Suddenly I could see three Selenite shifters on the horizon. My vision had gone sharp as her eyes took over.
Power moved through me like a tide coming in. Tingling spread across my back, then through my arms, as if my wings were ready to rise.
They said maybe you’re not what he thinks you are.
She wouldn’t let you burn. She won’t let you die.
I stepped off the edge.
And felt a split-second flash of panic, too late.
Fear
I hadn’t slept well.
That was unusual. I had spent my entire life enduring, and somewhere along the way, I had stopped losing sleep over all the things that could go wrong.
But last night, knowing sleep would serve me better than worrying had done nothing to entice rest.
I didn’t want to examine what was different this time.
The Nightwalkers at the exits. The queen’s next move.
And Cara, asleep beside me, all night long.
She was gone now. Rees would follow her, so she would be unharmed.
I went to my window and opened it. The sea air felt like a slap, waking me up, and I leaned into it grimly. Hopefully it would chase away the bleak feeling of a sleepless night.
Then she appeared on the overlook.
Her long blond hair fluttered in the wind. She moved in the way that mortals did, not quite graceful at the best of times, jerky and angular now as she moved to the edge. My gaze sharpened, her face coming into clarity.
The deliberate set of her jaw. The terror behind her eyes.
The cold freezing my chest was not from the wind off the sea.
She was at the very edge. She closed her eyes, her lips moving as if in prayer.
Her hands curled into fists.
She opened her eyes.
I was already reaching for the shift when she stepped off the edge.
Cara
That split-second of panic shifted into elation as heat washed through my body. The sea was rising up to meet me, and I spread my arms, waiting for my wings to catch me.
“Look!”Lightbringer’s voice in my mind was sudden, triumphant.“He comes to protect you!”
The heat died. My vision shifted back, the sea suddenly distant but terribly closer with every heartbeat.
“No!”I screamed out to Lightbringer, but it didn’t matter.
My body turned in the wind, bandied about helplessly.
Fear
