Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,105

front of Damian’s so that the fireball exploded against him instead of Damian, blasting Rylan through the air, knocking Damian over. Rylan landed past him, rolling a few times, leaving a trail of flames before finally coming to a stop on his side, smoke rising from his body.

“Rylan!” I screamed. But the sorcerer wasn’t done. He was already conjuring more fire. I lifted my sword and charged right at him.

Damian beat me to him, his face darkened with fury. He made the ground beneath the sorcerer shake so that the fire he threw at us went wide, hitting the side of the canyon instead. Then Damian thrust his hand forward, sending the sorcerer slamming back into a tree behind him. Damian rushed forward, slicing his sword down so hard and fast the sorcerer couldn’t pull back quickly enough, and he chopped his arm clean off. But I’d seen what Iker could do with all that blood, and even as I thought about it, the sorcerer began to summon a dark cloud that swirled up around his body, hiding him and Damian from view.

I plunged right into it, swiping my sword down where he had last stood. The cloud burned my eyes and made my skin hurt, but when my blade met hard flesh, the darkness suddenly dropped away, leaving the sorcerer standing before us, my sword sliced through his shoulder, down into his lungs. I yanked it back out and, without even waiting to see if he fell to the ground or not, I spun to face where Rylan lay unmoving.

My sword clattered to the ground as I sprinted to his side. He had to be alive; he had to be alive. I dropped to the earth next to Rylan. His whole body was burned, some parts worse than others. I gently rolled him to his back, and he moaned.

When I saw his face, I sucked in a gasp that was a half sob.

“Alexa,” he coughed, his mouth barely moving. I could see the agony in his eyes — the only part of him untouched by the sorcerer’s fire. “Is … he … all right?”

I started crying in earnest when I realized he was asking about Damian. After everything, he had sacrificed himself to save the king.

I nodded, lifting my hand to hesitantly touch his charred face. He flinched, and I pulled away.

“No …” he groaned. “Pain … is all right. Die … in your arms …”

“No. You can’t die,” I sobbed. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You can’t leave me here alone.”

All around us the sounds of the battle raged, but I didn’t care as Rylan tried to lift a hand to my face. His arm shook, and he couldn’t reach quite high enough. When I realized what he was trying to do, I bent down and held his hand against my face so he could cup my cheek. “You’re not … alone,” he whispered. “Love him … as I … loved you.”

My entire body was shaking from the tears that seemed to rise from the deepest depths of my soul. I shook my head against his hand, not wanting to accept what was happening, and then I turned to kiss his palm. He took a shuddering breath. I could hear the fluid in his lungs.

Rylan’s eyes filled with tears as he looked up at me, but then he lifted his head slightly, and his gaze moved past me. He whispered something, but I couldn’t understand him. I leaned in closer.

He spoke again, a soft sigh. “Jude …”

His lips moved as if he was trying to smile, and then he went completely still. His hand dropped from my face, falling to the ground beside him. The light faded from his beautiful brown eyes, until they glassed over.

“No! RYLAN! NO!” I screamed again. A tidal wave of anguish dragged me down, until I bent so that I had pressed my face to his burned tunic, my tears running across his ruined skin.

And then Damian was there, dropping to his knees beside me, taking me by the shoulders and pulling me back. A loud boom shook the ground near us, but I didn’t even flinch. Rylan was gone. He was gone.

“Alexa, we have to go,” Damian said, pulling on me even harder, not even realizing he was echoing what Rylan had said when Eljin died. “I’m so sorry, but we have to go now. There are even more coming! I can’t hold them off any longer. We have to