Page 95 of The Ember and the Emerald

Light burst from the impact, rippling outward. A translucent sphere snapped into place around us, the air humming as though strung too tight. I almost couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.

Fire slammed against the barrier in violent waves, splashing harmlessly away. When the assault faltered, the monstra circling beyond, heads swiveling, eyes sliding over us without recognition.

We were invisible to them? “What is this?” I whispered.

Jasher shrunk to his half-shifted form and slumped forward, suddenly small in the vast sky. His hand tightened on the pegacorn’s reins as if it were the only thing keeping him upright. But Skyprancer was fading.

I looked down and whimpered. Starflight was fading too, her mane no longer catching the light, only shadow. It was thinning, strand by strand, colors paling, edges blurring like breath on glass. Her wings passed through her sister’s, the feathers losing shape and substance.

I pressed a hand over my mouth, halting a cry. Neither pegacorn’s hooves were striking clouds. They didn’t make a sound at all.

Even their outlines faded, until Jasher and I were alone in the bubble, floating down, down.

He met my gaze, saddened. “That was their death knell,” he told me softly. “They saved us, and spent themselves to do it.”

29

BITTERSWEET GOODBYES

Pop. The sound was small but final as the bubble vanished. Our feet met the ground with ease, glitter raining upon us, a soft shower and the only remnant of the pegacorns’ beauty and sacrifice.

No monstra had followed us. Unable to see us, they’d scattered.

Now, Skyprancer and Starflight were simply… gone. As I stood there, breathing, the air felt wrong. Empty in a way that hurt, as though something essential had been removed. I pressed a hand between my breasts. The sisters had been so pure. Creatures born of light, love, and sky. Too gentle for this world. They hadn’t hesitated to save us and condemn themselves.

My throat closed around a sound I couldn’t make. I covered my mouth, as if that might contain the distress, but it surged anyway, cracking me open from the ribs.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. The words rang hollow. “I’m so sorry.”

Glitter clung to my palms, my clothes, even the stone at my feet. Shards of what they’d once been.

I closed my eyes as Jasher spun me into him, urging me to bury my face in the dip of his neck.

“Am I making everything worse?” I cried. Before, the pegacorns survived beyond this point.

He stroked my hair and clutched my lower back, keeping me tucked into his warmth. “You make everything better, and they knew it. That’s why they did what they did.”

Something in his tone… “You intend to do something.” I looked up at him, eyes burning. He couldn’t mask his sorrow.

The only way to clear the board was to remove the monstra… through Ian’s death. Instant victory for King Ahav. Instant death for Jasher. I stiffened.

“You plan to kill Ian,” I stated, hollow.

A clipped nod. “Without him, the monstra go away.”

I shook my head with violent force, pulling back while gripping his shirt. “And what of you? Us?” I couldn’t lose him.

The sadness leaked into his wings, and they drooped. “There may not be an us, after the Ring of Truth.”

So. He sensed the doom stalking us, too. Whatever we learned could tear us apart for good.

A noise behind us had him whirling around, pulling from my hold, ready for battle.

I cast my gaze beyond our little world, marveling. “Where are we?”

“The royal stables,” he intoned.

Talk about a dagger to the heart. The pegacorns had carried us to their home. Exactly where we’d hoped to be. And yet, trepidation shook my knees.