Thank the Light for Eden and her brilliant mind.
Ariyon reached me first, but just barely. I wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to explain everything, but there was no time. Marissa and her men were right behind him.
Ariyon spun, taking a protective stance in front of me, and held out his hands. The air crackled with electricity, and then a powerful blast of energy left his palms and slammed into Marissa and her goons, throwing them several feet back.
Whoa. Was thatmymagic? I’d never done anything like that before. It reminded me of Ayden’s shock wave, but it was also some type of a defensive shield. I had no time to dwell on it because Marissa was already preparing her retaliation.
“Trust me!” I shouted to Ariyon as I swiped my finger over the cut the Grim had made on my arm before it could heal more. Red, thick blood coated my finger, and I reached up to a dried scab on Ariyon’s neck. Marissa threw some type of magic at us, but Ariyon shielded the blow, grunting as the force of Marissa’s magic slammed into him. I felt pretty helpless as a healer, but he seemed to know what he was doing, so I tried to relax and focus.
‘This is gross,’I told Yanric as I pulled the scab on his neck apart to reopen the cut. Ariyon hissed, and I shoved my blood-tipped finger onto his cut, mixing our blood together.
‘Now imagine the powers flowing from you to him and then from him to you, like in a stream. You might see them in your mind’s eye as colors, Eden said,’Yan instructed, and then flew into the fray as Marissa and her thugs launched a barrage of assaults at the shield Ariyon had erected over us.
Stream, colors. Got it.
Against every instinct I had, despite all the danger around me, I closed my eyes and envisioned my current Maven healing magic as a yellow, buttery light flowing into Ariyon’s body like water.
“I feel that!” Ariyon said, and relief crashed into me, but then I lost focus and the image I’d conjured in my mind blipped out. All of a sudden, Ariyon slammed into me, taking me to the ground. I cried out in pain as he fell on my barely healing ankle, sending a sharp stab of agony up my leg.
With a growl, he popped up quickly, and I gasped when I saw that the top of his left hand held the Maven healing marks and the other did not. I peered down at my hands and sure enough, the right held the marks, but my left did not.
Okay. We are halfway there.
‘Quick! His powers are back and are healing the cut!’Yanric bellowed and dove down into Marissa’s hair, as Ariyon shot an arrow made of shadows right at her stomach.
Holy Fae.
I wanted to ask him how he was doing all of this, but I needed to focus. I really wished I’d tried to figure out this portal thing with Eden. That would have come in really handy right now. If that was in fact how I got Ariyon’s body into the Realm of Eternity, it would be so much easier to exit us both out of here that way.
Closing my eyes again, I brought up the image in my mind of the buttery, yellow light, flowing like a river into Ariyon, and then suddenly, a purple, glowing water rushed from him and straight into me. It hit my chest with such force, I gasped as the weight of it settled over me. A sickening feeling slithered through my body then, and I felt a darkness cinch my heart before I quickly pushed it away. I was reminded of what Emmeric said about going dark.
I am not going dark! Not an option. No thank you, I mentally screamed.
“Fallon, I can’t protect us anymore,” Ariyon breathed, and my eyes snapped open.
He was staring at the backs of his hands, which both held Maven marks. Marissa was five feet in front of us, wearing a scowl. He was the healer again, which meant I was the only one who could protect us.
“You belong with me, Fallon. I’ll let him go if you just—”
I didn’t even let her speak because now that I had my power back, coupled with the rage she ignited in me, I held up my palms and let go of everything I’d been holding in. Purple fire exploded out of my hands with such force, it blew Ariyon and me backward a few inches. A ten-foot-wide wall of flames had been conjured in front of us, causing everyone in the room to shout in alarm.
‘Read my letter,’Marissa whispered into my mind, and fear flushed through me.
There was a pull, and then Ariyon, Yanric, and I were yanked from the Realm of Rebirth and went flying through a dark tunnel.
“Fallon!” Ariyon’s panicked screams surrounded me in the darkness.
“I’m okay!” I told him, my body spinning and twisting in such complete blackness I couldn’t even see the shape of my own limbs in the void.
It felt like we’d tumbled around in the pure blackness for eternity when finally, we were spit out into…
Water?
My body was plunged into warm liquid, and I barely had time to close my mouth before my head was submerged. Kicking my legs, I popped back up to see Yanric and Ariyon splashing beside me as we treaded crystal-blue water. I had to shield my eyes against the bright glow coming from somewhere in front of me, much too bright after being encased in such darkness.
We were in some kind of grotto, with stone walls all around us and an open top that showed a sliver of blue sky. The bright light was coming from right in front of us, but it was slowly dimming. I treaded the water carefully, trying to calm my heart down as Ariyon swam up next to me with a wet and pissed-off Yanric on his shoulder.
‘I cannot swim,’my familiar declared angrily.
