82

Shatter

Ulla

My hip throbbed from the wyrm throwing me in the rubble, and the palms of my hands were in ribbons from gripping the spiky tail. The beast appeared reptilian with all its scales, but it felt more like a leather cactus. Hundreds of tiny spikes had left my hands a bloody mess.

My feet were torn up from being dragged all across the dirt, and I’d futilely been digging my heels in the ground to hold it. But there was no way I could overpower that thing.

The worst, though, really, was my hip, because it slowed me down. I ran as fast as I could, but it hurt like hell and tears formed in my eyes.

Dagny and Sunniva were waiting for me at the bottom of the steps of the tower, and when I reached them, Dagny asked, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I lied. “Let’s go. I don’t know how long they can hold it.”

I ran up the stairs behind them, and I had managed to get almost halfway up the first set when my hip completely gave out. It was all too much for my body. All of my muscles ached and trembled from using all my strength to fight the wyrm, and the pain was so intense, tears and sweat were streaming down my face.

“Jakla,” I cursed, and tried again, but it was an excruciating feeling, like a blinding white light that somehow surpassed everything I’d ever known about my pain. I collapsed on the steps and groaned through gritted teeth.

“Ulla!” Dagny stopped on the stairs and reached back to help me.

“No, go on ahead,” I told her. “The wyrm could be over here any second.”

Dagny hesitated a moment, then ran up the stairs. Sunniva stayed back and crouched beside me.

“Can you stand at all?” Sunniva asked.

I grimaced and tried again, but it instantly gave out and I let out an agonized moan.

“That’s a ‘no’ then,” Sunniva said. “Okay, I’m going to try something, and it might not work. And even if it does, it won’t last long. My healing is not very effective outside of auras.”

She pressed one hand against the soft flesh of my abdomen, and then she put the other hand on my injured hip. Gently, she kneaded the tender area, but it was enough to make me cry out in pain.

“This will hurt a bit,” she said. “But it won’t last long.”

“It’s fine,” I said, and held my breath.

But slowly, the pain lessened, and a soothing warmth spread through me, radiating out from my hip and all through my body. I wasn’t a hundred percent—not by any means—but I felt considerably better, and when I tried to bear weight on my leg again, I could do it with only minimal pain.

“Thanks,” I said.

Sunniva only replied with, “Let’s go.”

As I ran up the stairs, I looked down and saw Noomi barely outrunning the wyrm. It threw its head back, like it was about to expel fire all over Noomi, but Wendy did something—the wyrm reacted like it had been slapped—and that gave Noomi enough time to find cover.

And that’s when I noticed the bodies lying in the ruins. Indu Mattison impaled on a wooden post, and nearby, JemKruk lying on stones. His long hair was splayed around him like a halo, and his arms and legs were askew. Somehow, he looked serene and beautiful, even in death.

“Jem,” I whispered as fresh tears formed in my eyes, but I wiped them away and lunged up the stairs.

Jem-Kruk had been nothing but kind to me, and I would shed many a tear for him later, but right now, I couldn’t.

I arrived on the landing just as the wyrm struck the tower with its tail. The tower quaked—and stones tumbled past us—but it remained standing. Sunniva stumbled backward, but she caught herself just before she tumbled over the edge. Dagny fell to the floor, landing on her knees. But the bottle of sorgblomma blood slipped from her hand, and it shattered as it hit the floor.

Dagny had begun dipping her arrow tips, but she’d only done one so far—I could see the shimmering arrow in her quiver.

“That was it,” she said breathlessly. “That was all we had.” She looked over at me with wide, terrified eyes. “How will we stop it now?”