Dust and dirtsprayed when they hit, pebbles raining down to clatter against the shield wall as the swirling cloud settled.
“We made it.” Luna’s words were more question than statement.
Brand could hardly believe it himself.
She wiggled to get down, but he put a finger to his lips and stuck a foot out to test the safety of the chasm floor—alert, tuned in to every shift in the air, the tiniest of sounds.
“There’s nothing here,” she whispered. “You can put me down.”
He couldn’t feel anything waiting to jump out at them, but still. “I’d rather carry you.”
“Not on your life, Demon,” she snapped under her breath, fierce determination pinched across her brow. “I’m frightened, yes. But if we make it out of this, I want to be able to say I’ve touched the floor of a Dread Chasm and lived to tell the tale. Try and stop me.”
Her words from the night before echoed.I value my freedom above all else.
“Fine,” he grumbled, setting her down and fighting the urge to claw her right back into his arms.
It wasnotfine, but what else could he do?
Without a thought, she stepped off the landing and onto the chasm floor, and—for the first, utterly confusing time in his greater form—Brand had to bite back a shout of alarm caused byfear.
Something he’d never felt while raging,Ever.
He chased her into the grey, hissing, “You must stay close to me. We can’t see a damned thing, and danger could be lurking anywhere.”
She tossed an irritated look over her shoulder.“Youhave no way of knowing. I, however, am completely certain there’s nothinglurkingnearby.”
“Explain.”
“Demon Brand is bossy and likes the wordexplain.Got it.” She tilted her head as if listening. “There isn’t a heartbeat, nothing living, for at least… a mile, give or take? It’s hard to know how far my threads are reaching with nothing to compare them to, but that’s a safe estimate.”
The corners of his mouth turned down, suitably impressed. “I don’t suppose you could clear some of this up then, so I can see as well?”
Her expression was same one she’d made when he asked her to stretch the shield, and then again after he’d asked if she could hold it.
It clicked into place after she put some distance between them and faced him again.
Resignation.
“Luna—”
The air fluttered around him, grabbing at the waves of his hair.
She grimaced and brought clawed hands up in front of her. Sparks gathered in her palms, the shadows darkening at the same time—as if she was sucking the light from them, what little they had to offer now hers to command.
Weeping Sisters, the breeze was her.
Pricks of light turned to starry orbs, swirling and spinning at the center of the vortex she was creating. It cast her in an eerie, ethereal glow, highlighting the flashing speckles in her skin and shorter strands of hair whipping around her face.
Brand braced himself as the wind picked up, the sheer magnitude of her power slamming into him.
Forget her serenity as they’d flown down, step-by-step. This was seeing her for the first time—therealher—and it hit like a punch to the gut. What he’d sensed before was a pale imitation of her true ability. Nothing in comparison.
This, he’d only felt within his own family. From otherImperials.
She was commanding the very fabric of the world, bending it to her wishes, and it was… immense. Beautiful. Enough to bring him to his knees, though he fought the impulse.
Barely.
