I certainly was not using my magic. Maybe Daigen was not merely taking a bath after all. “So, you are making the crystals glow.”
A statement, not a question. His damn rule forced me to get creative.
Daigen canted his head. “I’m communicating with a friend. Many souls are trapped in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun, and this spring is a direct channel to it. They get so lonely that sometimes I pop in for a visit, just like this. I might not be the best company, but being with me is better than swirling around in endless darkness.”
I watched as the stream from the cave entered the pool of the healing spring.Thatwas how the Man of the Mountain had taken my mind before. He reached out and dragged me all the way up to…
I swallowed. He took me to his grave.
Though…was it merely a grave, or was it also a perfect place to keep a prisoner?
I pocketed my still-glowing gem and dropped to my knees near the edge of the spring. I could not swim, so I certainly was not going to submerge myself like Daigen had, but if I just reached out—
“What are you doing?” Daigen asked with a smirk.
I dipped my hand into the warm water. “Trying to find Riyan. If he is trapped in the grave like others are, maybe I can reach him and figure out…”
The words failed on my lips as the magic swirled around my fingers. What would I figure out? Figure out where he was? Figure out how I really felt about him?
“Careful, you likely aren’t powerful enough yet to find him,” Daigen said as he leaned on the rocks. “Although something else could find you…”
I glared at him. “Watch me.”
I called on the diamond in my heart and my white flame awoke. A slow heat that matched the hot spring filled my arms. I closed my eyes, focusing on the memory of the man with the golden hair and eyes like a twilight sky.
Even though my knees stayed firmly in the pebbles, my mind was being tugged down…or maybe up…but I was traveling.
Yes, it was working! My magic was working!
I kept focusing on that mental image of handsome Riyan. I pictured him sharing elskaberry jam with me in the field of red lilies and dancing with me under the moonlight.
Even though I still was not sure if anything we felt that day was even real.
The building heat in my body disappeared and a cold frost spread across the back of my mind. A wicked voice pricked my ears.
“Looking for something, sorceress?”
My breath froze in my lungs. The Queen of the Giants had found me.
“The bargain was sealed. His life is mine and he drifts in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun. If you want him back, we must make an exchange…”
My free hand trembled as it wrapped around the pebbles below.
“Unshackle my sister from the Hytons and he’s yours. But if you don’t do it by the next full moon, I will make my own blood bond and take full control over him…”
My teeth chattered as the chill of each word bled through my body.
“…and his spirit will remain in the place between worlds forever.”
As soon as I thought I would suffocate on my own terror, Ganora released her hold on my mind.
I pulled my hand out of the water of the healing spring and crawled back on the smooth pebbles. My heart pounded as my eyes found Daigen’s.
“G-Ganora, she—”
“This is what happens when you don’t listen to me,” Daigen said with a smirk as he rested in the spring.
I furrowed my brows and sat up. “She is going to blood bond with Riyan at the next full moon unless I unshackle Fraleigh.”
