He knew they would come.
Ever since Lunaya had breathed his name in her sleep.
Ever since the Resonance had struck between them, shattering what he had sworn never to feel again.
From the moment Kael had laid his hands on her with a tenderness he had never been able to allow himself.
Yes.
He knew.
But he didn't think the ravens would arrive so quickly.
The first beat
They emerge from the veil of shadow as one,
twenty black silhouettes, twenty pairs of cold eyes.
The silver runes on their feathers glowed with a funereal light.
Erynd didn't move.
He placed himself between them and Lunaya.
Between them... and her.
Just like before.
"She has nothing to do with you anymore," he said in a low voice.
A mocking whisper of wings answers him.
The leader nods his head.
"She is the Blood-Woven. She belongs to her order."
Erynd feels anger rising.
Slow.
Ancient.
Always the same.
"No," he thinks.
She belongs to no one.
Kael pulls Lunaya back.
Erynd feels the tearing in his chest like a fang being pulled from his heart.
He must not look at her.
Not now.
If Lunaya meets his gaze,
he will lose any chance of doing what he must.
The second beat: the ultimatum
"Step back, Erynd, warns the leader.
Or share her fate."
A bitter laugh rises in his throat.
"Her fate?"
He slowly spreads his wings, pure silver against their shadows.
"You still think you can decide that?"
The rune in the center of the circle activates.
The Corbins' feathers vibrate.
"You were her guardian, one of them spits.
You weren't supposed to get attached."
Erynd clenches his jaw.
An image flashes through his memory:
Her laughing.
Her running in the clearing before.
Her kissing him with a gentleness that was hers alone.
"Too late," he thinks.
Far too late.
The third beat: the fall
When the first attacker lunges at him, Erynd doesn't think.
His body remembers.
He pivots.
Grabs the black wrist.
Twists the marked feather.
Breaks the rune.
A burst of shadow explodes.
The corbin collapses.
But they don't stop.
Three others dive.
Erynd parries.
Dodges.
Scratches.
His feathers open like a fan of cold light.
He doesn't kill.
He neutralizes.
It's worse.
Because they know how he fights.
Because they know he no longer wants to take life.
"You've lost your edge," sneers the leader.
Erynd blocks a claw strike,
but the impact sends him rolling in the moss.
A burning sensation shoots through his side.
His breath catches.
He looks up.
Lunaya runs further away, pulled by Kael.
She looks at him for a second.
Just one.
And that second is enough to break his heart.
The fourth beat: the trap
He gets back up.
He keeps fighting.
But a corbin appears behind him.
Another black rune glitters.
A symbol of enslavement.
"No... not that..."
He tries to dodge.
Too late.
The rune bites into the base of his throat.
The pain is worse than fire.
Worse than frost.
Worse than the vision that took Lunaya from him long ago.
His wings freeze.
He falls to his knees.
The leader advances slowly.
"Erynd Cendrené. You who have failed our order.
You who loved what had to be erased."
Erynd slowly raises his head.
His eyes do not seek the leader.
They seek...
Her.
Lunaya's silhouette disappears into the trees.
Alive.
Far from them.
Far from him.
He smiles, despite the blood running down his neck.
"Run, Lunaya... run..."
The leader grabs him by the jaw.
"You will never see her again."
Erynd laughs.
A hoarse, broken laugh.
"That's what you said... last time."
The fifth beat: the promise
He is pinned to the ground.
A cry is torn from him.
His wings spread despite himself.
He sees one last thing before the shadow engulfs him:
A white leaf, fallen to the ground where Lunaya had passed.
A fragile trace.
Proof that she is running.
She is alive.
She is getting away from them.
She is escaping him.
He closes his eyes.
An invisible thread stretches between his chest and Lunaya's.
The same one as before.
The same one they never managed to kill.
He whispers, almost voicelessly:
"I'll find you."
Then the runes burst.
And darkness swallows him.