I really hadn’t expected to be here again, hiding in the water watching another life burn to the ground. Three lives in less than a year. Fire swallowed the night in orange haze. It danced on the water and licked up the buildings nearest the burning palace, drowning even the last sounds of swords and death.

It consumed everything.

It looked like blood eddying before my eyes and filling my world with emptiness. Too numb to cry, I started to paddle away, towing Quill’s body and keeping his head above water. We had been fools. It was time to leave.

*