Booted feet scurry toward me from both directions, and Sloane grabs hold of Ridoc as Dain hits his knees beside me, then lunges forward, reaching for Luella at the same moment Cibbe does.
I rip my gaze from Ridoc’s and focus on Luella’s hazel eyes as she slips down my limp fingers.
“Hold on!” I demand. They just need another second.
But she slips farther, and Cibbe’s beak closes on nothing as she loses her grip and falls, the cloud swallowing her whole.
“Luella!” a woman shouts from the left.
Cibbelair screams, and the shrill sound vibrates through my chest as I stare and stare and stare at the space where Luella was, as if she’ll somehow emerge from the mist.
As if there’s any chance she’s alive.
“Damn it!” Dain quickly pushes back onto his knees. “Vi—”
“I can’t move.” My voice drops to a whimper. “My shoulder’s out.” Any second, the adrenaline will wear off and the true pain of the injury will hit.
“All right.” His tone immediately softens. “I’ve got you.” His hands wrap around my rib cage, and he carefully lifts me to my feet, my right arm hanging uselessly at my side.
Cibbe’s screams become a keening wail.
“Something feels wrong,” Tairn says.
“It’s all fucking wrong.”
“You dropped her!” Cat charges toward us from the other side of Cibbe, fury rightfully etched in every line of her scowl.
“I never had her.” My chest crumples under the unbearable weight of the guilt because she’s partially right. I may not have dropped her, but I didn’t save her, either.
“Cat, no.” Maren hurries around us, putting her hands out as if to block her best friend. “I saw it happen. It’s not Violet’s fault. Luella almost killed both of the riders because she couldn’t jump the trap.”
“You fucking dropped her!” Cat surges against Maren. “Cibbe saved your precious rider, and you dropped our flier! I will kill you for this!”
“Knock it off!” Maren shouts. “You kill her, you kill Riorson. Everyone knows it.”
Fuck, it always comes down to that, doesn’t it?
“I can—” Cat starts.
“Take one step toward Violet, and I’ll throw you off this fucking cliff myself,” Dain warns, his voice low and menacing. “Unlike Riorson, I don’t give a shit who your uncle is.”
“I’ll do it just for fun,” Sloane adds.
“Ridoc,” I manage to say around the pain that throbs from my shoulder then devours the rest of me.
“Alive,” he answers weakly.
“Cat, let it go. Cibbe doesn’t have long,” Maren says, her hand trembling as she reaches for the gryphon.
Cat breathes deeply, then nods, moving to the gryphon’s side.
“Gryphons die with their fliers,” Maren explains, her tone softening as she strokes the line where feathers turn to fur.
Like Tairn and me.
Cibbe lets loose a stuttered, three-beat cry, and the entire cliff, both above us and below, echoes it, as though the gryphons grieve the loss of the flier as one.
The beat of wings approaches as Dain leads me back from the edge, and I watch the mist, waiting for a flash of orange, for Marbh and Brennan to arrive.
“Put my shoulder back in.” My voice croaks as I glance at Dain.
“Shit. Are you serious?” He lifts his brows.
“Do it. Just like when I was fourteen.”
“And seventeen,” he mutters.
“Exactly. You know how to do it, and we don’t have any healers nearby.”
“You don’t want to wait for Brennan?” Dain takes hold of my arm. “Brennan will try to mend me first, and Ridoc is dying. Now do it!” I snap, bracing for the pain.
A strap of leather appears in front of my face. “Bite down,” Maren orders over Cibbe’s cries.
I can’t look at him, can’t watch his healthy body die just like Liam’s had, so I face forward and bite.
“One.” Dain lifts my arm slightly and adjusts. “Two.” He brings my arm out to a ninety-degree angle.
