Florence had no context for what was happening, but that wasn’t going to stop her. She dragged herself over to the dying dragon and shot one more arrow up its nostril, quickly ending its life. Then, biceps bulging, she shoved its head to one side and pulled Dev out. She dragged herself and the strange boy to the courtyard and laid him under the protection of the center tower stairs. Then she went to get Fifer.

Fifer wasn’t moving. She looked… flattened. Some of her skin was blistered with burns. Florence picked her up gently and cradled her in her arms. “Fifer,” she said gently. “Fifer, you did it. Please wake up.”

But Fifer didn’t wake up. Florence scooted along the ground to the palace, avoiding the small fires that smoldered everywhere, or putting them out with her stony backside. She kept her eye on the dragons, but both now appeared deader than dead, just like the first two she’d killed with her arrows. How much time had gone by since that disaster?

Florence didn’t have a clue. She only knew that she’d fallen a long way and had hit the ground. And now she was missing a leg. Was that fall an hour ago? A week ago? A year? She had no idea. She only knew that Dev had been crushed and Fifer was unresponsive in her arms. But as long as Florence was alive and moving, that meant Fifer was alive too. And that knowledge was all the strength she needed to sort things out on her own at this dilapidated palace.

The Partnership

Thisbe took a seat in a small carriage, pulled by a horse. The Revinir walked next to her on the left. Rohan, who still hadn’t slept, trotted along on the right side of the carriage, available to Thisbe for whatever she might need. And the rest of the Revinir’s company surrounded them, front, back, and on all sides. There was no possible chance to obliterate the Revinir without taking many casualties with her.

Thisbe was going to end the Revinir’s reign today. But she wanted to get the Revinir alone.

Okay, part of her wanted that. But, to be honest, another part of Thisbe wanted to never have to use this obliterate component against the Revinir at all. It was… complicated.

It’s not because the dragon-woman deserved anything. She had done terrible things to the black-eyed children. To all of Grimere. She’d put hundreds of innocent soldiers under her mind control, as well as dragons from all the lands far and wide. She’d caused tremendous injury to Thisbe and Rohan and Dev, and all of their fellow future rulers. If she’d known Maiven Taveer still lived? She’d have buried her. There was no question in Thisbe’s mind.

But.