Lyrae's POV
Draven isn't breathing.
I press my fingers against his neck, searching for a pulse. Nothing. His skin is cold despite the heat rising from the volcanic ground beneath us.
"No, no, no," I whisper, pressing harder. "Come on. You didn't save me just to die."
Still nothing.
Above us, the Ashborn voices are getting closer. Torchlight flickers against the ravine walls.
I should run. Every instinct screams at me to leave him and save myself. He's the enemy. He's already dead. There's nothing I can do.
But my hands won't stop searching for a pulse.
And then—there. Faint, but there. A heartbeat.
He's alive. Barely.
The arrow in his side needs to come out, but he said it's barbed. Pull it wrong and he dies. Leave it in and he dies slower.
Either way, he dies.
Unless—
My hands start glowing.
I gasp and jerk back, staring at my palms. Green light pulses from my skin, soft and warm. It's the same thing that happened when I healed Draven's shoulder before, but stronger now. Brighter.
The voices above are almost on top of us.
"—heard something down here—"
"—could be survivors—"
No time to think. I press my glowing hands against Draven's chest, right over his heart.
Power floods out of me like a river breaking through a dam. The green light spreads across Draven's body, sinking into his skin. I feel his heartbeat strengthen under my palms. Feel his lungs expand with breath.
The arrow in his side shifts, and suddenly it's pushing itself out. Not violently, but smoothly, like his body is rejecting it. The wound seals behind it, skin knitting together.
Draven's eyes snap open.
He grabs my wrists, gasping. "What—what did you—"
"Quiet!" I clap my hand over his mouth as torchlight spills over the edge of the ravine above us.
We freeze. Two Ashborn warriors stand at the top, their torches illuminating the space where we fell. My heart pounds so loud I'm sure they'll hear it.
"See anything?" one asks.
"Just rocks. If anyone fell down there, they're dead."
"Should we check?"
"In the dark? That cliff face is unstable. War Chief can send a recovery team in the morning."
Please leave, I pray silently. Please just leave.
After what feels like forever, the torchlight withdraws. The voices fade.
We stay frozen for another full minute. Then Draven slowly removes my hand from his mouth.
"You healed me," he says, staring at me like I'm a ghost. "How did you—Verdana don't have healing powers. That's not possible."
I look at my hands. They've stopped glowing, but I can still feel the warmth inside them. Like a fire that's been sleeping my whole life just woke up.
"I don't know," I admit. "It just... happened."
Draven sits up slowly, touching the place where the arrow was. Dried blood stains his clothes, but underneath, the skin is smooth. Healed.
"You saved my life," he says quietly. "Why?"
"You saved mine first."
"That was different. I acted on instinct. You—" He shakes his head. "I'm your enemy. You should have run."
"Maybe I'm tired of running."
We stare at each other in the darkness. His amber eyes reflect what little moonlight reaches the ravine floor, making them glow like embers.
"We can't stay here," he finally says, standing up. He moves carefully, testing his healed leg. "My people will come back at dawn with more warriors. And if they find us together..." He doesn't finish, but I understand. It won't be good for either of us.
"Where do we go?"
"We?" He looks at me sharply. "There is no 'we'. You go back to your people. I go back to mine. We pretend this never happened."
"I don't even know which way is back to my people. I'm lost."
"Not my problem."
He starts walking away, heading deeper into the ravine. Away from me.
Something hot and desperate rises in my chest. "You're just going to leave me? After everything?"
"Yes."
"But I saved your life!"
"And now we're even." He doesn't even look back. "Go home, Verdana girl. Or don't. I don't care."
Anger flares inside me—anger and something else. Something that makes my hands start glowing again.
"My name is Lyrae!" I shout after him. "And you OWE me!"
That makes him stop. He turns around slowly, and even in the darkness I can see the dangerous look on his face.
"I owe you nothing," he says coldly. "You want to know the truth? I should have let you fall. Saving you was a mistake. My people will hunt me for letting a Verdana escape. Your people will kill me on sight. We are enemies, Lyrae. That's all we'll ever be."
The words hit like physical blows. He's right. We are enemies. His people killed Caelan. My people killed his sister Kyra—he told me that much before he passed out.
But he also saved my life when he didn't have to.
"Fine," I say quietly, blinking back tears I refuse to let him see. "Leave. I'll find my own way home."
I turn and start climbing the ravine wall, even though I have no idea where I'm going. Even though my broken arm is useless and my ribs scream with every movement.
I make it maybe ten feet before my hand slips. I fall, hitting the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of me.
Strong hands grab my shoulders. Draven is there, pulling me to my feet. His jaw is clenched tight.
"You're going to kill yourself," he mutters.
"Good. Then you won't have to feel guilty."
"I don't feel—" He stops, taking a deep breath. "You can't climb with a broken arm. The bone needs to be set, or it'll heal wrong."
"I'll manage."
"You're going the wrong way. Verdana territory is east. You're heading north."
I hate that he's right. I hate that I need his help.
"Why do you even care?" I ask.
Draven stares at me for a long moment. Then he does something I don't expect.
He reaches out and touches my arm—the broken one. His fingers are gentle despite the calluses.
"Let me see," he says quietly.
Before I can argue, he feels along the bone. I bite back a scream when he finds the break.
"It's a clean fracture," he says. "I can set it, but it's going to hurt."
"Everything already hurts."
Something that might be respect flickers in his eyes. "You're tougher than you look."
"Thanks. I think."
He finds two straight sticks and tears strips from his already-ruined shirt. "Ready?"
"No."
"Good answer."
He sets the bone so fast I don't have time to scream. The pain is blinding, white-hot, but then it fades to a dull throb as he splints my arm.
"There," he says, tying off the bandage. "That should hold until you get home."
"Thank you."
He doesn't acknowledge it. Just stands and starts walking again.
This time, when I follow, he doesn't tell me to stop.
We walk in silence through the ravine as night deepens around us. Every shadow looks like a threat. Every sound makes my heart race.
"Where are we going?" I finally ask.
"Somewhere we can rest until morning. Then I'm taking you to the border and sending you home."
"You're helping me get home?"
"I'm making sure you survive long enough to become someone else's problem." But there's no real heat in his words.
We walk for another hour before Draven finds what he's looking for—a small cave hidden behind a waterfall. The water is warm, heated by volcanic activity below.
"We'll stay here tonight," he says. "Don't make a fire. Don't make noise. And stay away from the cave entrance."
I nod, too exhausted to argue.
Draven sits near the entrance, keeping watch. I collapse at the back of the cave, every muscle in my body screaming.
"Draven?" I call softly.
"What?"
"My family. The others who were with me during the ambush. Did any of them survive?"
Silence. Then: "I don't know. I wasn't part of that attack. I was on a different mission when I... when I found you."
"But you must have heard something. You must know—"
"I said I don't know." His voice is harder now. "Go to sleep, Lyrae. We have a long walk tomorrow."
I curl up on the cave floor, using my good arm as a pillow. My mind races with terrible possibilities. Mom and Dad captured or killed. Riven alone and scared. Baby Orion still a prisoner.
And I'm here, alive because an enemy warrior saved me.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
I must drift off at some point because I wake to the sound of voices outside the cave.
Ashborn voices.
I sit up slowly. Dawn light filters through the waterfall. Draven is already at the entrance, every muscle tensed.
"—search every cave in this sector—"
"—War Chief wants the Verdana survivors found—"
"—especially the girl with the healing powers—"
My blood runs ice cold. They know. They know about what I can do.
Draven turns to look at me, and I see fear in his eyes for the first time.
"They're hunting you specifically," he whispers. "Someone saw what you did last night. Someone reported it."
"What do we do?"
Before he can answer, a shadow falls across the waterfall entrance.
"Well, well," a cold voice says. "What do we have here?"
A warrior steps through the water. He's massive, with scars covering his arms and a cruel smile on his face. His eyes lock on me, then shift to Draven.
"Draven?" The warrior's smile widens. "You're supposed to be dead. We thought you died in that cliff collapse." His gaze moves back to me. "And you've been hiding a Verdana? How... disappointing."
More warriors appear behind him. At least five of them, all armed.
Draven steps between me and them, his hand on his weapon.
"Zephyr," he says quietly. "This isn't what it looks like."
"Oh, I think it's exactly what it looks like." Zephyr draws his sword. "You've gone soft, brother. Protecting the enemy. The War Chief will be very interested to hear about this."
"She's my prisoner," Draven says quickly. "I'm bringing her in for questioning."
"Is that so?" Zephyr's eyes gleam. "Then you won't mind if we take her off your hands."
He lunges for me.
Draven's blade meets his with a clash of metal.
"RUN!" Draven yells at me.
But there's nowhere to run. Warriors block the only exit. I'm trapped.
Draven fights like a demon, holding off two warriors at once. But he's outnumbered. A blade slashes across his shoulder. Another cuts his leg.
He's going to die protecting me.
That heat builds inside me again—the same power that healed him. But this time it doesn't feel gentle. It feels like rage. Like fire.
My hands start glowing, but the light isn't green anymore.
It's burning gold.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I scream.
Power explodes out of me like a bomb.
The blast throws every warrior backward, slamming them against the cave walls. The waterfall evaporates into steam. The ground cracks beneath my feet.
Then everything goes dark, and I'm falling.
The last thing I hear is Draven shouting my name.