After we found the Lyre and made it back home safely, I never thought I would be running through a forest again being chased by another shadow creature. This time, there wasn't any saviour barrier to protect us. Now, we just had our own wits and breathless hopes and prayers. I didn't even have laces in my boots either.

We darted between the trees, Stelni keeping the lead. How far were we going to run until we found a way to escape the beast or it caught up to us? There was no way we could keep this up forever.

Without warning, we burst into a clearing where a village sat snuggly in the middle. A short hill stood behind it, creating a perfect defence from any oncoming attackers. It was the worst possible thing to find, especially since the crimson-winged Dragon-born I followed ran straight towards it, using her wings to help propel her forward.

"Stelni! Turn!" I yelled, hoping she would hear me. There were going to be people in that village and we were about to bring a shadow creature their way. We were going to put everyone in danger.

Stelni turned back and frowned before continuing forward. "No! Keep going!"

"We can't go into the village! We'll get more people killed!"

"It will be fine," she called back, picking up speed. "Trust me!"

Trust her? How did Stelni expect me to trust her when from the very moment I met her she had tricked and lied to me? What if this was some sort of trap? Even if it wasn't, there were innocent people about to be ripped to shreds by the growling shadow creature behind me.

I broke off from Stelni's path and turned back into the forest, praying that the beast would follow me since I was closer to it — an easier option for it to kill — but, when I looked over my shoulder, I found that it still followed the Dragon-born. A wing-brained woman who still headed into the village.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath. What was I going to do now?

As much as I wanted to run for it and leave Stelni to deal with the creature and any repercussions it might have had for the village to keep myself safe, if she died, so did my chances of getting Zofia back. My sister was worth risking the odds of dying and witnessing the destruction of buildings.

I chased after them and, with every step closer, I realised the village wasn't all what it seemed. It had already been destroyed and there weren't any people in sight. Houses had holes ripped into them from creatures hungry to get inside. Market stalls had been torn to the ground, the wares that had been on sale now trampled on and broken. Debris lay scattered around, chunks of wood from roofs or walls sitting in the cobbled streets that I nearly tripped over as I searched for any signs of Stelni or the shadow beast.

It wasn't until I rounded a corner that I found them. The Dragon-born was perched on the top of a roof and the creature sniffed the ground below her, trying to find out where she might have gone. It traced her scent in circles, each round making it more and more angry.

"It can't hear us!" Stelni shouted from the top of the building when she noticed me hiding. "It doesn't have any sort of ears!"

I quickly backed up behind the house in case her yell alerted the creature to my presence, but there was no change. There weren't any sudden movements or growls to indicate it had heard her. It only continued to sniff the ground. It was just like when me, Zofia, and Larc had fallen into those ruins and encountered the blind beast, only this one was deaf.

This one was going to be much more difficult to get around.

"Okay. What do we do?" We needed to slowly back away from the creature and get as far from it as possible. That would be easy for me to do since I was hidden, but if Stelni jumped down or flew into the sky, it would see her.

Stelni pulled out two daggers and stanced herself ready to strike the shadow beast.

"No! That won't work. There's something that stops weapons from harming them." She must not have had to fight one of them before. Unless the one we had encountered was the only one that couldn't be pierced.

The creature raised its head, catching the scent of something else in the area. As soon as it took one step towards me, I turned and ran, the sound of a furious snarl following close behind.

Why had I followed Stelni? She might have been fine by herself perched on top of that roof. The damned Dragon-born could fly! Why hadn't she picked us up and flown us out as soon as we reached the clearing? Now I was going to be the beast's next meal.

Stelni leapt across rooftops above me, attempting to catch up with me, but it was no use. The faster I seemed to run, the closer the creature bit at my legs. The only reason I still sprinted down the paths and road between houses was because of my poor dodges.

With a clawed foot, the beast swiped at my legs instead and struck true, digging them deep into my thigh. I fell to the ground, screaming out in pain as I tried to dislodge the sharp talons before it dragged me closer. It didn't work, nothing worked.

"Haera!" Stelni cried, jumping down from the rooftop with a graceful thud.

The creature retracted its claws, satisfied that I wouldn't be able to run away and prowled closer. It was going to take its time with this and there was nothing I could do but shuffle backwards leaving a trail of blood.

I had no weapons, no shoes, and an injured leg to stop me from making any sort of escape. I was fucked. Closing my eyes, I prayed to the Goddess and hoped she could hear me. I asked her to take care of Zofia, to make sure she was okay and no harm would befall her. Before I could ask the Goddess to protect my mother too, a flash of purple appeared in front of me.

The creature screeched and stumbled back, forgetting about its prey for a split moment so Stelni could help me limp away.

"I think it's retreating, but we should hide to make sure," the Dragon-born decided, guiding us over to an outdoor storage closet and pulling us inside. She squeezed her wings tightly around us and she held me firmly against her body to keep me from falling down. Against my back, I could feel her chest push into me, forcing heat to rise to my face.

Blood dripped down my leg as we waited for the beast to lose interest in us and prowl away. Or was that water? I was still soaked through from my fall into the river earlier that I couldn't tell. Gooseflesh lined my arms and a shiver crept up my spine, making it difficult to think.

"I can't hear the beast anymore, let's get out." Stelni reached over me to open the door to the closet, keeping one hand on a blade just in case it were to leap out at us. What if had traced the scent of my blood and was hiding outside? Our surroundings were clear. "Let's get somewhere warmer too." Her arms returned to me, acting as a brace to help keep my weight off of my injured leg.

With a quick scan of the area, Stelni broke into one of the houses that hadn't been too destroyed. Only a few windows were shattered and a small hole had been ripped into the brickwork — it might have been the best house there. The Dragon-born led me inside and sat me in front of the fireplace, crouching down and collecting what was left of the kindling and throwing it in.

"Won't a fire just summon more creatures to us from the smoke?" I questioned, straightening my leg and wincing as the claw marks stretched with the motion.

"Not if the fire doesn't produce any smoke," Stelni replied with a smirk. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes to concentrate, then flicked her wrist to create a patch of purple flames. She had magic too. What was it with Dragon-borns and hiding their magic? How did they even have magic?

As I was about to voice my thoughts, the heat from her fire wrapped around me and soothed the chill from my body. It was warmer than anything I had ever felt. The interrogation could come later when I wasn't bleeding out or sodden.

"I'm going to search the house for any spare clothes these people might have left behind or if they somehow have anything to help your leg." She stood quickly, beginning her hunt in the kitchen where she pulled open every drawer and cupboard in the hope of finding medical supplies.

Now would be the perfect time to have Zofia by my side. Her powers would have been a blessing to have access to — figuratively and literally. A sensation akin to disgust coiled in my chest. I hated that I was so weak I had to rely on Stelni to help me — a Dragon-born of all people. I should be better than this.

Stelni came back with a frown etched into her lips. "There's absolutely nothing here. They must have packed up and left before the village was torn into." She crouched down beside me once more and pulled her shirt off with one fluid tug over her wings. "Alright, clothes off."

The sight of her sudden nudity and her cleavage in my face had me stunned into silence.

"You can wear this while they dry." The Dragon-born motioned for me to lift my arms so she could do the task for me.

"What?" I hugged myself, making sure my shirt stayed firmly on my body. "No. I'm not taking my clothes off." Put myself in an even more vulnerable position than I was now? There wasn't a chance I would do that.

"So, you want to freeze to death instead?" She shrugged. "Suit yourself. Taking your trousers off would also make it easier to treat that wound of yours, but if you want to risk an infection too, that's on you."

"Fuck you," I retorted with a scowl, my teeth chattering together as I spoke. The fire had been wonderful at first, but not even a strange purple flame could solve all of my problems.

Stelni raised a brow as she took a seat next to me. "You're not going to get your sister back from Nusal with an awful attitude like that. I'm trying to help you and all you're doing is-" Thunder cracked outside and a downpour of rain began, causing the Dragon-born to mutter a curse under her breath. We had been so distracted that we hadn't noticed the dark clouds rolling over us.

"What?" I asked as a panicked look crossed her features.

"A thunderstorm. That's the last thing we want." Her jaw set in a hard line as she gazed towards the sky.

"And why is that?" I asked as I shuffled closer to the fire.

"Dragon-borns can't fly in thunderstorms. Rain makes our wings heavy, which some talented flyers can deal with, but we do not want to risk getting struck by lightning." Stelni's wings fluttered as she thought.

"At least the guards won't be after us." I moved to rub my arms to bring some warmth back into them, but my fingers were so numb I could barely feel what I was doing.

"That's it. Your clothes are coming off."

As the Dragon-born approached, I swiped the dagger from her thigh and aimed it shakily at her throat. "Stay back."

Stelni sighed. "You'll thank me in the future, I'm sure." Holding my wrist with one hand and grabbing the blade with the other, she disarmed me and tossed it to the side. "I need you alive so I can get those pieces of the Lyre. Unless you'd rather I mercilessly search the whole of Demornt Village for your mother and belongings?"

There was an edge to her tone that told me she wasn't lying. An edge that made me frustrated that the dagger was now out of my reach so I couldn't push it into her somewhere — anywhere — as long as it drew blood.

I couldn't drag my mother deeper into this mess.

With a glower fixed permanently onto my face, I pulled off my shirt, the cold air biting my damp skin, and snatched Stelni's shirt from her hands. At least it was long enough that it would cover part of my legs too.

When I took my trousers off, the wound on my leg didn't look as bad as it felt. Blood was dried around the claw marks, but it appeared to have stopped bleeding as much. The beast had dug deep into my thigh, but without Zofia's expertise, I couldn't tell if it needed stitching or not.

The Dragon-born took my clothes and hung them above the fireplace so they could dry. She returned to the floor beside me and wrapped one of her wings around my back, being careful not to actually touch me, for extra warmth.

Now, all we could do was wait for the storm to pass.