Kora’s POV
The wind cut through the canyon like a scream. The Divide no longer glowed red — it was ash grey now, still, silent. The kind of silence that presses down on you until you can’t breathe.
Mara helped me drag Edward’s body away from the burned circle. His pulse was there, weak but steady. The edges of his hair were singed, his shirt torn. His face was pale, his lips cracked, but when I brushed a bit of ash off his cheek, he stirred.
“Edward?” I whispered.
His eyes fluttered open, slow, heavy, the color of storm clouds. For a second, confusion clouded his gaze, then relief — so deep, so raw, it nearly broke me.
“You’re alive,” he rasped.
“I should be saying that to you.” My voice cracked. “You nearly died.”
He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace. “You always make th
