#unbriel

"Do not take more than you can channel," Tairn warns as he lunges forward. His teeth snap closed a few feet behind the wyvern's tail. They're too fucking fast. The wyvern dives, curving along the ridgeline to the right, and Tairn follows. A roar of unfettered agony fills my head, so loud it vibrates my bones and shrill enough to pop my ears. "Sgaeyl!" Tairn bellows, his wings losing their rhythm, and my heart skips a series of beats. Oh Malek, no. I hurl myself at the bond, but the wall of ice doesn't just stand firm; it repels me with brute force. —has he begun channeling yet? Ugh why can’t everyone just listen to Tairn!—

Andarna. —the fact Andarna is still top of this list… I have feelings… it’s no surprise of course I just have feelings— Xaden. Sgaeyl. —Sgaeyl on the list too… I’m fine… it’s fine. But what if that’s what Xaden left in her care *crying*— Mira. Brennan. My friends. They slip through my mind in a whirl of pictures I can't grasp on to, flickering too fast to fully feel. All I can do is ease off the pommels, lean right to spare the inevitable impact to my abdomen as the thick rope of the net digs into my back. "You have been the gift of my life," —those last same words! OW!— I tell Tairn. "It is not over!" he shouts. We hit with a jarring impact, bone crunching against rock, and my left arm snaps —in that time she sees a mender, her arm did break, and Brennan did not fix it as I doubt Imogen wiped his memory too— and the dagger falls. A scream forces its way through my lips as we slide down the mountain…..just like the first time we encountered Theophanie. —and Garrick showed up then too… he’s the Venin I just know it for a sick reason—

Holy shit, we just might survive the fall. "Of course we'll survive!" Tairn growls. "Are you hurt?" I ask Tairn as we come to a stop at what appears to be the edge of the forest. "Nothing that won't heal after we free ourselves and separate her sinew from bone." —Why is Tairn asleep at the end of this book?!— The scent of sulfur fills the air —everyone keeps mentioning that… are we sure it’s flame and not runes or something else? I mean it tracks for dragon warfare but I also pay intention to the repeats— as Tairn breathes fire through the net. Wood crackles and net thwangs. Then he surges forward and the net slips just enough for me to sit up through the opening that's clearly designed to hold dragons, not riders.

"Sgaeyl can handle herself," Tairn grits out, but bowstring-tight tension and worry radiate down the bond as fire streams again and he fights to get us loose. "And the dark wielder descends ahead." —some part of me thought he meant sensing Xaden fully turning— Sure enough, Theophanie's wyvern glides down toward the field like they have all the time in the world, like we're pinned exactly where she wants us. Gods, she's relentless. It doesn't matter that my arm throbs with excruciating intensity—we have to get out of here right fucking now.

For when you lose yours. Strike in the dark, Violet. — hellllooooo book cover quotes—

What the fuck? The fall has broken the wax seal, and the parchment unrolls as I loosen my grip, dropping a carved piece of gray marble in my lap—a ceremonial-looking dagger with familiar flame-shaped —what do they mean? Maybe more runes? Violets bad at them so she probably wouldn’t know (not a dis, just a note)— etchings along the hilt. I glance at the accompanying note from the high priestess of Dunne's temple in Aretia, but the letters blur as the pain in my arm flares and Tairn thrashes to free us. A gift from one servant of Dunne to another. I must warn you-only those touched by the gods should wield their wrath. I will pray to Her that she need not use it to avoid reacquainting herself with the other who curries her favor. Her path is still not set. —THAT QUOTE— My stomach pitches. How would Aaric know l'd lose my dagger, let alone think that some piece of rock could replace—"Ahead of us!" Tairn snaps, and I jerk my attention forward and sheathe the marble dagger out of instinct.

The pair? The scream. "They have Sgaeyl, too." Tairn's rage washes over me like acid. I put myself in front of Tairn —both Xaden and Violet protecting their dragons, dragon riders till the end *crying*— and open the floodgates to his power, welcoming the scorch of heat and flame in my blistered veins. "Silver One," Tairn growls in warning to the accompaniment of the sound of shredding rope. "If I burn out, so be it, but she won't touch you," I say aloud just so Theophanie will know I'm not fucking around. —okay sweet but also if you die he dies so… speaking of; why would they kill Sgaeyl? It would kill Violet who they seem to want alive… so— "Have you made your choice, then?" Theophanie asks, coming closer by the step. "I have." I flick my right hand skyward and let the energy snap through me, yanking it down with the tip of my finger. Theophanie races ten yards to the right, moving faster than I've ever seen. "You'll have to be—" I wield again before she can finish and strike the very place she's standing, earning an immediate clap of thunder. But she's already twenty feet to my left. "Faster," she finishes, and I strike again, only for the pattern to repeat. Again and again and again. My lungs scream as I breathe the very thing l've become, heat and power and rage, but she's still too fast for me to catch and moving closer to Tairn with every failed strike.

"Tell me, do you miss Unbriel?" Her eyes flare, and she startles. Victory. I gather more and more power, spooling it like molten thread. "Do you not yearn for temple?" I use the words the high priestess had on me. Her face twists with an emotion that almost looks like longing, but it's quickly masked with anger. "Do you?" she counters. "Or are you immune, having only been touched, but not dedicated?" —WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!— She charges forward. "Do you know the pain of never being allowed to return, of knowing that it would sever the very thing that's kept me untouchable all these years?" I let a fraction of my power release, striking the ground in front of her, and she skids to a halt. Touched. Shit, the priestess in Unbriel had said that, too. So had the note wrapped around Aaric's gift. "As a high priestess, you would have had immeasurable power on the isle. How was it still not enough?" "Why serve a god when you can be one?" Theophanie snarls. Putrid fear consumes the bond, followed by another roar that nearly buckles my knees. Sgaeyl. My head jerks upward, my heart lurching against the cage of my ribs as Tairn lurching against the cage of my ribs as Tairn snarls, his talons furrowing in the forest floor. "Don't!" —she knows right then… like Tairn said she would— Terror clogs my throat as I shout for Xaden, but he can't hear me. Draithus is enveloped in darkness, and the shrieking cries of wyvern soon follow, racing across the field and echoing off the rock above. "What—" Theophanie pivots toward the noise.

Shadow spreads like a ripple on a lake, devouring the field in the fury of an onyx storm —not the title quote we wanted— and sweeping toward us at a speed that squeezes the hope from my chest, then outright shatters my heart. The pain hits like a physical blow to the center of my chest. He's terrifyingly powerful with Sgaeyl, but not like this. This is the kind of force that ends worlds. And it's almost here. "I love you," I whisper down the bond, and the ice cracks, but it's not enough to halt the approaching wave of darkness. Shadow throws Theophanie to the ground a second before it rushes over me, whisper soft against my cheeks, tossing us into pitch-black night. "Strike!" Tairn snaps, and I hear the net give way. Exhaustion grabs hold and refuses to be ignored. I'm too tired. Too close to burning alive. What's the point if I can't catch her? "Use the darkness!" Tairn orders. My heart stutters. Use the very thing that's taking Xaden from me? —that line hurt— I never dreamed that taking every possible path to cure him would lead to his choice. The fire devouring me from the inside out threatens to consume my very bones, and for a second, I debate letting it. I couldn't stop my mother, and I can't stop Xaden. I can't save him. Wait. Strike in the darkness. That's what Aaric's note said... —also the book cover— Like he knew this would happen. I gasp as all the pieces click in one overwhelming heartbeat. The reinforcements. Telling me to guard Dunne's temple. Yanking Lynx out of the way before the doors even opened to the great hall. He knew. He's been manifesting this entire time. "He's a fucking precog," I whisper in awe. —I KNEW IT— A real one-not like Melgren, who can only foresee battles —ps if it is Garrick they may be able to stay invisible thanks to relics—. If Aaric wields true precognition, he saw this, and he gave me a weapon made of the fractured temple—a temple Theophanie can't step inside. I don't believe in oracles, but I do believe in signets. I unsheathe the marble dagger with my right hand, then mix my pain into the searing power that scorches what's left of my beating heart, lift my broken arm, and release the agonizing burn of energy skyward. And hold it. The continuous strike lights up our surroundings and branches out through the shadow, revealing Theophanie's back. She stumbles to her feet and whirls toward me, her eyes flaring wide, and she dives left, smacking into an invisible wall and falling backward. A wall that snarls. Scales shimmer to the same silver-blue as my strike, and a small dragon stalks toward Theophanie, her head low, teeth bared. And just like that, my stammering heartbeat stabilizes. Andarna. —how long was she there, why was the bb there? I’m glad! I missed bb dragon… just have questions—