Sonara unlocked the mental cage and let her curse soar.
The tether lengthened as it soared down the foot-trodden path across the sand, landing upon a brown mare as her rider stopped for rest.She sank her muzzle into a trough of water. Her aura revealedsimple joy, cool as a rushing river.
Sonara pushed the tether outwards with a heavy breath, testing her control.
Her curse soared only as far as she was able to see to command its direction. It went past two children as they giggled and chased a bony black feline around a wagon. She sensedrage as rough as a grinding stone,as the feline howled and tried in vain to escape.
The further the tether lengthened, the more her head lightened. She knew she should reel it back in, but she allowed it a bit more.
It bounded off the leather skirting of a wagon, sensing theexhaustion,theanticipation,from all who rode within. It danced past a flock of fowl swooping low in hope of plucking bugs from the sand, wasalmostback to her as Sonara mentally reeled the tether in, when the wind suddenly picked up.
“Do you feel that?” Azariah asked.
Sonara paused. She thought she’d imagined the rumble in her bones. But there it was, as she looked skyward. The glowing fireball of a ship breaking through the atmosphere.
“Next ship’s landing,” Jaxon said. “Just as you said it would.”
“I’ve never seen a landing before, so close,” Azariah answered, with equal parts fear and awe.
Come on back,Sonara told her curse.It’s time now.
But the moment she’d thought the command… her curse soared away. A mistake she’d only made once before, giving it far too much time to play.
It flew into the distance, chasing the horizon.
The sky, sweet as hard candies.
And beyond that, as the ship lowered and began to slow enough that she could see its outline…
Black of night, bitter as crushed bones.
Sonara gasped. That wasdeathshe sensed, as clear as any day.
She could hear Razor let loose a trembling screech, and then Markam was landing beside them, covering his ears as the ship soared from the sky.
Sonara could sense the grains of sand beneath his feet, the tired leather of his boots, the sweat on Razor’s belly…
Too much. Far, far too much.
She gasped, clutching her throat.
Azariah and Thali did not notice, but Jaxon dismounted and strode over, hands wrapping around Duran’s mane as he stared up at Sonara from beneath his hat.
“Out of control,” she hissed, panic rising in her chest.
“Breathe. Just breathe,” Jaxon said.
The tether stretched. The pain was so deep she heard a whimper slide from her lips. She felt the wind of the Wanderer ship as it soared past, and her curse followed in its wake.
Dark, dark, dark. Fire and fury and the promise of spilled blood.
Sonara whimpered again. From the pain, but also from the memory. For sheknewthis sense, as if her body remembered it, even though she hadn’t been a Shadowblood when she’d first encountered it years ago on her last night with Soahm.
“Sonara!”She heard his voice in her mind, saw the ghostly memory of his hands stretching towards her, the panic in his eyes, his leg splayed beside him at an awkward angle.“Sonara!”
The tether on her curse stretched so hard it might snap.
“You must control it,” Jaxon said. “You must bring it back.”
