His face was pale, drawn with anxiety. “Xingyin, be careful. If you don’t stop when you should, I will—”
“She must do this alone,” Prince Yanxi warned. “You cannot interfere once the enchantment is underway. She will die if you do.”
Liwei ignored him, speaking to me alone. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to decide now.”
“I have decided,” I told him quietly. “This is my choice.”
He fell silent, finally taking the dagger from Prince Yanxi. When I nodded, his knuckles whitened around its hilt, dragging its blade across my palm. A good cut, a clean one, neither too shallow nor too deep. The cold metal numbed the sting as my skin split, hot blood spilling forth. I curled my fingers into a tight fist and turned it over, letting it drip over the pearls like crimson rain.
My insides twisted into knots at the thought of what lay ahead. Closing my eyes, I followed the trail of lights in my body until I reached the shining core of my lifeforce, tucked deep in my head. With a wrench I clawed it apart—how wrong this felt, a violation of myself—but I did not stop, my lifeforce surging free, running through my veins like a river undammed. Strong, indomitable, roiling with power. Brighter than the infinite stars, more luminous than the moon. But when my lifeforce flowed from my hands onto the pearls, a sudden weakness swept over me, my strength snatched from my limbs. I stumbled, almost falling down. Clenching my jaw until it ached, I locked my knees into place, fighting the instinctive urge to stem the outflow. My lifeforce slid over the pearls, turning my blood aglitter—a heartbeat before it was sucked within as water into a sponge. The pearls floated from my palm into the air, the radiance within them burning brighter until each was an orb of pure flame.
Only then did I halt the flow of my lifeforce, slumping to my knees upon the sand, strangled gasps sliding from my throat. Sweat streaked down my face as a numbing exhaustion crawled up my legs and arms. Worse still was the gaping void within, an intrinsic part of me torn away. I could only hope it was enough.
Liwei crouched down and clasped my hands. His energy surged into me, coursing through my body. Unlike the other times he had healed me, though, its warmth was hollow, its comfort weak. Could I no longer channel the power he gave me, like he was pouring water into an overflowing cup?
There was no time to ponder this, I was not done. I pulled free, panting as I pushed myself off the ground. Staggering a few steps back, I raised the Jade Dragon Bow. Once it had curved in my grip as silk, but now the cord was unyielding, cutting into my fingers until it was slippery with blood. My muscles strained, yet I held fast, until—finally—a thin bolt of Sky-fire glimmered. A pang struck me at its diminished strength, but this was no time for self-pity. Aiming it at the red pearl, I released the lightning at its flaming center. It struck in a blinding flash, a cloud of gold bursting from the pearl. The Long Dragon craned its neck forward, opening its jaws wide to draw the glittering motes into its body. Its chest gleamed as though it had swallowed a star, before fading to dark.
The crimson pearl dropped onto the sand. Intact, yet its inner fire extinguished. The other dragons swung to me, their faces alight with anticipation. Three times I drew the bow, shooting three arrows at the remaining pearls. Each time the golden cloud erupted, wafting into the waiting jaws of a dragon. My energy was almost drained, my fingers cut to the bone as my blood scattered across the white sand like plum blossoms in the snow.
Four pearls lay on the ground. Bending down, I gathered them into my hands, sun-bright, fire-red, frost-white, midnight-black. They were beautiful, yet something vital in them had been lost. Once you had seen the full moon, the crescent lost its charm.
The dragons’ eyes shimmered with flecks of gold as their mouths curved into a smile. Their voices reverberated as one, the sound more exquisite than any song in the world. You have our gratitude. We are whole once more, our own masters.
Humbled and too exhausted to speak, I bowed to them instead.
With its claw, the Long Dragon plucked a shining scale from its body, as perfect as a petal from a rose in bloom. It offered the scale to me as it inclined its head.
Should you need us, immerse this in liquid and we will come to you.
I took the scale, clutching it tight. Without another word they spun around and dove into the water. As the final ripple from their tails vanished, the sea calmed—once again mirroring the sky above.
Liwei slipped his hand over mine, his magic already coursing through me, healing my ravaged flesh—but there was nothing he could do for the gaping emptiness within. Leaning against him, I stared at the ocean, feeling strangely bereft. Prince Yanxi stood beside us, as still as a statue, his gaze fixed upon the distance.