Fatigue was setting into my legs fast, a dull burn crawling up from my calves with every stride, the muscles going loose and unreliable underneath me, even as they carried me forward. Not that I could stop. Not even if I wanted to.
Kassie, Maggie, White Feather, and Celestine were all gone into the Soul Sanctum, and I was alone. I'd honestly thought things couldn't get any worse. I guess that made me pompous.
At least their disappearance had bought me a few seconds to throw myself toward the tree. The dragon still looked confused, its enormous head swinging low over the patch of dirt where Kassie had been standing, hunting for a threat that had simply blinked out of the world. Kassie had managed to make it recognize her as a threat, so her sudden vanishing must have thrown the ancient beast far more than it should have.
I shot forward like my life depended on it. Fuck, it did.
