Then he drives the tip into soft scales and opens the jugular. Blood begins to pool. Lee and Pallor slump as one. Lee’s fingers curl round Pallor’s horned face. He kneels in the blood, holding Pallor’s gaze, as it fades. When Pallor stills, Lee wraps his arms round his knees and folds into a ball like a second corpse. The thin, straining line that still connects me with Aela pulls taut. Miles away, lost in the white, she shrieks—
