration was weak, but it was there.Hewas still there. But he needed something…something to warm him, to bring him back to me.
Heat flickered in my chest. My flame…the one I’d earned from the fire trial. It was waking. Stretching. Offering.
Yes.
I pressed my palm to his chest, working on instinct as the flame inside me expanded.
“Please, please, please…Don’t die. Please don’t die.” Heat bloomed inside me, filling my torso then spilling down my arm to settle in my hand like a hot coal. I pressed it to the spot below his ribs, and my hand began to glow.
“What are you doing?” Vick asked. “How are you?—”
“Shut up!” Keyton growled. “Just shut up.”
I kept my attention on Araz and my focus on the heat and glow until tendrils of flame slipped from my fingers and seeped into his skin.
“Come on. Come on. Please…”
