When the blood pebbled, I turned my hand over and allowed it to drop onto the parchment.
As soon as there was enough, I grabbed some tissue and held it at my palm until the bleeding slowed. Then I retrieved the vial.
“Syrith velor aethernal,thraven korum mal,”I chanted, remembering the incantation from last night. “Syren vael orum thar, thalorien en drakthal, Amuun dai del nenira. Amuun dai del nenira.”
The howling shadows came first, then followed the eerie sounds of things trying to break through the shield.
I didn’t pay attention to them.
I watched my blood clump together and jump into action, producing the map.
It breathed, forming the path to places. It sped fast leaping and leaping until it reached the place it had last night when we got stuck.
The pulse within the space glowed and I felt the ring. It called to me and the moment it did I stepped toward the center of the floor and uncorked the vial.
The dust spilled outward in a stream of light and I guided it toward the map’s path.
Lifting my hands, I summoned the time threads but this time I anchored myself to the magic from the dragon’s essence and allowed it to guide me. Just like a compass.
The air twitched, then sparked.
My heart and everything inside me leaped when the map moved again, fast, and faster.
Then it stopped and instead of nothingness one word appeared.
Ozaileith.
The single name etched itself in blazing silver.
And the ring sang, the sound piercing straight through my chest.
I found it. I knew where it?—
A red spark tore free from my mind. It burst outward like a dying ember, then dissolved into ash.
I cried out and stumbled backwards from the impact. Then something gripped my mind and… memory crashed into me.
Waves and waves and waves of images flooded me all at once.
Mother, Emabelle, Grandmother.
Laughter in corridors.
Hands intertwined.
Wolfe Nightblade.
A kiss in the dark.
A journey on a ship.
The magical realm…
All of it, and everything. It all came back to me.
I fell to the floor.
The map shattered into nothing then voices called my name.
