The single word was a ghost upon her lips, and it raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
He thought back over their conversation before Glynmor, when she’d described his aunt’s illness. “Go on.”
“When she bled…” She blinked and pointed to the wall, to the ooze. “It looked like that. Not fresh and crimson, but rotting black.”
Brand leaned in to get a better look for himself, and the pieces started falling into place. “The shadows around us, are they like the stains you described beneath her skin?”
Her sigh carried the weight of all the realms. “Yes.”
She started pacing, running a loose curl back and forth over her lips.
Sisters, those lips…No.
Breathing deep, Brand stifled the volatile reactions of this body. It was not the time, nor the place, for lustful thoughts.
“Everything about her infection, the stains…” Half muttering, Luna gestured outside the shield. “These move the same way. Reaching and wanting, seemingly harmless but… insidious.” She scrubbed both hands over her face, squishing her cheeks. “Caius and I experimented with samples. He urged me to use my power in different ways, to see if I could repel it. Control it. Destroy it. Anything. The results made me rethink Meliora’s treatment. That… that was how I woke her up.”
“Explain.”
She hesitated, her dread so apparent he could practically taste it.
Oh, yes. Whoever had hurt her would suffergreatly.
“No fear,” he reminded her. “Not with me.”
Luna’s lip trembled as she turned to the barrier at last, her power multiplying to hum against his skin. With a wave of her fingers, a wall of diffuse light formed and shot into the center of the chasm, clearing the shadows away for a moment. A clench of her fist, and it disappeared, darkness sweeping back in to fill the void.
“I pushed them back, stopped them from feeding,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “I couldn’t remove them though, no matter how hard I tried. They recoiled from my power, obviously affected, but I couldn’t seem to get a hold of them.”
“How did you remove samples from my aunt, then?”
She shook her head. “I promise, that is one answer you don’t want.” The look on her face told him enough. “But if the chasms had something to do with Meliora, we… we need to be careful.”
Another scream, so far off he almost didn’t catch it.
“I think it’s time we hurry this along, hmm?” Brand bent and engulfed her shoulders with his hands, pretending calm. “I’m going to pick you up again. I would have this over with.”
Wary be damned.
“Yes. As would I.”
An idea came to him as he gathered her up and tucked her safely against his side—awayfrom the chasm wall and its foul, crawling decay. “Do you trust me?”
Luna was already looking up at him, eyes narrowed. “Will I regret it if I say yes?”
He might have chuckled if they were anywhere else. If his friend wasn’t crying his agony for all the realms to hear. “Can you keep the shadows away for longer periods and distances than you showed me?”
There was a flicker of something he couldn’t identify before she replied, “I can.”
Nodding, he lifted her to eye level and pointed down into the gloom. “Follow the angle of the steps I’ve already called, as far as you’re able.”
With a deep breath, she pushed her hands down and out. The shield shot forward about five hundred yards through the gloom, her power once more slamming into him and illuminating well past what he’d expected. Strange, to see such a large swath of the cliffside at once, as if it was never meant to be viewed that way.
Brand summoned a large landing right inside the edge of the barrier. Quite a distance, but he could make it.
“Can you hold that while we move?”
His eyes were glued to the side of her face, so he didn’t miss it when that strange look passed over her features again. “Yes.”
