War of Storms by Erica Cameron

Author:Erica Cameron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled, Teen, YA, Young Adult, teen romance, romance, series, fantasy, epic fantasy, gods, lgbt, lgbtq, lgbtq+, queer, gods, war, magic
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-10-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Hours after Varan leaves, metal scraping against rock draws my attention to the ladder shaft. Sanii’s head appears, and my stomach drops at eir pained expression.

“Who is it?” I demand before ey can speak.

“Just come down.”

I don’t want to, I don’t want another disaster to befall the people I love, but no matter how hard it is, I follow Sanii down. Neither of us speak as we descend. When my feet hit the cave floor, I tighten my grip on the stone ladder, hesitating. What’s waiting for me? Who will I lose this time? An image of Tessen, still and silent, his gray eyes dull, is too easy to imagine.

Please not him. It’s unconscionable to think, unforgivable, but I can’t stop the prayer from cycling and repeating. I can’t stop meaning it.

I shove away from the wall and turn, my gaze immediately finding Tessen’s trembling, tense form. Alive. He’s clearly in pain, but he’s alive. Zonna is kneeling beside Amis’s limp, lifeless form. For a fraction of a second, I think maybe Amis’s eyes will open and we’ll realize Zonna was wrong.

“I tried to save him. I couldn’t.” Zonna sounds far more tired than sad. He’s watched people die before. It’s an inevitability in one lifetime, and it must become all but commonplace over centuries. “I’d hoped this wouldn’t happen.”

I’d done more than hope. After the Kaisubeh sucked the katsujo out of Varan’s reach, I’d let myself believe this wouldn’t happen. Throat tight, I kneel by Amis’s side and run my hand over his shorn hair. The tight, tiny curls are rough under my palm, and his skin is still warm, but the spark that once animated him is gone. Now, this is just the shell he left behind.

“How are the others?” I ask after a long, heavy silence.

“The same as before.” Sanii is sitting with eir back to us, wringing drops of water from a cloth onto Rai’s dry lips. Rai smacks her lips and licks them automatically, and Sanii repeats the process. “Most are a little calmer now, though. I think that’s good.”

Maybe, but I can’t make myself leave the cave after that. I sit between Tessen and Etaro for hours, watching both but not touching either. I offer water when their breathing begins to rasp, and bites of food when their stomachs grumble, but mostly, I wait. Wait.

Zonna’s head snaps up. In a flash, he’s scrambling across the cave so quickly he almost trips over Yarzi’s legs. He drops near Miari. I hold my breath.

Syoni wheezes, her breath as strangled as if someone had their hands around her throat. Zonna yanks power from the katsujo so fast I feel it ripple past me like a gust of wind. It doesn’t help. The power sinks through Syoni without fixing what’s killing her. Zonna keeps trying, but Syoni’s chest is beginning to rattle with each gasped half breath. Her muscles are curling in, contorting her lithe body into a painfully twisted position. My own body tenses in sympathy. I don’t let myself look away until she draws one last insufficient breath and goes still.

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