Daniel. I pushed myself up to my feet suddenly to scour the area. He should have killed me, but then I noted Daniel’s lifeless form not far from where I’d woken. I couldn’t believe it. He was dead. The battle around us had died along with him.
Ava’s knife lay beside him stained with his lifeblood and I was impressed, and a little irate, by her limitless ferocity. She was on the floor not far from him, exhausted as she lay in a dark pool, but she didn’t stir. I looked again. There was a lot of blood. She didn’t strike me as delicate around the sight of it.
“You’re such a reckless creature.” I sighed, dropped to my knees next to her, and brushed the hair from her face. Her skin was rosy but it wasn’t as warm as it should have been. She didn’t stir. “Ava?”
I shook her shoulders and rolled her toward me. Her chest was still, and worse still, a hole in her abdomen glared up open and ugly against what colour remained of her dress. There was so much blood. It wasn’t real. It wasn’tI felt cold.
“Ava,” I said more sternly this time. “Open your eyes.” I shook her again. Her shoulders moved inertly against my hands. “Ava,” I yelled, supporting her head as I lifted her into a sitting position against my knee, “open your eyes.” The others approached but I didn’t care.
I called her name until my voice was raw. “You won again,” I said. “The wager – I lost it.” My mouth tightened and I swallowed. “Please,” I begged. “Please.” My voice cracked and I whispered over and over again, praying to Miah and Kano and Manai and whoever else was listening. Tears sprung in my eyes and leaked angrily as I held her close to me and rocked her back and forth. They all watched me with my grief. I didn’t care.
“Ethan.” Willow placed her hand gently on my back. She had a nasty cut across her face.
“We were too late,” I said, pressing Ava's forehead against mine. I didn’t want to let her go.
“The wound is too deep,” she said with a wavering voice. “She wouldn’t have lived through it.”
“She died for you,” Roan said with a bitter tone and stared through glassy eyes. Ric supported him as he limped toward them.
I roared. “You have no right-”
Roan cut me off. “She said she’d seen you die in her dreams. She begged me to let her go.”
The moon peeked above the horizon beside us and Willow wiped her eyes. “We need silvers and incense for Oemis to come for her and the Daenia will guide him. She won’t be alone.” Her voice wavered.
The Daenia. I racked my brain trying to remember what Daniel had said about her. Stephan’s niece – Catriona…
“Ava’s mother was Stephan’s sister,” Ethan said. “Stephan is Ava’s uncle.”
“What about it?” Ric asked wiping his eyes.
“What if Stephan didn’t just lose his power? What if his power was pulled to someone more worthy of it?” Ethan looked at her, hope springing in him. “Catriona was a temple priestess-”
“Yes, of Miah, Fraer and Nianne, what of it?” Alistair asked impatiently.
“Is it possible?” Ric said, catching on.
I removed my cuff, letting the ugly stamp glow in the growing moonlight. “She was the only one to see things at Adrian’s household, warn us of dangers no Gnathian could predict and lived through landing in a patch of Bitterblacks.” I picked up Ava’s dagger and tore the top of her dress open above her heart. Quickly, I drew the Eldryn’s mark into the skin and prayed to the Daeus that it was right. “Why else would Stephan be so adamant on taking revenge on his own sister?”
“What are you doing?”
“She can’t die again if it fails. But if I succeed I can make her what she was meant to be – if she was meant to be it.” Adrenaline pulsed through me. “I can bring her back.”
I gripped the blade and split my hand open, waiting for blood to collect in the centre. Magic and energy moved around me and I whispered the incantations Keagan taught me so long ago. In one, smooth motion I turned my hand over, pressing it into the mark of Ava’s chest, fusing her blood with mine.
Her chest spasmed as energy jolted through her and I cried out as my arm was blown backwards. The symbol above Ava’s heart glowed fiery for a moment and faded. Everyone was still.
“Did it work?” Ric asked.
Ava’s wrist was still limp in my remaining good hand and there was no pulse. “I’ll try again.”
Ric grasped my wrist and I gasped, swearing at him violently. “That one jolt already broke your arm.”
“I’ll break everything if I have to.” My hand was still bleeding and I gathered my energy before starting the chant again. Alistair wrapped his hands around me and dragged me away. I lashed and fought with whatever strength I had left, screaming out as Willow wrapped Ava’s body. “No, I can fix her. Let me go! I can fix her!”
“Let’s get back to the house.” Willow sniffed. “We can give her to the earth at dawn after the ceremony. I don’t want her body burned with the rest of those animals.”
Roan wiped his eyes and stooped to lift Ava’s body into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered and kissed her forehead.
And there she was. Our energetic, fearless, infuriating Ava…My Ava, though I never told her what she meant to me. I felt the tears cut down my cheeks again as the anger and despair built inside me. I wanted to scream and tear someone apart.
It had happened again.
Lavender sobbed into Willow’s arms as Roan picked her up like a feather and folded her hands to rest on her body. He and Ric cried as well, but it wouldn’t bring her back.
She was gone.
A rhythmic beat started slow and quiet but quickly picked up, bringing us to an immediate standstill.
“What is that?” Ric asked, looking around us.
I wrestled my way out of Alistair’s arms and laughed deliriously along with Lavender. Willow pressed her fingers against Ava’s cheeks and the pale skin quickly blushed with pink as her chest rose ever so slightly.
“It’s her heart.”
Acknowledgements
Firstly I think it's only right to thank everyone who ever knew about Trapped in Silver. After eight years you were probably ready to throttle me, so thank you for letting me live to see it published.
I know I mentioned them at the beginning but to my parents, Peter and Teresa Sowden, I owe everything to. From late nights, constant disappointment, and the endless click-clacking of the keyboard, you never once told me to give up or move on. My path as a writer has been a difficult one but thank you for helping me through the hard times and for being disappointed for me when the rejections came in. Thank you for the cups of tea, for listening to me bitch about how crappy my day-job had been that day, and for supporting me in every way. I couldn't have made it this far without you.