Chapter 119

I wiped at my eyes and nose, then a combination of sobs and gags lurched from my mouth as I pressed my cheek into the cold metal. The Saelis had come to open the rings to Mayvel and Wix. What if I was already too late?

"Absidy." Poh's voice behind me, tight and filled with warning.

I snapped my eyes open.

Enormous, black-scaled feet tipped with curled claws stepped toward my head. A deep tremble rattled down my back. My body shrank away instinctively, but I froze when the Saelis stopped about a foot away. Terror swept the air from my lungs as I waited for my inevitable death.

I'd tried. Feozva knew I'd tried to stop them.

But the killing blow never landed. I risked a glanced upward, at its tufts of white hair, its long snout with razored teeth, its glowing green eyes aimed slightly to my right. I followed its gaze. My bandage must have fallen off, but underneath the thick layers of blood, gray scales reached up past my elbow. They were spreading.