I tried.She shakes her head.I can’t process anything.
You—what do you mean?
Gaia closes her eyes, so I turn toward Plumeria.
What’s she saying?
But the water blessed isn’t paying any attention to me.She’s crouched over Gunnar.When she turns toward me, her voice is small.He’s dead.
Why didn’t they eat?I’m practically roaring.There’s food right here.That’s when I see it.
Since we left Earth, millennia ago, only the earth blessed have been able to consume anything but the flesh of other blessed.When the others try, they ingest it alright...until they inevitably puke it back up.
Along with a strange, bright greenish yellow goo.
There’s a pile of it next to Gaia and another near Gunnar.As Gaia dies, I begin to fear the earth dragon’s upgrade might very well spell our doom.If they can’t eat anything but dragon flesh either...we’ll be stuck consuming a rapidly diminishing population, and our former meals won’t be nearly as keen on sacrificing themselves now that they’re not weak and won’t be able to procreate.
The clock for finding the heart just sped up.
If we can’t find it, the blessed are going down.Fast.
4
Liz
I’ve known for a while that the strike and water dragons eat the earth dragons.It doesn’t make it any easier to accept, but right now, the bigger problem is that until now, the earth dragons could at least repopulate.Thanks to my decision, my choice inside Eyjafjallajökull, there won’t be any more earth dragon eggs.
I hadn’t thought that through.
But that means I inadvertently did what Gideon’s been praying to do since their arrival: I’ve doomed the dragons to die.Once they’ve eaten all their fallen companions, that’s it.No wonder Freya was shocked by my decision.She probably didn’t think anyone could be that stupid.
“No!”I wrap my arms around Gaia’s great neck, shifting the black fur tufts out of the way, and I squeeze.She’s such a stunning creature—like a massive black, Chinese dragon.When I get no response from squeezing, I pound on her chest.Something has to revive her.
What’s she doing?Azar asks.
Plumeria clearly has no idea either.
“Her heart stopped,” I explain.“If we can restart it?—”
Gaia’s gone,Azar says.She’ll help our people in a new way now.
She can’t.This can’t be it.“No.”I shake my head.“She was fine.She was strong.Surely there’s something we can do.”I pull both swords out of the scabbard strapped to my back, ready to threaten him into getting creative.“What else can we try?”
You can’t possibly think to hurt me,Azar says.
“Why not?”I lift my chin.“You trained me to fight dragons yourself.”
I don’t have time for this,Azar says.
He’s more right than he knows.When I think about Gaia’s death and what it means for the blessed, and how it’s all my fault...I start to cry.Again.It’s so horribly embarrassing.I’m every bit as whiny and pathetic as all the humans Azar encountered before meeting me that first day.Since the moment I sprang from that cursed volcano, I’ve literally done every single thing that repulses him about most humans.
And I’m about to be forced to watch him mate with Asteria.I’m not really sure what exactly that entails, but it’s not somethingIcan do, obviously.Watching Azar marry someone else is...
Well, my life’s become a living nightmare.
Why do her eyes leak all the time?Azar asks.
They’re called tears,Plumeria says.She was fond of Gaia and is now sad about her death.Humans leak whenever they’re sad.
