The world rushes past her without her really seeing it.
Kael runs.
Lunaya follows him.
Or rather...
She is pulled along by him,
guided by his hand clasping hers as if it were the last thing connecting him to the world.
Behind them, the screams fade away.
Or sink into the shadows.
Or die.
She can't tell.
She can't breathe.
Erynd.
His name pounds in her skull like a drum.
Erynd.
She heard his cry.
She saw the blood on his feathers.
She felt... that invisible thread break and then tremble,
as if it refused to disappear.
Kael stops abruptly behind a moss-covered rock.
He leans against the wall, panting, his fangs almost showing.
"We have to... catch our breath," he whispers between breaths.
Just a second."
Lunaya is shaking so much that she has to lean back too.
The world is spinning around her.
She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out.
Kael finally looks at her.
And he sees everything.
The fear.
The anger.
The pain.
And, worst of all: the panic of almost losing her.
"Lunaya... can you hear me?"
She nods.
A lie.
She can't hear anything.
Or rather, she can hear too much.
The ragged beating of Erynd's heart.
The cries of the corbins.
The broken syllable still pulsing in her chest, like a foreign heart.
"Kael..."
Her voice is just a whisper.
A thread.
"We have to... go back..."
He immediately grabs her by the shoulders.
"No."
His voice trembles, but with contained rage.
"NO, Lunaya. You're not going back.
You're not going to die for him. Not now. Not like this."
She closes her eyes.
"He... he sacrificed himself... so that I..."
"And I'll do the same. Do you hear me?
If I have to die for you, I'll do it twenty times over."
He presses his forehead against hers, roughly,
almost like a wounded animal seeking warmth.
"But I'll never let you go back there. Never."
A tear rolls down Lunaya's cheek without her realizing it.
Kael sees it.
His voice breaks.
"Hey... no... Lunya... don't look at me like that.
We'll find him. I swear. But not now. First... first we'll save you."
She takes a step back, shaken.
"What if it was me... who condemned him?"
Kael freezes.
"Don't say that."
"It was me they wanted."
Her fingers tremble against her chest.
"They took Erynd because he stood between me and them.
Always between me and them."
She shakes her head, distraught.
"If they took him, it's... it's because I am..."
"Stop."
His voice is a growl.
"They're the monsters. Not you."
Lunaya trembles, shaken from within.
"And... that name rising up... that feeling... Kael, I'm scared.
I don't know what's mine anymore.
Or what belongs to me. Or what's going through me."
Her voice chokes.
"I'm afraid of becoming someone else."
Kael places his hand on her face, very gently.
"Then I'll be there to remind you who you are."
She closes her eyes.
Breathes.
Survives.
Kael brushes her cheek with his fingertips.
"You are Lunaya."
Each word is a promise.
"The one I love.
The one I protect.
The one I choose."
She opens her eyes again.
A breath passes between them.
A broken breath.
Fragile.
Alive.
Then Kael raises his head.
"They're coming back."
He can feel the vibrations, even from a distance.
"We have to move."
Lunaya nods weakly.
They resume their walk, slower, but hurried by the urgency.
The trees change around them.
The world becomes... different.
The air thickens.
The light becomes whiter.
The ground pulses beneath their feet, like a deep breath.
Kael stops abruptly.
"We're getting close."
Lunaya looks up.
In front of them, the trees parted.
Not as if they were being pushed aside.
No.
As if they were bowing.
And in the center of this opening...
A perfect clearing.
A circle.
A white glow that came from neither the sun nor the moon.
Lunaya feels her throat tighten.
"Is this... the Sanctuary?"
Kael nods.
"I think so."
A breath passes.
A breath that sounds like a voice without sound.
Like an echo.
Like a call.
She takes a step forward.
Kael holds her hand back.
"Lunaya... wait."
His eyes are full of fear.
"If you go in there... I don't know if I'll be able to follow you."
She feels her heart tighten painfully.
"Then... just stay here."
Her voice is trembling, soft and terrible.
"And call me. If I don't come back."
Kael grabs her by the neck, as if refusing to let her go.
"You're coming back."
His eyes shine.
"I'll stop you if I have to."
A breath.
One last look.
Then she steps through the circle.
The world tilts.
Light engulfs her.
And behind her, Kael screams her name as if it were being torn from him.