Page 578 - Fourth Wing

face. Seconds later, I feel Xaden racing toward us, a torrent of his emotions

overwhelming my own.
“No, Liam,” Xaden chokes out as he crouches in front of us, the muscles

in his face working to control his expression, but there’s no hiding the

despair that pushes at our mental connection.
“Deigh,” Liam pleads in a strangled whisper, turning his head toward

Xaden.

“I know, brother.” Xaden’s jaw flexes and our gazes lock above Liam as
tears overflow my eyes. “I know.” He leans forward and lifts Liam into his

arms, then stands, carrying him. “I’ll take you.”

He walks slowly across the gravelly terrain to Deigh’s body, saying
things I can’t hear from where I kneel, the rocks digging into my knees

through the fabric of the leather as I watch Xaden say goodbye.
Xaden lowers Liam, sitting him against Deigh’s unblemished shoulder,

then kneels beside him, nodding slowly at whatever Liam has said.

The cry of a wyvern splits the air above us, and I look up instinctively.
A cloud of flapping gray wings moves toward us from higher up the

valley. Wyvern. Dozens and dozens of wyvern.
“Look up at the valley!”

Liam’s head rolls slowly as they both look.

Xaden’s head bows, and my breath freezes in my lungs as shadows
momentarily whip out around him, like a blast of menace and sorrow.

Seconds later, his soundless, soul-rending scream fills my head with such

force that my heart shatters like glass against a stone floor.
I don’t need to ask. Liam is gone.

Liam, who never complained about being my shadow, never hesitated to

help, never bragged about being the best of our year. He died protecting me.
Oh gods, and I just asked him if we’d ever really been friends an hour ago.

Just one of those beasts managed to kill my friend; what the hell can that
many accomplish?