Page 47 of Scaled Hearts

I grin at him. “Angurus!”

He looks up to make eye contact with me, a smile spreading across his handsome features. “Kelly, I—”

His voice cuts off suddenly, his entire body seizing forward. I gasp and jump back, startled while his body wavers. As he falls, I see the pickaxe I’d used on the naga now embedded into his back.

The tip of it pokes out through his chest, just barely visible. He hits the ground with a dull thud that completely knocks the wind out of me.

“No!” I scream, my hands reaching out to Angurus’ fallen form.

No, no, no, no. He can’t be. He can’t be slain. Not like this!

I feel the ground quake under me and suddenly, everything is engulfed in red.

21

Angurus

Ihear Kelly scream for me.

It’s a terrible sound—the despair in her voice. It makes me wonder if I’ve truly earned that kind of sorrow from her.

Will she miss me after I’m gone? Will she mourn me? How many tears will she shed over me?

As I lay dying on the ground, my mind starts to wander. I worry that Kelly won’t be able to find her way out of this complicated system of caves and caverns by herself, or without the help of my illumination magic. She could stumble down a wrong tunnel and be forever lost.

That is, if the naga don't get to her first.

Will we die here together? I wish we could at least hold hands while we both bleed out. The naga will more than likely skin us down to our bodies and consume our flesh until there is nothing left of us but skeletons.

Then they’ll use our bones as toothpicks and be off on their way once more.

Had I known there were naga here, I would’ve left Kelly back inside of the caverns and ventured down here alone. I’m sure my fate would’ve ended up one in the same as now, but at least Kelly would have a chance.

My body grows cold as more blood leaks out to puddle under me.

I wish we could’ve had more time to really understand each other. Falling for Kelly hasn’t been a graceful process, but I don’t regret any of it at all. Perhaps in another life, we can meet again.

I hear a rumbling that comes from beneath me. It rattles the rock of the chambers, causing the naga around us to grunt in confusion. I lift my head slightly to see where Kelly is, finding her a few feet away from me with a handful of naga surrounding her still.

The ground shakes and cracks apart where hot magma boils right underneath the surface. The heat is harsh against my face but doesn’t burn me, seeing as I’m immune to it. The naga scatter, trying to avoid the bursts of flames that rip through the city streets.

It traps them in the small alcove that we’ve been fighting in between buildings.

I grunt and slowly force an arm under my chest to wedge my body up from the ground.

“Kelly…” I call to her, barely able to keep myself from toppling over again.

She stands slowly, a rage that seems terrifyingly out of place plasters over her face. I watch her in awe, her hands coming out in front of her to summon the magma up from the depths of the caverns.

The tidal waves of it all come crashing through the cracks that have been formed. Large arches curl and consume the naga that try to flee from it, but they’re trapped within Kelly’s circle of Glacies.

I squeeze my eyes shut when the magma hits me, too. While it doesn’t burn me, it certainly isn’t comfortable. The axe buried through me heats us from the molten rock, making my wound ten times more painful.

I grit my teeth together and hunker down while magma coats me completely. I’m surprised that our bond has given Kelly such strong abilities. Maybe she really will make it out of this bleak and forsake situation.

It isn’t long until I feel a pair of hands pushing through the thick layers coating me to get at me. It’s hard to lift my head with how heavy it is, though I try. A pair of arms hook under my armpits and lift me up until I break through the surface with a gasp.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Kelly mutters over me, pulling me over to a spot that hasn’t been coated yet. “Angurus! Angurus, please tell me you’re still with me!”

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