Lost Soul

Chapter Forty: Beginning of the End

"CAT!" I bellow. Agony rips through me and my arm starts to loosen on the tree.

Something brown dive bombs past me.

Hope bursts through my entire body as Shay disappears into the snowy landscape.

I throw my freed arm over the tree and drag myself up, my chest heaving.

I dangle over the tree while I search the snow for any sign of Shay.

What feels like hours later, she lands on the tree in front of me, no Cat in sight.

My heart stops as I pull myself into a sitting position. "She's-?"

Shay shakes her head, but I don't know what that means.

She's not okay? She's not dead?

"I caught her," Shay says, at my expression. "But she's... she's not okay, Raven."

"Take me to her," I demand.

Shay sighs and gathers me in her arms.

Her wings unfurl at her sides and she snaps them down. She catches a current that carries us up to a cave carved into the side of the cliff, ages above where Cat and I had been.

Shay has tried to make Cat comfortable. Her backpack under her head. One of the jackets she'd been wearing over her as a blanket.

But Cat still looks half-dead. Her face is still wind-shorn. Her hands are a bloody mess, wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. Her skin is tinted blue. Her lips are cracked and bloody. Her cheeks are sunk in.

I fall to my knees beside her. My trembling hands cover my mouth. "What-what can I do?" I ask, muffled.

Shay shifts from foot to foot. "Nothing."

I shake my head, a rotting feeling filling my body. It's like I'm touching that gem again. As if I'm turning into nothingness. As if I don't exist anymore, or never did in the first place. "No. I can't just let her die. I-I could take her back down the mountain myself! Or-or I'll strap her to my back and carry her up!"

Shay stares at me, as if she doesn't know me.

I guess that makes sense.

"What?" She asks. "You'll never make it anywhere in time. Even if you could... what comes after? You go down, you'll have to climb back up. You go up, you'll have to keep Cat safe from Thomas. It doesn't matter that she might be his daughter. He doesn't give a damn about her. Or you."

I wring my bandaged hands together. "Then you can take her down the mountain. I meant what I said, Shay. I won't make you take her through the portal. But I can't let her die!"

Shay's gaze shifts from me to Cat. She grips the edge of her shirt in her hands. "Raven, a human doctor can't fix her. Even without the pneumonia, she's got a blood infection from those wounds not being properly treated. She's dehydrated. She's starved. She's a lost cause."

I snap to my feet and shove Shay so hard she almost goes spilling off the side of the cliff. "Don't you dare say that!" I scream. My voice is raw and scratchy. I sound like I've been drinking whisky. I tremble from head to toe as I jab a finger in Shay's face. "She is my sister! Don't you dare say she's a lost cause. I will do whatever it takes! I am not giving up on her!"

Shay closes her eyes. "What about the rebellion?"

I wave her off, returning to Cat's side. I grab Cat's hand and pull it into my lips. "I owe them nothing, Shay."

"You owe me something!" She shouts, hitting her chest. "Do you have any idea what I've risked for you!? Because of who you are!"

"You don't know me!" I bellow.