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I smile widely, but my smile falls. Liquid sprays from Jinx’s limp form as the queen tries to dislodge her bite. A large gash splits open in Jinx’s right side, and her right tail is missing, the other two matted with blood. I gape, terror holding me in place. Then the queen sweeps her limb down. I scream, “NO!”

The leg crashes into the Tapestry’s edge, and Jinx rips free. Her limp body spirals down into the gap, towards the pit below.

I don’t think. I dive off the ledge, tears dripping from me as I scream, my eyes burning. Fire erupts all around, stinging my form painfully, but my wings do not come. I try again and again, trying to force my two flames into compliance. The pain is near-blinding, and I bellow my rage, my tear-filled eyes trained on Jinx’s limp form.

With a surge of agony, my wings return to me with a blazing flourish of raw power that hurls me towards my familiar. I beat them, ignoring all the blistering pain and gaining speed as I dive. I stretch my arms, heart in my ears as I sob. Jinx’s broken body leaves a trail of glittering blood in her descent towards the darkness.

I wrap my arms around her fluffy neck. Wings beating wildly, I try to regain control of our descent, but it’s much harder than when it’s just me. I slow us, but we keep falling. I beg anyone who will listen, “Not Jinx. Please. Not Jinx. Not her. Please.”

Jinx’s large lungs suck in breath, and she twists her body. Her paws hit that sparkling star platform she creates under us, and I nearly lose my grip on her when we come to a jarring stop. She pants heavily.

I gasp as I drag myself higher up on her mane. “Make yourself small. I can fly us out. Just hold onto me, Jinx. I’ll save us.”

She says nothing as her lungs heave. Fear nearly robs me of my logic, but slowly, Jinx shifts to her housecat form. My wings flap, keeping us aloft. I clutch her to my chest. “Valen and Lucas are going to get us out of the statue. We just need to survive until then.”

I swish my wings, sending us higher and higher until I clear the edge of the Tapestry.

Jinx says, too weakly for my liking, “Stay close to the Tapestry.”

“Are you crazy? That thing will kill us like it killed Alasdair.”

“It’s your only hope. I carried you to this place from the statue, and I can’t take you back in my current state. If you’re by the Tapestry, your Soul Threads within your body’s heart will naturally summon you if you’re close enough to the Tapestry to be absorbed. But if you get too far from it, you’re at risk of missing that trigger and becoming lost.”

“You mean ‘our.’ ‘Our’ only hope. I’d rather die lost than leave you.”

Her feet twitch as I bank, diving closer to the Tapestry. “I’m too damaged, Tori.”

“Then I’ll drag you back! I am not losing you.”

My familiar laughs weakly. “I stayed to keep you alive. I loved Gildra too much to let her child die, and I loved you too much to abandon you to your father. Now that he’s dead, you’ll live. You’ll thrive with or without me.”

“Stop talking,” I snarl, weaving clumsily through spidery creatures that screech and swipe at us. “We are surviving. We are going to live and maybe even retire somewhere on a Southern beach, sunbathing and having a good time. That is our fate, Jinx. When I die, you’ll carry my soul back to the Tapestry, and we’ll go together.”

Her silence is more unnerving than her talking. I look down at her. “Jinx?”

A blow to my right sends us crashing to the ground. Jinx slips from my hold, her body lax and oozing back into her monstrous form. I drag myself up to my elbows.

Fuck. This. I am not dying now, and neither is Jinx.

I grit my teeth, my lips curling back, growling, “No.” I shove up, whipping around with a crack of fire. “NO!”

The queen’s eight limbs ripple towards me, her monstrous body making me feel like a fly before a tarantula. I point my finger, magic crackling in my voice as I roar, “I freed you!”

I suck in breath, my feet planted wide to shield Jinx’s body. “You’d still be in that fucking cocoon if not for me. You should be thanking me!”

The monster that my ancestors believed was a goddess opens its terrifying mouth. My fire roars around me, my skin glowing gold and black in the crackling flames. I smack my chest with my open palm. “I’ve fought for the basic right to live every single day of this gods forsaken existence! I’ll destroy you if I must, but I will not let you touch my familiar.” My flames crack like whips, keeping the creature from reaching forward. “You want a fight? Then come and fucking get it, bitch!”

Tingling pools in my fingertips, my toes. It grows like a swarm of bees is taking residence within my flesh. My hands are fading, and my eyes grow wide. I turn my back to the creature. I’m fading, but Jinx is not.

I exhale a terrified, “No.”

I throw myself on Jinx’s body, wrapping around her. “No!” The buzzing worsens, and I sob, “NO!” But no matter how much I roar, I continue to fade away while Jinx remains limp on the Tapestry. I wail, shaking my head, burying my face in her fluff, but the soft fur is waning from my senses. I fight vanishing with everything I have. My heart is thudding too fast, my tears raining down my face.

The Tapestry of Magic is fading away, and the receiving hall of the Archweaver estate overlaps it. I blink, one foot in both worlds. Lucas’ rings are glowing. He’s yelling, but I cannot hear him. My soul’s form within the Weave is forced into the same flat-on-my-back position as my physical body. I thrash against it, trying to get my arms around Jinx again, but it’s no use. I’m pinned.

Pain erupts down my chest. Valen appears in my vision, too pale and sweating, his hands glowing as he fights to close up my chest from when Jinx ripped through it to save me from Alasdair.

Blood is pouring from the corner of my lips as I return more and more to my broken body, dust from the stone statue Lucas and Valen dragged me from itching my skin. Tears slip down my face. I can’t feel Jinx under me, and I convulse in agony.