Not water. Not fire.
Light.
Blinding, burning, endlesslight.
I can’t see. Can’t hear. Can’tmove.I can’t even scream.
It’s like being suspended in something too big for my body. My chest feels like it might tear open; my skin feels like it has already split. The pressure is everywhere. On my bones, under my teeth, behind my eyes.
I don’t understand what’s happening.
I don’t know how to stop it.
I’m afraid.
Am I dying?
Am I already dead?
I think…I hear something.
No…someone.
A voice, soft and faraway, like the sound of a memory or a dream pulling from the edges of my thoughts.
“…Koen…”
That voice.
It pulls me through the light, through the burn.
Her voice.
Serenya.
I can’t see her, but I try to reach for her. Claw toward her with everything left in me.
“Koen,” she says again, closer now.
Every time she speaks, the magic calms just slightly.
I can feel her now.
She says my name again, and my magic calms even more.
Finally, I see her.
What I see makes something inside meshatter.She is walking through the blaze. Throughmymagic. Her shadows are clinging to her in an attempt to shield her. Her skin is blistered, her clothes singed. She’s shaking. Barely hanging on. But still, she reaches for me.
Stop—stop!I try to say, but no sound comes.
Her hand finds me. Fingers curling around mine, strong, deliberate, fearless despite the burn. And just like that…silence.
The light vanishes. My magic calms in her presence, happy to be near her.
My muscles give out, and I fall to my knees, hand slipping from hers. The world spins sideways. My vision is blurred. My lungs heave, and my heart feels like it has been split open.
I look up and see Serenya standing over me. She sways and blinks slowly. With a shaky exhale and a small, lopsidedsmile, she says,“Well…look…look who decided to burn him…himself to…to a crisp…for…me.”
