Fire Breather

95.

"NO, I'm not," I protested straight away, hearing the thuds of fallen wyvern above us. "I hardly took any power from the earth and if I did, then I would feel it. I would know if I was venin."

"But your eye—"

"I'm not venin!" I snapped at Garrick, then swore, taking a step back. That wasn't fair. Not at all. "I, uh—I'm not venin, okay?"

Because I couldn't be.

Yes, I felt the power rush through my body and watched the color drain from a few stones, but Aaric had pulled me away before I felt true power... the power that I now couldn't feel.

That meant I wasn't venin, right?

"I need my brother," I whispered, turning away from them only to come face-to-face with Aaric whose arms were red and blistered, starting to bleed from when he pulled me away from the wardstone. "I can heal them," I offered him, reaching for his left arm.

But he took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. "You aren't healing shit or using any of your damn power until you've rested, Blaine," he commanded, making my brows raise. "You almost died." There was a crack to his tone on that last word, making the air feel tighter around us. "Never again. Do you hear me?"

Okay, what the fuck? "You cannot demand—"

"Do." He took a step closer to me. "You." Those green eyes pierced into my fucking soul. "Hear." His towering body leaned down toward me, eyes narrowing. "Me?"

I stared up at him, curling one of my hands into a fist at my side before I narrowed my eyes on him in a glare. "Never save me again. Do you hear me?"

Shock covered his features for half a second before he swore under his breath, standing back up. "A 'thank you' would've been a better answer."

"Thanks," I threw over my shoulder, walking around him and following after the Sorrengail siblings who were utterly broken.

The whole way down the tunnel, I could hear Mira's sobs and Violet's sniffles while someone's dragon carried Lilith's body out through the chamber, making my heart clench.

"He'll put her body in the quadrant," someone told Brennan.

We emerged from the southwest tower to the sounds of victory. Cheers and cries of thanks to the gods. Infantry, healers, riders, and fliers alike clogged the hallway with their hugs, but we made it through.

"Where is he?" I asked Nim, leaving the others behind as I walked into the crowded courtyard, avoiding being pulled into cheering hugs from cadets I barely even knew. "Where's my brother, Nim?"

"In the front," she gently answered me, and I turned, heading in that direction while shoving random people out of my path.

I made my way through the courtyard and then the archway, into the open...graveyard.

Bodies of wyvern littered the ground with a few colors mixed in, but I didn't recognize any of the dragons as I passed and made my way to the looming shapes of Nim, Tairn, and Sgaeyl near the edge of the ravine.

"Xade?" I called out, my heart lurching when I couldn't see him anywhere the closer I got. "Xaden!"

Sgaeyl swung her head toward me, tilting it down at me.

"Where is he?" My voice cracked as I stopped before her, feeling the last of my hope starting to disappear. "Is he...Where's my brother?"

She shifted her forelegs, revealing my brother standing at the edge of the ravine, facing me with his head looking up to Nim behind me.