“Lyriana! You can’t go out there like this.”
“Morning’s practically here,” I snapped. “I didn’t agree to anything more. I’m done. I don’t care about the rain. I don’t care about the consequences.” I just had to get to Rhyan. Just find Rhyan. Do something!
“Well, I fucking care! And that isn’t just some rain. It’s a magically induced storm—brought about with ancient magic—magicyousummoned.” More thunder exploded.
“Semantics,” I shouted over the noise. “Rain is rain!”
“Oh! You want to play that game?” he asked. “How about we don’t? How about, despite what happened last night, you find a way to act semi-reasonably?” he huffed.
I turned away from him and kept walking.
“By the realms!” he shouted. “Where the hell do you think you’re going to end up, other than back here, and soaking wet?”
“I’m not coming back. I’m either going to find a seraphim, or I’ll take a boat to the mainland, whichever way I find first. But I will find a way. I already told you. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Except finding him.”
“Lyriana, please. Just listen to me?—”
“No!” I shook my head, taking another step away from him. “I’m sorry you came all this way,” I yelled over the rain, marching forward. “But you did your job. You came to me when I called. You stopped the second Drowning. So, congratulations. It’s just a storm now. But it’s over. You can go home.”
“Oh can I? Well, thank you so much for the permission.” He rushed in front of me, blocking my path. Rain pelted off his armor, and his golden curls flattened against his head.
I pushed my hair out of my face, screaming over the storm. “You’re welcome! Tell the Council of Forty-Four that you did your duty. And while you’re there, you can tell them to leave me the fuck alone. I’m finished serving them. I don’t care how far we go back, it’s over. And then when that’s done, you can go back to her like you want. Go back to the version of me you actually want to be with.”
“The version of you! The version! Realms! Do you even hear yourself now? You think I traveled through multiple dimensions to spend a few hours here? You think I risked my immortality,and the scorn of a council that banished me once already, just to leave you like this?”
“I don’t care what you did! You’re not stopping me,” I yelled, and then I spun on my heels, running for the shoreline, my arms pumping at my sides, my eyes half-closed to keep the downpour from my eyes.
The Guardian of Bamaria lay ahead, just against the shoreline. In the rain it was just a mass of black rock, the only thing visible in the dark like this.
“LYRIANA!” Auriel roared, his voice like thunder clapping in the storm. Until the actual storm drowned him out.
The waves of the ocean rushed toward me, drenching my already soaked boots. It was so dark, and the rain was so heavy, that as I looked back, I could no longer see Auriel.
I raced to the front of the gryphon, my feet just beyond its paws, seeing clearly now the damage I had done to its body, the place where its head once met its neck. I pumped my arms at my sides, willing myself to run faster, but the sand was caking against my boots, slowing me down. And my calves were beginning to burn. The naturalness I’d begun to run with since I’d claimed my magic, the ease with which I could now move, was gone. I was starting to feel out of breath. Hours had passed since I’d called onRakashonimand come here. I could feel it with every step I took now. Auriel was right about one thing. My magic was still depleted.
But I was used to working without it. Used to relying on my own strength. My own muscle, my own grit.
Tear the fucking rope apart. Just like Rhyan taught me.
I reached the other side of the Guardian, and I knew once I passed it, I’d lose him. If he could still see me in the dark and the rain, he wouldn’t be able to see through the statue. Up ahead, I spotted a hint of sunlight, growing and expanding against the water. But there was no boat or seraphim insight. It didn’t matter. I’d keep running. I’d find something eventually. Anything—anything to get me off this Godsdamned island. Maybe even call onRakashonimagain when my magic replenished. After all, it fucking got me here, maybe it could take me away.
My legs were shaking over the uneven terrain. But the Guardian was behind me now, and Auriel was even further back. I spotted a small dune, and was prepared to leap over it, but something jumped in front of me. One second, I was several feet past the stone gryphon …
And the next, my body was slamming back into its onyx form. I gasped, winded, but before I could scream?—
“Caught you,” Auriel said, out of breath.
“You were behind me,” I said, dumbfounded.
“Well, I caught up,” he growled, his hands restraining mine. “It’s called running faster.” His fingers tightened around my wrists, pressing them harder into the statue.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
His eyes darkened, but his aura flared like a fog around me. “Getting you to listen to me. I said to wait.”
“I can’t!” I twisted my hips, and kicked, wrenching my hands from his grip. But before I could gain even an inch of freedom, he pressed himself forward, trapping me between his body and the statue. “I have to find him.”
I slammed my arms, my hips twisting to get out of his hold, but it was to no avail. Auriel might only be in mortal form, having trouble being back in this body, struggling to remember what he once knew, or recover the strength he once possessed. But he was hardly at a disadvantage. Even Rhyan’s hands had never been like this. Like fucking steel. I could only imagine the sheer power he wielded as an actual God. Auriel at full strength had to be unstoppable.
