"Draven, please! Stop!"
I didn't think. I threw myself forward, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist from behind. I pressed my face flat against the cold, blood-splattered metal of his back plate, sobbing openly as the sheer terror of losing both of them broke through my defenses.
My tears soaked into the fabric of his tunic underneath the armor. "Please, don't do this. Don't let that darkness take you completely. If you kill him, you kill whatever is left of us. I'm begging you, Draven... let him go."
The rigid, unyielding muscle of his back locked up beneath my grip. For a long, agonizing moment, the dark green smoke hissed violently, swirling around my wrists as if tempting him to throw me off. But as my soft sobs echoed against the stone walls of the ravine, the toxic mist began to recede, sinking back into his shadow. His heavy, ragged breathing slowly evened out.
