They rush by on the left, making it through just before Solas’s claws come out swinging, his talons raking furrows into the stone of the cave.
I hit the floor, pain flaring up my shoulders. There’s no pop as talons swipe over us, but something bites into my palm. Glass from the conduit.
I spread my bleeding fingers wide in the dim light of the dying torch, locating the remnants before it goes out. The top of the metal joint has broken, leaving four jagged prongs and one secured piece of alloy.
“I don’t have fire,” Andarna tells me, following my thoughts.
But I have power.
“It’s about to get really dark in here.” It’s our only shot, and I’m taking it. “You have to run as soon as there’s an opening.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she stubbornly argues.
“One minute!” Tairn announces.
How the hell am I going to get close enough to stab the remains of the conduit into him? There’s no time to tie it to a dagger, and the force of a throw isn’t enough to—
Solas roars in pain, his head swiveling back toward his shoulder, and through the opening, I see Cat poised in the dim light, nocking another arrow.
There’s no time to ruminate on her sticking around to save me. I’m already moving, grabbing hold of the dying torch in my empty hand, then running toward the soft spot under Solas’s foreleg, where his scales separate a few inches at a time to allow the movement of the joint.
He roars again, fire illuminating the cave in a short blast as he aims without sight, hitting the wall in front of him instead of Cat. I race into the deadly space underneath him and change my target when I realize he’ll crush me if he falls, charging toward his right shoulder.
I shove the prongs of the conduit into the soft joint between his scales as Andarna sinks her teeth between his neck and shoulder, distracting him, and then I wield. Energy sizzles up my arm and into my fingertips where they meet the metal.
Control. This is all about control.
With one hand raised, wielding the delicate strain of energy, I back away from Solas as quickly as I dare, feeding more and more power into the stream, and then I pour everything—
Solas roars, swinging his hind end around. A shape comes swinging for me, and I make out the thicker part of his tail in the dim light a second before it slams into my stomach, sending me flying and breaking the stream of lightning.
I’m airborne, nothing more than a projectile as I fly backward, hitting my ass, then my back, and lastly my head against the ground with a crack. But I hold my power tight instead of striking, letting it burn me from the inside out. Better me than accidentally hitting Andarna.
The only sound is a loud ringing in my ears, and sight only comes in quick, flashing blasts. Fire. It flares as I struggle to sit up through the fog of my own heartbeat, revealing Andarna latched onto Solas, hanging on even as he thrashes, slamming her smaller body against the cave wall.
“NO!” I think I yell, but the incessant peal of bells in my head blocks it out, and suddenly I’m moving, being dragged backward by a pair of arms. My head falls back, and I recognize those eyes.
Liam. I must be dead.
“She’s not clear!” someone shouts as the ringing fades slightly, and then another blast of fire shows two more arrows in the bloodied hole that used to be Solas’s shoulder.
Cat. She’s beside me, already drawing another arrow, and her lips move silently.
And the eyes above me aren’t Liam’s. They’re Sloane’s.
We’re plunged back into darkness momentarily, and the ringing fades enough to hear Cat’s voice clearly.
“Ninety. One hundred. One hundred and one.” Her voice shakes.
Light flares again as I’m dragged backward, and Cat fires, hitting Solas in the same wound. Andarna flies free, taking a chunk of Solas with her as I’m hauled from the returning darkness into the growing light from the mouth of the cave.
“Andarna!” I claw at Sloane’s grip, but the harder I fight, the weaker I feel, and the insufferable heat of my power lessens as Sloane starts to scream, letting me fall to the ground.
“Silver One!”
I feel the steady beats of air at my back and know Tairn is there, hovering, but I can’t rip my eyes away from the darkness of the cave as I stumble to my feet near the entrance.
A dragon screams, then falls horrifyingly silent.
She isn’t. She can’t be.
“She lives,” Tairn promises, but I don’t breathe until I reach mentally and find my bond with Andarna gleaming and strong.
“I drained you.” Sloane holds up trembling hands, staring at them like they don’t belong to her. “I drained you!” She grasps my shoulders, yanking my focus from the dark as my head swims.
“For fuck’s sake, Sloane, give her a second. She just hit her head,” Cat barks, still aiming into the darkness as we stand in the glaring light but not firing an arrow without a target.
“Are my eyes red?” Sloane shakes me, or maybe she’s shaking and simply holding on to me. “Are they red? I swear I didn’t reach, Violet. I didn’t take anything from you on purpose! Oh gods, am I turning venin?”
“She is as Naolin was,” Tairn says.
“You’re not turning.” I take her hands from my shoulders and stare into the darkness as footsteps sound, talons clicking along the rock.
“I’m not?”
“Your signet manifested,” I whisper, my eyes straining to see into the cave opening. “You’re a siphon.”
Andarna walks into the light, but it’s not the blood covering her mouth that catches my attention—it’s the blood dripping from the poisoned barb on her tail.
