Chapter 13 · Voidbound - Chapter 13: The Second Eye

"You're bleeding out." The hatchling's voice scraped through my skull, cold and flat.

I pressed my palm against the gash on my forearm where I'd cut through my own Pact mark. Blood ran hot between my fingers. The ruin shook again. Dust rained from the cracked ceiling, and somewhere behind the collapsed archway, rifles cracked in bursts.

"Shut up," I said. "I'm thinking."

"You're dying."

"Same thing."

The first hatchling—mine, the one I'd bonded nine days ago—crouched beside me, its wings tucked tight against its ribs. Its golden eyes fixed on the pile of rubble blocking the main corridor. On the other side of that rubble, Mira Vance and her squad were punching through. I could hear the drill bits grinding stone.

The second hatchling sat five feet away, half-buried in broken columns. It hadn't moved since Rook's champion bout ended. Its chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven pulls. Blood matted the feathers along its flank where the spear had gone through.

Two creatures. Both marked for execution. One already bonded to me. One dying in front of me.

And I had maybe thirty HP left.

"Pick one," my hatchling said.

I looked at it.