Dammit! Michelle! Einhen!
The shop was utterly engulfed… with the exception of one patch of ceiling, fallen through, blackened, but extinguished by a layer of ice. The fourth dragon, forgotten—a tortoiseshell of black and white and chilly blue—was receding in the sky above, snow spilling down into the inferno surrounding me… and Einhen was gone. Wounded and dangling like a doll in the mouth of that serpent.
Dammit!
Wincing, I forged through the collapsing shop and backroom, into the cellar, and then up a small stairwell and through the cellar door, which Michelle had left open for some reason…
Not Michelle… not Michelle too…
Dragging Khem’s limp legs over the shallow stairwell with me, I trudged out into the snow, scanning the dark and solitary street as Gordon’s Instruments collapsed behind us.
Theon
There she was. I saw her in the distance, cowering near another storefront, partially obscured by some crates. “Michelle!” I called, scanning the street once more for any ice dragons and then plowing through the tundra. My shoulder supported Khem’s limp weight, and he jostled with my every step, unconscious.
Michelle drew forward, her eyes starry, her breath shallow. “Is he dead?” she whispered.
I pursed my lips. Khem’s labored breathing rattled against my shoulder—it wouldn’t be long. Not in this cold. He wouldn’t be able to heal. I didn’t want Michelle to see it. I’d meant it when I’d said that her kingdom was comprised of markets and maidens; she didn’t need it bloodied by this memory of a far-away place, choked in snow and battle.
“He’ll be fine,” I lied. “We just need to find shelter as quickly as possible.”
Michelle nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
“You are going to look through every window in Luna Quarter,” I commanded. “It is the adjacent street just ahead of us, across from the castle. We must find a hideout until the alarm dies off. And I… I will stay with Khem for just a moment. He needs… to lie down.”
Michelle nodded again, and wound her furs tightly around herself, pushing off through the snowy crust toward Luna Quarter. A bittersweet swell of pride rose in my chest as I realized that I was not afraid for her safety. Michelle would take care of herself first and foremost. She would have been a natural queen… if I’d never met Penelope.
Receding to the darkened line of buildings at the side of the street, I eased Khem down and tried to get a look at him. His eyes were barely open.
As the snow fell around us, softer now, Khem shuddered and gripped my hand. Then his grip loosened. He let out a rattling breath, and a plume of pearly smoke filled the air.
His fire was gone.
He was dead.
Grimacing, I laid Khem flat on the ground and stared at him. I didn’t know quite what to do. I couldn’t just leave his body, nor could I carry him to our next safe house. He had left a trail of blood from the cellar door to the middle of the street and back again. Tracking us would be simple.
I took a deep breath, assuaging the sting of tears. I could have buried him. Crisp white snow fell all around us. I could have shoveled it onto him and dusted my hands, satisfied, but it haunted me to think that Khem would be buried by the very element that had killed him. If it weren’t for the damn snow, maybe he could have healed.
Though it was probably unlikely.
Still, it wasn’t a proper burial for a fire dragon. To bury a fire dragon in ice was nearly as disrespectful as burying him upside down.
Standing, I breathed one swath of white-hot flame over Khem’s body. It was slow to catch, but then the snow surrounding us melted away, and the fire took hold. He was briefly a pillar of fire in an otherwise bleak and colorless landscape.
“Theon!” Michelle belted out my name as if we weren’t committing espionage very near to the castle. “Are you okay? What’s—Khem!” Her mouth dropped open and her eyes swung, uncomprehending, as she reached us. “What did you do to him?”
“I gave him a farewell,” I whispered, still watching the flames and smoke trail up into the sky.
Michelle stood near to me for a moment, but then she said, “We should go.”
I knew it was true; an exposed fire would bring ice guards within a matter of minutes. It wouldn’t be long now—and they’d be searching all the surrounding shops, unless the snow put out this tongue of flame before they observed it.
“I wish Khem had waited to die until after my good news,” Michelle mourned.
I glanced over at her in disgust. How could a creature as selfish as Michelle Ballinger exist? She had to have been a sociopath.
“I found an abandoned clothing store at the far end of Luna Quarter,” Michelle explained. “It wasn’t even open. I forced the lock all by myself. Like a badass.”