Sunset Valley “no pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous”

What was he supposed to do?

He had seen three phases of Raider in rapid succession.

One — leader and mother. A quickly steadfast force that he had just come to accept in his life. They had just talked about her children, they had just discussed teaching each other.

Two — feral, ferocious. Not in a way that seemed like a warrior. It had looked like true madness up until the very last moment.

Three — slumped. A slack body against Riley, against the earth. No movements from her mate seemed to summon any sense of that first phase back into her. She seemed truly gone. Dead. No more.

The world was beginning to spin in his eyes as he realized Riley was suffering too now. Maybe not of the madness but of something. Grief, he imagined. One so strong and large that Dagur thought he would never grasp it in his life. The man had just lost a mate, mother of their children, leader of their home.

They said grief was not a competition, but Dagur knew whatever he felt in the wake of this loss was a speck of dust on the giant bookcase of Riley and Raider's stories.

He also knew he did not want to end up like the the alpha female in her final moments. It was a decision of survival that drove him off the scene instead of sticking around for any shred of support or further assessing Riley's own condition. A fleeting glance towards the dancer who had witnessed this all from a safe spot. He needed to return to Dragonspine and see what the world looked like when it stopped spinning in his vision.