Page 55 of Skyshade
He froze behind her. Tried again. She could hear his frustration like a growl. Then, he was lunging forward, to block another object soaring through the air, right at her face. He caught it in his fist.
He flinched like it had burned him, before dropping it. It looked like a piece of metal, but charred, aflame.
It looked like her bracelets.
“My power isn’t working,” he said over the roaring of the wind. This storm...it was so much worse than the previous one. There hadn’t been metal in that one, not that she had seen. Wraith was moving quicker than ever. In seconds, she could barely keep her eyes openagainst the force of the tempest. The dragon whipped sideways suddenly, nearly sending her off his back.
The shademade metal fell like hail. The pieces were getting larger. She ducked, barely dodging a clump the size of her fist.
“We should turn back,” Grim said, his grip on her tightening. Wraith dropped to avoid something she couldn’t see, and her stomach lurched.
“Not yet. Tell him to go higher.”
“Heart—”
“Tell him,” she said, looking down at the ring upon her longest finger. Nothing was happening, not yet. They must not be in the heart of the storm.
He cursed, then shouted orders to Wraith. At first, she feared he had ignored her wishes and told the dragon to turn back to the castle. Instead, they began to rise through the skies.
It was worse up here.
The energy was almost speaking to her, a whisper, a thinly forged dagger flaying her skin. The metal pieces were smaller but more abundant, thick as rain, nicking her every inch.
“We’re not going any higher,” Grim said.
“But—”
The sky chose that moment to rumble and shatter around them. Lightning struck, thunder answered.
“Fine,” she said through her teeth. She made sure her grip was tight. Grim didn’t have his shadows to keep her in place. If she fell, it would be to her death.
With a steadying exhale, she lifted one arm into the air, offering the ring on her finger to the tempest.
One second. Two. Three.
Something scratched against her finger. It was the metal, shifting, turning slowly around her skin, by itself. It was almost as if the shred of storm inside the ring was trying to escape. It was pulsing, like aheartbeat. She looked up to see it faintly glowing. It seemed the power inside was calling out.
With a flash that nearly blinded her, the storm answered.
Lightning. Barreling right toward her. Stopping just short of the ring, blinding her completely for seconds.
She tasted power on her tongue, like metal in her mouth, like blood. The stone felt hot against her finger, absorbing a piece of it.
Another strike, this one far too close, and Wraith was propelled away by the force of it, wings flapping wildly to regain balance. Grim gripped her hip with one of his hands to keep her steady.
She lowered her arm and stared down at the ring. Inside, green and purple wove together with the shred, in thin, braid-like strands. They formed a new, sparkling color.
This was the key to finding the portal. The key to saving Nightshade.
According to the augur, the key to giving herself more time to live.
A searing pain erupted in the back of her head, from something that had cut across it. The metal. It was getting bigger now, even up here.
“Duck!” Grim yelled through the roar, and she did, but it hardly helped. The storm had thickened. She was pelted by metal in all directions, like an army of throwing stars, until Grim covered her entire body with his.
She remembered him shielding her from the arrows in the cave. Remembered him taking every single one. He did the same thing now, getting stabbed a thousand times by increasingly large pieces.
His powers still weren’t working. If they were, he would have wrapped them in shadows. He would have portaled them away.
