Ear pressed against the border, I strained to hear anything on the other side. Closing my eyes to focus, I willed all my fae senses to do their damn job, and took deep, long breaths, trusting my new body to home in.
“There,” I whispered, finally picking up on something.
I narrowed in on that sound and filtered everything else out. It was faint. So, so faint. But the longer I listened to it, the better I knew what I was hearing. A heartbeat. A human heartbeat. Whoever it was, they were still alive.
A familiar scent filled my senses and all at once crippling panic tore through me.
“Tarrin!” I called out. “Tarrin!”
Clawing my fingers raw on the barrier I continued screaming his name.
“Come on, come on.” I frantically ran my hands up and down the border, trying to see if there was a place I could cross. Nothing.
Damn it. I took a step back and forced in deep gulps of air into my panicked lungs. Artton stepping off the cliff’s edge flashed in my mind, and I realized I was looking at this barrier like a human. In order to get through, I needed to look at it like a fae.
I willed myself to calm but continued to shake like a leaf from the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“This is a magical barrier, like the bridge,” I said to myself, trying to find reason. “Most likely it’s a physical manifestation of a ward—or a border—or maybe they’re the same thing.” I made a mental note to look that up later.
If I’d learned anything from my readings, it was that everything, including Lumnara, was derived from stardust magic. From the spark. From me.
So, are the barrier and I the same?
No, that’s not quite right. It would be more like all barriers aremine, created by those that have been created by my powers. And if my own powers can’t hurt me, would that mean that my own powers can’t contain me either?
Pressing my palms to the barrier, I spoke to it in the way the Mother and I had communed through the tree, letting it know that we were one and the same. Within a few heartbeats, white light filtered from under my hands where we touched, and with each passing second the barrier relented until, finally, it let me pass.
The second I stepped through, a loud gasp escaped me as my hands moved to my mouth in shock. My body locked up at the scene before me.
“Tarrin,” I breathed, unable to move.
There was so much blood on him. Some crusted, some still oozing from his wounds. The skin that wasn’t stained in scarlet was filthy, like he’d crawled here. He lay face down, one knee out as if it had slipped when he tried to get up, and he didn’t have the energy to move it. His head was to the side, his slow, wheezing breaths barely moving the leaves surrounding him.
“Tarrin!” I yelled, my body finally pushing through the terror.
He shook fiercely, trying to lift his head to face me, finger lifting as if he was trying to pull himself toward me.
My momentum followed me as I slid on my knees, almost crashing into him. “Oh gods,” I sobbed. “Tarrin. What did they do?”
Unchecked tears rolled down my cheeks as flashbacks of my dream hit me.
He tried to speak, mouth barely moving, and it took everything I had not to crack at the sight. Wanting to roll him onto his back, my hands hovered as my eyes scoured every inch of him, trying to find a place to grip him that wouldn’t hurt. I quickly realized that it wasn’t possible.
As gently as possible, I rolled him over and forced a smile as he looked up at me.
His eyes softened, as if the pain had left him in that moment. His lips were white and cracked. I ran my hand through his hair. “Ny?” His voice so hoarse that if I hadn’t heard him say that word to me a thousand times before, I wouldn’t have known what he said.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here.”
I continued stroking his slick hair. His eyes grew heavy until they didn’t open again, and had I not had fae hearing, I would have thought him dead.
Another sob tore from my chest.
Pulling myself together, I looked down at his body and almost retched. The wounds on his abdomen and chest would be fatal if I didn’t get help—and even then, it was a very real possibility he still wouldn’t survive.
Don’t you dare think that,I silently chided myself.
I had to think fast. I couldn’t leave him here. I needed help.Heneeded help.
