Flames burst from my shoulders and fingertips, dancing in the wind—alive, wild, free. For a moment, I was a phoenix—reborn, blazing through the cold sky. Lakota beat his massive wings, propelling us faster, sparks crackling in our wake like embers from a forgotten fire.
I screamed and laughed into the stars.
For the first time in my life, the weight was gone. The guilt. The fear. The doubt. I felt it lift—shed like old skin. My darkness no longer shamed me. It had forged me. Sharpened me. Made me.
I was not less because of it.
I wasmore.
Lively music stirred in my memory—and Laney’s voice rose with it.
“Thank you for accepting all of my darkness.”
“Thank you for seeing all of my light.”
My eyes snapped open. I locked onto that brightest star and yelled into the sky with everything in me, “I am the light, Laney! I am the light!”
A dark figure rose to my right, then two more to my left. The others had joined me, igniting their fire and stretching their arms into the wind just as I had. We laughed and cried out to the stars as our flames danced, our voices echoing like a battle cry of freedom.
Then the moment shattered.
A jolt of panic sliced through my chest like a blade drawn across bone. My flames vanished. I folded forward in the saddle, clutching my chest, gasping as if all the air had been torn from my lungs.
Lakota sensed it instantly.
With a sharp, controlled dive, he dropped to a safer altitude, knifing through the cold with fierce precision. The wind roared; my mind was louder. My body trembled. My heart thundered.
Confusion hit first—sharp and blinding.
Then fear.
“Scarlet!”Fallon screamed through themarekem.
Chapter 38
“Fallon! Fallon! What is going on?”Scarlet’s panicked scream echoed through themarekem.
I tried to steady my breathing, forcing myself to look down slowly. The sight of the drop made my stomach churn. I hadn’t meant to reach for Scarlet through the bond—it was pure instinct the moment we stepped through the chasm hand in hand. But the instant we crossed, Shayde yanked me back. My head cracked against stone as his arm slammed across my chest, pinning me in place.
What. The.Elements.
It was dark as night outside, which made no sense—unless a severe storm was brewing above. I dared a glance farther downward. Far below, an angry ocean crashed against the cliffs, swallowing what remained of the ledge I remembered from my last visit. The once-stable outcrop was gone—crumbled into jagged shards barely wide enough to hold us.
Shayde’s voice cut through the roar of the waves. “You know… you could’ve told me you were sending me to my death. I wouldn’t have spoiled your little secret.”
My instinct was to turn toward him, but his arm held firm. I inhaled sharply. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. Last time, this led straight to Tyria’s tunnels. It was safe.”
I reached out through themarekemagain. “We’re fine.”
Scarlet’s response came instantly, laced with doubt. “Why do I get the sense you’re lying?”
I ignored her.
“This ledge won’t hold us much longer,” Shayde said, impossibly steady. “Anything on your side?”
I flicked my eyes to the right, careful not to move more than a fraction. Nothing but jagged stone. “Negative.”
He paused. From the corner of my eye, I saw him scanning to the left. “You said this used to be an entrance to the tunnels?”
