Ah, blood. I clutch my side. Even the smallest of breaths stabs my gut. I think a few of my ribs are broken.“Suptaleah,”I tell my body as I seek out Adraa amid the ash. She’s gone again.
“Adraa?” I scream. My lungs feel like they’re about to explode in my chest, like bone fragments are piercing my air supply.“Cyavateleah,”I cast again, with more strength. The pain eases, slightly, as my body is told to forget the agony.
“Adraa?” I call as I stand. The gray darkness whirls.
“Jatin? Jatin! Where are you?”
Finally.“Adraa!” I move to the sound of her voice. Then there she is, only meters away. We run toward each other. Right as I reach her, the ground rumbles. I think Adraa and I have made it worse. This is it. Mount Gandhak has had enough of our antics. It’s going to go.
“Are you okay?” we yell at the same time.
She nods. It’s enough.
“We can’t fix it with physical force.”
“I know!” I yell over the roar.
Boom!Blazing, unnatural red fire explodes and interrupts the sea of gray. Adraa and I shield our faces because with this light, we can see everything. Orange, pink, and blue streams of magic wrestle with the clouds, but they can’t stop the lava.Gushesorexplodesis too tame a word for the fury before us. I stare into pure unyielding fire, a two-month-long inferno that will wipe out both our cities. Before it was my life crumbling in front of me with the loss of Adraa. Now it is the world, the physical world erupting. And we still can’t seem to do anything to stop it.
“We have to move.”
That’s all Adraa needs for motivation. We run. My lungs answer with a piercing pang.
“Do you have any ideas?” Adraa yells.
I rack my brain. We could try starting over at the base and climbing, ringing the mountain in a shell of ice. We could create deep trenches. But I have a feeling neither idea will work. A wall or a trench would only buy us time, a few hours at most. We need to stop it completely.
“Can we corrupt the firelight? Make it so it won’t last months.” My right arm is numb with tingling spikes. I shake it. I meant to numb only my ribs.I must have—
“No, I made sure firelight’s longevity could never be tampered with,” Adraa says.
“We have to figure out something. A disadvantage evenyoucouldn’t think of.” My foot slips and I stumble. I call to my orange magic for strength or precision. But nothing—my Touch looks dull and the numbness in my arm only sharpens.What the—
Pain swallows my head. I clutch at it with a gasp. My vision blurs.What’s wrong with me?
“Jatin?”
“I’m fine.”
But then I process what is happening, and fear shoots through me. So this is what it feels like to burnout, for your magic to collapse within you. Gods, it’s worse than I could have imagined. I’m dissolving.
I meet the hard earth with a thud. Black wavering dots stream in front of my eyes. Pain engulfs my rib cage and squeezes, unwilling to forget any longer.
Adraa shouts and tugs me toward her. My arms lie limp at my sides, unmovable. My nerves seem to have liquefied. I’m going to fail her, leave her here amid this destruction. I’m going to die. Her voice sounds far away. “Jatin! Just hang on. Just—”
“Adraa, I’m sorry. I’m so—” Before I can finish my sentence, the world goes dark.
I should know how to save both my world and Jatin, but I don’t. I hold Jatin’s unconscious body in my arms, trembling as heat blasts my face. He’s fine for now, just a bad burnout, I think, I hope. No matter what, I can’t leave him on the ground to die without protection. I am left to choose—fight the volcano or save Jatin’s life.
I’ll try to help you,Erif had said.
“Help! Erif, help me! I don’t know how to stop it.”
Nothing happens. Lava surges toward us in the distance. All around me the earth cracks open and steam shoots in the air. Sulfur overrides my nostrils and burns them. Our parents…It must be becoming too much for them.
“Zaktirenni!”I yell to carry Jatin’s weight. Gripping him under his arms, I pull him down the slushy slope he created to get us up here. With a few raw green magic spells, I dig a moat that connects to the trenches Jatin and I crafted. It might buy us a few minutes. But I don’t know what good it can do, really. I’m alone, with no plan. Panic blossoms angry excuses in my head.Of course I couldn’t do this. I failed my ceremony. I am no rani. What did Erif expect? She should have known I wasn’t good enough.
I touch Hubris the Third on my belt, then jerk my hand away at the thought. I bite my lip and let my screams take hold. Mount Gandhak isn’t the only one that can explode. When I open my eyes, with one look at Jatin and the echoing shrieks of the earth burning my ears, it’s clear. I won’t leave him. And I won’t leave my country to be destroyed.