He physically shook off Avery’s haunting voice and focused on Celina, heart racing toward a breaking point all over again. “Celina said that flooding magic is deadly. It drains the healer, kills her.”This can’t be happening again. Not to Celina.
“Yes. She’s not there yet, but she’s approaching the threshold of this becoming dangerous. You need to focus if you’re going to keep her from crossing it.” Her tone was harsh and fast, a commander giving orders. “Reach down to the depths of your soul, Rodric. Sink deep into that place, then imagine the strongest rope you can—a braided rope—and throw it to her. Do it now.”
Cutting Celina off from his sight, he forced his eyes to close and breathed deep. Looking inside himself, he found the sphere of opaque glass at his core—the one that had been impassable for as long as he could remember.
Biting back against the overwhelming wall of fear that confronted him as he got close, he strengthened his resolve. Picturing Celina, he dove through the glass, into the dark, hidden depths. Pain crashed through him in debilitating waves as he crossed through the barrier, licking up his spine and tearing through his heart in shards of devastating debris.
Celina.A flicker of golden light caught his eye, and he stretched toward it. A stronger shimmer captured him, pulling him away from the pain, toward the healing warmth of gold, growing stronger the closer he came. Gathering his strength, he fought to clear his mind for a single purpose. He connected himself to the golden sphere with a braid of light weaving around them both.
Opening his eyes fully, he looked inward at the colors of his own core—shimmering white iced over with bright blue. A soothing swirl of peace.Avery.He didn’t know how, but part of this was Avery.
A starburst of cold erupted in his center, icing over the pain until it was so faint it was hardly detectable. He sucked in the soothing air that calmed his senses.
“Rodric! You came.”
“I’ll always come for you, Celina.”
Golden warmth caressed him, a distinct feeling from the soothing cold at his center, making him tremble at the impression of Celina’s presence inside his soul.
“Help me! I need to save him.”
“Celina, no. You have to stop. You’re draining yourself.”
“Please, I have to! I didn’t save the others.”
Anguish washed over him, the purity of it striking him with incredible force. “I don’t know how.”
A tug through the newly established bond had him reaching for the ethereal hand she held out to him. As soon as he did, a channel flooded open, and he could feel and see everything.
A beautiful golden glow emanated from Celina, enveloping the dimming white light of the child’s soul.
Black marks of injured flesh and bone stood out to him, tugged him with a ferocity he’d never felt. Unleashing the shimmering white, he sent it flooding toward the indicators of wrongness, until they lightened to fine lines like healing scars.
Murky gray spots swirled in the child’s head, and he fell toward them, sucked into the pool of mist. Sparks of icy blue connected to one spot that was darker than the rest. Shadows of men at a campsite appeared in his mind. “Damn Calderrans crawling all over the land… can’t believe we have to take the long way to the ridge… shut the brat up, will you? I’m tired of listening to him…”
Jerking himself back, Rodric sought the clean crystal peace inside himself, cutting the connection between him and the child. Reaching for Celina’s golden warmth, he drew them together, until they swirled around each other, white mist blending with gold in a bright, blinding arc, wrapped together into an icy-blue weave. A caress of love stroked through him, undoing that opaque wall until it cleared translucent.
Again, he moved toward their connection, strengthening it as he flowed through it, dancing around her warm light. A peaceful joy enveloped him for the first time since his world had erupted into flames.
“Come, I’ll lead you back.” The gentle pull of Celina’s voice brought him slowly back to his center.
“Don’t leave me.”
“Never, my love. Trust me.”
With a last caress, the golden light faded through the rope. He forcibly stopped himself from following it. Instead, he took a life-giving breath and retraced his way out of his core and back up into his mind.
His eyes fluttered open to see he was still in the tent. Cass hovered over Celina, where she lay on the ground. Pushing toward her, he found his legs locked completely stiff, stopping his movements.
Strong arms under his shoulders supported his weight and urged him down next to Celina. “Easy, Rodric. She’s okay,” Sev reassured him, always his ballast in the storm.
Cass smiled at him from where she kneeled on the other side of Celina. “You did good, Preddari. Rest now.”
Placing his hand on Celina’s arm so he would know if she moved, he let the darkness take him under. For the first time in a long time, it was tinged with a soothing coolness that promised true rest.
“I told you that you were like me.” Avery’s sweet laugh filled his mind.
Rodricwoketobrightsunlight and a headache splitting his mind. It took long moments for him to rise, the light a crushing weight on his senses as they fought to come back on.
