Chapter 95

Raeve clings to an exhausted, freezing Rygun as they chase Arkyn atop the Elding Bird across the Ergor Plains under a deadly rain of falling moons. Rygun cannot summon flame in the cold, and Raeve’s pleas to Ignos go unanswered. The Elding Bird fights tactically, slashing Rygun’s abdomen when it flips into the Mists.

Inside the Moving Mists, Raeve urges Rygun to withdraw, but the predator ambushes from above, perching on Rygun’s neck and gouging out his eye. Raeve scrambles onto the Elding Bird, pins Arkyn, and stakes her sword into the creature’s back. Arkyn stabs Raeve in the abdomen, but Rygun seizes the Elding Bird in his jaws.

With only a single ember left in his heartspace, Rygun commits to a terminal dive. He urges Raeve to let go, but she refuses, clutching Arkyn as Rygun drives the Elding Bird toward the ground. They separate in the fall; Rygun crashes first in a thunderous impact as moons continue to strike and Bulder groans.

Raeve lands with Arkyn and, fueled by rage for his crimes against Raeve, her daughter, Veya, and Rygun, pummels him. Rejecting Pah’s cruelty and divine pleas, she chooses mortal justice, caves in Arkyn’s skull, snaps his neck, and beheads him with the dagger he used to wound her.

Shaking and sickened, Raeve vomits as the sky keeps raining fire. Arkyn’s death closes one torment, but Rygun lies gravely injured and the world remains under catastrophic assault.