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"Because it's terrified."

"Fear does not absolve destruction."

"No. But it matters."

"It matters to you."

"It should matter to you too."

The creature reached toward Poppy. I stepped in front of her and raised my sword. "Touch her and I will end you."

"Azaren."

"Stay behind me."

"Look at it."

"I am."

"No. Really look."

I did. The creature's arm trembled. Its cracked fingers remained extended. Not attacking. Asking. Poppy moved beside me again.

"Maybe it isn't trying to pull us in." Her words were maddeningly sensible. "It wants the door opened."

"What door?"

"To its realm."

"It's gone."

The creature made a sound so small it barely carried. "Gone?"

Poppy's face crumpled. Damn her. Damn the softness in her. Damn the way she could look at something capable of destroying worlds and still see its pain. She lowered herself slowly to one knee. "Your home is gone."

The creature stared at her. "No."

"I'm sorry."

"No!"

The ground lurched. The fissure opened wider. Trees toppled at the edge of the clearing. I seized Poppy and pulled her against me. The creature screamed. Magic erupted from its body. The force threw us backward. I twisted in the air, taking the impact as we struck the ground. Pain tore through my wing.

Poppy gasped beneath me. "Are you hurt?"

"No." A lie, she saw right through. Blood spread across the frozen leaves beneath my shoulder.

The ground split beside us. A section of the clearing collapsed into the breach. Poppy slid screaming. At the last moment, I caught her wrist. But her body swung over the darkness.

"Azaren!"

"Don't worry. I've got you."

I drove the claws of my other hand into the frozen earth. The ground crumbled beneath them. The creature's power pulled at us both. Poppy looked down. There was no bottom. Only fragments of worlds spinning through blackness.

"Don't let go."

"I had not planned to."