Time slowed down and she could do nothing but watch in horror as the black jagged blade moved towards Mandla’s abdomen. The terror she felt deep in her gut exploded in Mandla’s dark eyes. Something whistled past her ear, punching through the air. A moment later, a perfect silver sword cut through the Revenant’s chest, dragons alive on its blade.
The Revenant dissolved.
Mandla dropped quivering to the ground.
Allyra turned.
The Ancient had Alex pinned to the ground. Alex had sacrificed his own position to save Mandla.
“I’ve waited a long time for this.” The Ancient gurgled, its voice thick and distorted, as if its tongue was too thick for its mouth.
Cold horror trickled down her spine. She didn’t want to contemplate a world without Alex.
Somewhere, somehow she’d begun to care.
Without thinking, she launched herself at the Ancient, aiming straight at the center of its back.
Her aim was imperfect; her blade hit solid bone and deflected to the side. Perhaps if she’d given herself just one more second… She carried her momentum, wrapping her legs around it and using all her weight to pull it off Alex.
The Ancient roared with inhuman fury. It was too fast, too strong. Lightning quick, it twisted out of her grasp and as she landed she felt its blade push into her. It tore a path between two ribs and pain consumed her. It burnt through her veins, screaming down every nerve. Her vision blurred and darkened at the edges, like a fire burning away the edges of a photograph.
She was only vaguely aware of movement above her as she struggled to keep breathing. Every lungful of air brought a new eruption of pain as she tasted the bitter tang of blood rising in her throat, pooling in her mouth. Her vision closed in further, darkening until she was looking through no more than a shadowy tube into a tiny pinprick of light.
Death itself crouched next to her, beckoning her into its sweet embrace. She started to drift away, welcoming the oblivion that darkness offered.
Suddenly, something pressed into her wound. The pain increased exponentially, jolting her back into agonizing awareness.
“No! No – stay with me.” Alex begged, his voice raw with emotion as he appeared above her, centered in the last remaining pinprick of light.
Allyra struggled to oblige with his request, faintly aware of all that remained unsaid between them. She thrashed and fought against the pull of Death; trying to swim up through the depths, back towards the surface. But it was like swimming through hot, thick blood. It pulled her down. It rushed down her throat and flooded her lungs.
She was drowning…
Suddenly a new pain exploded – a searing pain scorched deep into her wrist.
This pain was different; it was a bright and silvery note hanging in her mind. Fire burnt relentlessly into her wrist and threw tiny tendrils of pain flooding through her veins
Allyra tried again to scream, but choked instead on thick blood clogging her throat. The pain in her wrist burned itself to cinders and the searing heat diminished until all that remained was a strangely soothing heat travelling through her body.
The pain in her side ebbed just enough for her to gather the shattered shards of her mind, turning her focus back to Alex.
His eyes were closed and his features twisted in agony mirroring her own. He leant down and whispered, his breath warm against her face. “I’m sorry.”
A wave of confusion crested and broke over her. The pain was fading, as if the wound had happened days ago rather than minutes ago, but she was so, so tired and this time she allowed the darkness to swallow her and wash her into oblivion.
Chapter 16 – Jamie
Jamie sat with Allyra, holding her hand gently in his. Behind him, the heart monitor beeped monotonously, a strangely reassuring sound. He traced slow, lazy circles with his thumb, painting them onto the back of her hand. Round and round, he repeated the motion, a familiar action he’d made many times before, to chase away Allyra’s worries. He’d done it when she couldn’t sleep, when she felt sad or nervous. It was something guaranteed to elicit a smile from her, but as she lay still and pale before him, he wondered if it was now for his benefit rather than hers.
Over the last month, he’d visited her religiously. Sitting at her bedside, he spoke continuously, about everything and nothing, hoping the sound of his voice would lead her home.
Jamie shared everything with Allyra, as he would’ve if she’d been awake. He told her stories; everything from Gemma and her pink hair to Eva and her secrets. He told her about the amazing food they had, describing in detail breakfast to dinner, fried eggs to beef stew.
He whispered about the black market run by Lin, a tiny Asian Oceanic, pretty enough to expect male attention and take it for granted. Rich and spoilt, she was able to get anything your heart desired, from forbidden alcohol and cigarettes to hidden luxuries, all for a price ten times what it would sell for outside. When he ran out of interesting stories, he would resort to complaining about Jason and Rosalie and the barely hidden venom they treated him with.
He described the Terras and the extreme rugby they played, how the rest of the Gifted dispersed as they took to the Combat Arena, the sounds of their bone crunching tackles that rattled through your brain.
“Just come back to me.” He whispered softly against her ear, breathing her in. “We can face anything the world throws at us – together.”
It happened with stunning abruptness. One moment everything was still and quiet, peaceful even. The next, blood was seeping through the white sheet covering Allyra, like some grotesque red inkblot.
Jamie was shocked into stillness, horror freezing him still as the blood consumed the white sheet. He realized you could smell it – blood – in large quantities, smelt like copper and iron, like heated metal on
