fourth wing xadens pov

chapter 37

Chapter 37: Falling

“What’s happening?” I scream at Sgaeyl, my eyes glued to the shadows ahead of me, the power threshing and buckling under the weight of the force behind it.

She uses my words from earlier against me. I trust her. I trust her more than I have ever trusted anyone. She can do this.

And I let go.

“Fuck!” The wall of shadow falls and the wyvern shoot towards us with terrifying speed.

I reach for Sgaeyl blindly, hardly able to move through the sudden release of all that power. She lowers her leg to me, and I climb, dragging myself up and onto her back.

“Once I’ve taken the rider out, that only leaves one, Xaden. Just kill that one and the rest of the wyvern will fall.”

Tairn shoots past us overhead, on a collision course with hundreds of wyvern descending on the valley.

“I’m coming.” Sgaeyl launches skyward and we shoot after them.

“You saved us by holding them back this long.” Violet’s voice is full of sadness and resolve.

“Don’t you dare sacrifice yourself!” I scream after her, but she’s slammed her shields down tight. I don’t know if she’s heard me, don’t know if that’s her plan.

“No one else is dying,” Sgaeyl says, finding a burst of speed to race after Tairn and Violet.

Blue fire erupts from the horde heading straight for them and I pull on all the power I have left to bring up shadows on both sides, snuffing out the flame before it can incinerate everything in its path. I cling to Sgaeyl’s neck, no strength left to keep myself upright, pouring every bit of focus and energy into the shadows.

Lightning rains down on the horde, as Violet throws strike after strike at them. But though she hits wyvern, she can’t pick the rider out from the pack, an impossibly small target, moving impossibly fast towards us.

Every wyvern is focused on Violet, realising she’s the biggest threat and it takes every bit of strength to send shadows shooting out to smother their blue fire before they can hit their target. A shadow stutters and my heart leaps into my throat, but Tairn banks and dodges the flames. Sgaeyl gains on him with the movement, like an arrow flying just behind them, locked on its target.

And then the world stops moving.

Sgaeyl flares back as Tairn does, beating her wings into a hover and I swivel my head backwards. The edges of my vision glimmer and blur as time slows just beyond us. Garrick and Bodhi are right on our tail, but frozen mid-air. I turn back to the horde of wyvern, their wings dragging through the sky like it’s made of mud, fighting against the sheer impossibility of what can only be Andarna’s magic.

All we can do is watch as Violet’s power reaches for the sky, pulling down on one bolt of its power, forcing it down and across the sky towards the venin.

And though all her shields are up, I feel it. The raw heat of this power burning through the bond, white hot light disintegrating my tether to her, feel her slipping away into the power as it burns her up from the inside.

“VIOLET!” I scream it at her, begging her to stop, begging her to stay.

When time begins again, I find myself frozen. I can do nothing except watch her strike hit true, watch the venin topple from the wyvern and see half of them fall from the sky as if she had struck them all herself.