Redemption - Fourth Wing

60. For long enough

Song choice:
Monster, of the Underworld Saga
by Jorge Riviera-Hennans

Aifos' Pov
We were sent manning the north, and the rain was pebbling its stones, the civilians fleeing beneath it.
Because time had been short, I couldn't manage to shield us with the armours, and my heart was tight in my sternum; only the weights of Heill on my back and of the belt around my hips were somewhat of a relief.
Chex's shoulders worked between my tights, and the roughness of his voice rumbled in my mind, -You're mine to fly with. I will not let anything happen to you.-
He swivelled his head to meet my eyes, and the golden of his own burned higher than any flames, so I acquiesced, even if tears blurred my sight.
The chilliness of the nightsky was warmed by dragon-breath, and I blinked off the tears and turned on the saddle to catch a glimpse of Ronny.
He was great, and strong, and we had flown for long enough.
Our eyes met, but Chex changed the trajectory so sharply only the straps held me on the saddle, and his snarl was harsh, -Head on the battle!-
Ronny's mind brushed my mental song, -Our wings are holding us still. Listen to your mate.-
My inhale was shaky, and I rolled my shoulders and placed both my gloved palms on Chex's scales, -I am sorry you couldn't ease off properly.-
-I am Belgabad's son,- he said, -Your mate. I am not afraid of battle.-
Magic induced lightning flashed above,  and we watched as Tairn climbed up the sky, Feirge straight up after him.
-You aren't only Belgabad's son,- I said, while Ronny pumped his wings and flew slightly higher up than Tairn, -The view's better up here.-
Tairn flashed his teeth at him, and Chex was quick to interpose himself between the two of them, -Enough!-
He flashed his teeth, and Tairn lowered his head and blinked once at his ward; I remembered just now they hadn't seen each other since that night on the unnamed island.
Chex kept the bond between us so open that I could follow Tairn's words with little to no struggle.
-Golden One,- he said, -I should've wished to meet you under better circumstances.-
-I know,- Chex answered, -But we are dragons.-
His guardian's great eyes raked on his silver scales and black talons, and his voice was uncharacteristically gentle, -How much you have grown, and in such a short time.-
Something rippled in the back of Chex's mind, but it was quickly gone, and the dip of his snout was sharp.
I looked up, saw how Ronny's wings curved under the winds, then I followed his fixed gaze in the pairs of riderless wyverns closing in. Their flight paths were of different altitudes, cloaked by the darkness and the rain.
-Command was foolish to have hoped our enemies would've been so predictable,- snarled Ronny, his teeth as white against the darkness as his spikes.
-And yet the wards are holding,- said Chex, his eyes sharp on the enemy line -They hope smaller pairings will get through.-
I turned to Tairn, glimpsed the loop of his saddle, -Or they adjusted to her presence.-
The black dragon snaked his head towards Feirge, and a second later Violet twisted her hand up and lightning scorched the cloud, fanning in different silvery strikes. 
Enemies shrieked and tumbled down, and Ronny's voice was sharp, -We are not part of the squad. We fly,- and he tilted his wings, Chex and I falling behind him.
Rain pelted our wings, and he sank his fangs in a wyvern's neck, and Chex twisted up and slashed at its wings. A whistle up ahead, and my mental song rushed ahead, -Skolir nosu fra brisingr!-
Blue fire engulfed us, and it was subdued by my will and started circling around us, as fast as whipping winds.
-Ronny, fall down!- Roared Chex, and after a stern kick on the enemy's belly he dove down, and wind whistled under Chex's wings, between my curls.
-Arucane, blothr und endvrya fram!- I shouted, and the blue flames burned crimson and rushed upwards and around.
(Endless Fire, halt and burn upwards)
Its thunder mingled with Violet's, and the fire followed the stern lines of Tairn's chest, completely cloaked by the night, and hissed against the rain.
Feirge pivoted away, and Chex spun upside down to rake his talons in a grey belly while Ronny ripped off its head.
Black blood was spat on both of their scales, and above us, wingbeats could be heard, and Chex yelped and rolled halfway so as to avoid Tairn's tail barreling on us.
I gripped on the pommel, and the wind inflated Chex's wings, rushed around his tail, directed the raindrops on his scales.
I flung my weight left, and he followed me and snapped his left wing shut to close in a sharp roll. Meanwhile, above us Ronny roared and ripped the wyvern's wing wholly clean from its body, -Your sky is not only your own, Tairneanach!-
A screech, and my chest pressed against his slender neck, -Keep falling!-
Chex grunted his effort at countering the spin's turns and fell a bit askew. The wyvern whistled and followed us, its cracked wings rough and scarred.
-Vindr beor und reisa vandr-fodh Skulblaka!-
(Wind, bear and lift the dragon ill-marked)
Half a gem dulled, and a sudden rush of wind knocked the wyvern over, pushed its wings open and asymmetrical and the beast was half flipped on its belly, too heavy to be wholly upside down.
Its roar was cut off by Ronny's teeth, and Chex snapped his own wings open and slammed against another grey chest, slick with water.
A soft grunt escaped my lips at the collision, which shook all my bones and teeth.
Chex sank his fangs in the wyvern's scales, and I broke its claw stretched out towards my mate's smooth scales. It cried out, and with a sharp, -Heill, ganga fram,- my sword was impaled in its eyes, and after a low -Brisingr- it burst to copper flames and burned its eye pocket.
Its wail was deafening, and Chex ripped off its jugular with his teeth and kicked it away just as Ronny clawed its wings to shreds.
-It won't fly for much longer,- said Ronny, -Let's go assess the rest of the sky.-
We climbed up, and the moonlight gleamed on Feirge's green scales as she kept a wyvern locked with her jaw.
-Tairn's on it,- said Chex, and the black dragon barreled on the grey reptile and broke its neck with a rolling manouvre.
We avoided the tumbling corpse, and Ronny breathed fire towards another wyvern and snapped at it.
Chex and I slipped under its belly and he slashed it with his swordtail, and his pivot was smooth and precise.
He spun around and sank his teeth in the wyvern's nape, and held on with his claws deep in the other's dull scales.
It roared and tried to shake him off, and thunder rolled and lightning strikes branched in the sky, the slightest ones free from Violet's spell since they now existed and her focus was narrowed on the thicker streaks.
I stretched out my arm, and my spell was sharp, -Finna hvitr kveyvka und thelduin arget.-
(Find the white lightning and rule over the silver)
The strike closest to us twisted and snapped off its designated path, and two gems dried up. Chex's shoulders worked to shove us off the grey back, and his tail flicked breaths away from the lightning.
The grey reptile wailed and jerked, and we watched it fall, with smoky scales and battered wings and-
A wail of pain.
Fear barreled across my bond with Chex, and his scream pierced my mind, -Tairn!-
I leaned on my right, and Chex rushed down, his wings slightly too close, his fall too asymmetrical towards his guardian and the wyvern latched on his back leg for me to pull off a manouvre.
I ripped off the bindings of my tights, felt Heill's pommel in my palm, -Slow down, Chex!-
-But/-
-Trust them,- said Ronny, -Let them play their part.-
With a roar of effort and anger, Chex angled his wings and the speed slowed down, not drastically but enough for me to balance myself on his narrow shoulder, slide on his foreclaw.
A jump, and the wind rushed around my cheeks, between my hair. Onyx scales flashed in my view, and Violet might've screamed my name; I flashed Heill forward, and grey scales fell away and muscles got torn apart. Black blood splattered on my cheeks and neck and my clothes, and the pain stunned the wyvern long enough for Tairn to wrench it off himself.
The wind was a roar in my ears, and I forced myself to turn around and to spread my legs and arms.
Adrenaline sang in my veins, and I let out a laughing hoop. A shadow fell on me, and I snapped my arms and legs shut and turned sideways, and I watched Ronny falling to a dive next to me.
-Reckless kid,- he breathed, but his voice was warm.
His scales were blackened by enemy blood, and then he twisted below me and spread his wings wide.
My backleg thrummed in pain at the collision with his scales, and the wind now howled around his chest, under his wings.
I locked my tights and grasped his spike in front of me, Heill back on my back, and he pumped his wings and up we went.
I turned, and saw Chex following his guardian to safety, and my heart eased at his unmarred beauty.
Then, I righted myself, placed my palm on his scales, -One last dance, Ro?-
A wyvern was falling towards us, and his last wingbeat was thunderous, -Let's.-
Our minds entwined, and we were but one, and our roar to the enemy could split the sky.
The collision had our legs clinging to our scales for my life,  and we grasped the smaller beast's snout and wrenched it open.
At our copper flames its insides burned out just as its wings, and after we kicked it off, our wings angled and the earth rushed towards us.
We breathed fire, and with a smart-worded spell we split the firetongue in different branches which sizzled the wind and sky.
A wyvern tried to bite off our neck, but our spikes dug in its maw, magic split its bones.
Our muscles flexed, and we wrenched a wing off its hinges, snapped a neck with a flex of biceps, clawed bloody grey scales.
But gleefulness at our kills made us unaware of the fact that Feirge too had fallen after Tairn, and that the fight drew us away from wall and the rest of the squad.
We were alone in the sky, which was free from any rain.
It was a sudden thing.
A whistle high up, and green fire rushed towards us. We cast a spell, watched the flames running past our horns, so bright it hurt our eyes.
Our pupils narrowed and as we tried to regain sight, we heard a beat of wings, and a crack rang in the air.
We screamed, pain flaring from our split wing, and gravity called us. As we fell backwards, our belly was open to them, and grey claws sank in it.
We roared again, slashed our talons, and the spell healed up our wings, but our gems were already drained, and the bones were fragile and broken in many points.
We hauled ourselves and the wyvern back up, and our minds barreled towards them all, but their consciousness was flimsy and liquid, and a grey shoulder rammed our flank. Teeth snapped at our shoulder, and we tried to spin around and kick it away.
But another, smaller wyvern fell on us and bit us down, right between our horns and the first spike.
Our hands were shaking around the spike, and our tights weakened their grip when its maw was twisted broken.
We snaked our head off its grasp and breathed fire at it, but the wyvern locked on our belly steeled its claws, and we howled and jerked.
Our blood was red and hot and thick, and the wyvern's fangs found our jugular, held us down to submission.
Our shriek was fainter at the edges, and our claws weaker.
We called up magic again, broke the enemy's wing, who kicked us away before falling off.
Our wingbeats were unrhymed, and our breath rasp and high pitched when another one took the other's place.
It was so quick we barely had time to breathe, barely time to blink off the blindness in our eyes.
A wyvern tore off a chunk of our tights, and the one holding us by the throat slashed at our belly and skin and muscles.
Our bodies slacked, young and old, sweaty and dull.
We had been flying for long enough.
Why was death so slow to come?
A silver gleam amidst the grey.
Our poor eyes tracked the light, and a quick, fleeting jolt of fear and hope followed a single heartbeat, pumped out our blood.
Chex hovered under the moonlight, his black talons stretched forward.
We blinked, tried to focus on his muzzle, remember his rounded snout, the shape of his eyes.
His wingbeats sent powerful gusts of wind down towards us, which were fresh around our bloodied scales and damp hair.
Another wingbeat, and wyverns hissed.
Light started glinting between his claws; no, not light; but an essence, transparent and bright, which twisted and curled and hummed and served the dragon who'd voiced it alive.
Chex's scales glowed as golden as the first sun rays, and a Name which should've never been voiced was pronounced by his smooth voice.
Our hearts missed a beat.
What had he done?
The world tilted, rearraged itself; light quivered, then stilled, then barreled up and around and below.
Winds howled; wyverns screeched and their scales and bones turned to dust, which turned to nothingness; the earth cracked; our ribs caved in and our hearts rolled and bashed and our Names screamed in answer to magic's own.
Our minds got flung apart, and I couldn't breathe, my eyes blind.
My whole soul burned, itched, and I screamed, or was it Ronny's own voice?
I coughed and spat blood, and my tights were shaking and my hands slipped off the white spike.
The wards rippled and roared to life, thick with magic, and Chex's breath was shaky and broken.
"Chex!" I cried out, then doubled over to cough blood, to follow with my eyes my golden dragon's wings falling and back falling and tail falling.
-No!-
But it wasn't my voice.
Ronny beat a single wingbeat, twisted his great body around and down. His blood dirted the sky, and pain pulsed in his belly, in his neck, in his thigh.
He stretched out his claws, drew his battered wings along his flanks.
We both cried in pain when Chex's chest slammed against his bloodied belly, and with a grunt of effort he flipped us around and wrapped his friend, my mate, with his wings.
Another scream, and his magic shoved against my chest and arms and legs and I was flung out of the seat.
My shoulder and knuckles scraped against a crumbled chunk of stone, and the dragons clashed on the ground, and our bones were broken and tattered by the fall.
I couldn't breathe.
My sight was half darkness, half dust, and a faint voice was saying something somewhere.
Perhaps above me, or was it my left?
Hands grasped me, checked my heartbeat.
No.
I whimpered, sobbed, stretched out my arms and grasped the dirt with shaky hands.
The voice said something, but I groaned and huffed and dragged myself forward. My legs were broken, and so were my ribs and my shoulder where I'd fallen on Heill, and at every little stone and battered remnants of the wall and at the pressure of the gems and at the click clack of my sword I was blind and I thought I'd die.
Still, I had to keep going.
Ronny's scales were blurred by my pain and my tears by the time I crawled near enough for me to somehow see him.
Bones cracked when he moved, and a single great, brown eye cracked open and a wing rustled up.
Chex's silver body was smooth, and his breaths were quiet and soft, and shadows gently brought me up to them both.
A smile quivered on my lips, and I pressed my palm on Ronny's cheek.
-Xaden,- he rasped, his eye flicking to someone behind me, -Your sibling's hurt.-
His pupil flitted back down to me again, and its black grew larger and softer, before it rolled up and inwards and darkness rolled over us both.
The void claimed my bond with Ronny right after.
I kept wheezing out breaths.

A/N
At least he died looking at his partner of heart and mind so he died happily... Right? 😩😩